AP Photo – Ted S. Warren
Andy from High Heat Stats returns to discuss the Hall of Fame.
We look forward to will be on the ballot NEXT year and praise Ken Griffey Jr but have some thoughts about Trevor Hoffman.
That and more on this episode of The Sully Baseball Daily Podcast
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High Heat Stats
If Craig Biggio had been elected, the controversy over this year’s ballot would have been muted.
Instead because it was a big fat blank zero of living inductees (and an inevitable nightmare financially for the people of Cooperstown who need the tourists), the zero inductees became headlines.
And yes, it became about the writers and not the players.
Congratulations. You took the spotlight.
Now vote for some God Damned players next year.
The ballots are about to become super crowded in 2014, 2015 and 2016. And some of the potential names need to be weeded out, either with election or falling off of the ballot.
On next year’s ballot there will be legitimate career reviews for Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux, Mike Piazza, Frank Thomas, Jeff Bagwell, Larry Walker, Craig Biggio, Rafael Palmeiro, Mike Mussina, Sammy Sosa, Tommy Glavine, Jeff Kent, Edgar Martinez, Fred McGriff, Luis Gonzalez, Tim Raines, Curt Schilling, Mark McGwire, Lee Smith, Alan Trammell and Jack Morris.
That’s 22 players who will all get anywhere from 25% to 90% of the vote.
And that does not include the smattering of support for Don Mattingly and some fringe candidates like Moises Alou.
Only Jack Morris will be off the ballot for certain after 2014. Mercifully the broken record debate of his candidacy will be played just one more year.
But the ballot has to be a little smaller going into 2015.
Why?
Because Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz will be on the ballot then.
And people will be debating Gary Sheffield and Carlos DelGado along with whomever is left.
What this does mean is the bizarre stray votes, like Aaron Sele’s one vote or Steve Finley’s four votes, in this last ballot will probably be less common.
There are too many actual candidates to discuss and weigh the pros and cons to throw Sean Casey or Todd Jones a bone.
And in 2016, Ken Griffey Jr. will arrive.
By 2017, Manny Ramirez and Ivan Rodriguez will be on the ballot and the PED debate will be in full swing again.
But that’s three seasons to put in the deserving candidates and make a call with the others.
Get voting.
On January, 2016, Ken Griffey Jr, the era’s greatest player without a whiff of scandal to his name, will be elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot.
He was the best player of the 1990s and even with a decade riddled with injuries, he finished his amazing career with 10 Gold Gloves, 7 Silver Sluggers, the 1997 AL MVP and oh yeah, only Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays hit more homers.
He’ll be in on the first ballot.
But he won’t be on EVERY ballot.
And that will be a disgrace.
I wrote before the fact that nobody has gotten in unanimously is literally insane. Babe Ruth didn’t get in with every ballot in an earlier generation?
So a bunch of boneheaded sports writers didn’t vote for Cy Young?
Some morons left Joe DiMaggio off the ballot?
Some racists (what other excuse can there be?) didn’t vote for Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Bob Gibson or Hank Aaron?
Guess what? That doesn’t mean YOU need to make their mistakes. You can actually help CORRECT those mstakes.
Part of how a society grows is they take what worked from the previous generation and try to fix what didn’t work.
That’s how there is growth… that’s how there is progress… that’s why we are more civilized now than we were 1,000 years ago!
Voting in Ken Griffey Jr. with 100% of the ballot doesn’t mean you are saying he was better than Babe Ruth or Willie Mays or Hank Aaron or Ted Williams.
It means that YOU are a better voter than the ones who voted back then!
So I challenge ANYONE out there to tell me why Ken Griffey Jr. should NOT be voted in with 100% of the ballot!
Seriously… write your reasons to info@sullybaseball.com.
I am DROOLING to hear why Ken Griffey Jr. shouldn’t be unanimous.
If you vote for the Hall of Fame and do NOT put him on the ballot, you should be forced to defend yourself in front of a Krypton court like General Zod.
And if you can’t defend yourself… then your Hall of Fame voting rights will be stripped.
Voting in a player unanimously shouldn’t be a problem by 2016.
2 years earlier, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas will all be on the ballot, and as I stated in February, if you don’t vote for THEM, I am stripping your voting rights.
KNEEEEEEEL Before Sully!
Sully Baseball 
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