Surprises & disappointments?

[Rick2583]

Of the 11 NY Post sportswriters who are voting for HOF inductions 4 players have received the required 75% they are Ken Griffey Jr (11), Mike Piazza (11), WAIT FOR IT..................Roger Clemens (9) and WAIT FOR IT..............Barry Bonds (9).

Only 6 of the 11 voted for Raines, Hoffman & Edgar.

 

[Mattingly23NY]

Of the 11 NY Post sportswriters who are voting for HOF inductions 4 players have received the required 75% they are Ken Griffey Jr (11), Mike Piazza (11), WAIT FOR IT..................Roger Clemens (9) and WAIT FOR IT..............Barry Bonds (9).

Only 6 of the 11 voted for Raines, Hoffman & Edgar.

No fkng way, ya' gotta' be kidding me, but I know your not.....

As of 9:44 EST
Major League Baseball’s 2016 Hall of Fame Class will be revealed at 6 pm today on the MLB Network. In order to punch their ticket to Cooperstown, former players must receive 75% of the vote from the 475 members of the Baseball Writers Association of the America eligible to vote. Based on ballots made publicly available, Ken Griffey Jr. is a lock for immortality with Mike Piazza expected to get a congratulatory call today as well. Jeff Bagwell and Tim Raines are likely to fall just shy of the required tally.


Ryan Thibodaux’s Hall of Fame Tracker has tallied ballots for several years of the writers who reveal their picks before the HOF announcement (see full results here). Thibodaux has tracked down 181 or 40% of the roughly 450 expected ballots total this year as of Wednesday morning and some interesting trends have emerged (not every BBWA member sends in their vote).

Ken Griffey Jr. should keep his phone handy today. (Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)


Griffey leads 15 new additions to the HOF ballot this year and has been listed on every ballot released so far. Makes sense. His 22-year career included 13 All-Star game selections, 10 straight Gold Glove Awards in center field, an MVP and the sixth most home runs in baseball history (630). Griffey was the face of baseball for a decade and is still held up as the best “clean” player of his generation without a whiff of PED suspicion tainting his legacy. Injuries during the second half of his career and no World Series appearances prevented Junior from reaching even greater heights, but he is a no doubt about it first-ballot Hall of Famer.


Griffey had a remarkable career, but a unanimous vote would be unprecedented. The record for voting percentage is held by Tom Seaver (98.84% in 1992) with Nolan Ryan close behind (98.79% in 1999). Writers have found reasons not to vote for Babe Ruth (95.1%), Willie Mays (94.7%) and Hank Aaron (97.8%) over the years. Some writers figure if those players weren’t elected unanimously, then no player deserves the honor. The limit on voting for 10 candidates has caused a few writers to support weaker candidates in lieu of a shoo-in like Griffey. Ballots will emerge this year without Griffey’s name on them and those writers will face the wrath of the public, but he could challenge Seaver’s record.


Mike Piazza fell 28 votes short last year, but looks likely to make the cut this year with 86% of the public vote (he had 76% of the pre-results public votes last year, but only 62% of the private vote). He’s picked up 11 votes from writers that did not vote for him last year, and first time voters are supporting him with 88% of their vote.


Recommended by Forbes

Piazza has been dragged into baseball’s PED mess despite a lack of evidence tying him to any steroid use. His resume is superb with 12 All-Star game nods and 10 Silver Slugger Awards in his trophy room. He is arguably the game’s greatest hitting catcher. ESPN ’s Ian O’Conner argues Piazza became a Hall of Famer Sept. 21, 2001 when he hit the winning home run at Shea Stadium in the first major sporting event played in New York after 9/11. Piazza’s in.


After Piazza and Griffey, the picture gets a little cloudy. Bagwell (77 .3%) and Raines (76.2%) both would be enshrined if only the public ballots are counted, but both players showed double-digit drops last year between the public and private ballots. Look for the same this year.


On the bright side, both players are trending in the right direction with Bagwell picking up a net 24 votes among returning voters revealing their ballots and Raines 16 votes. Both players got unanimous support from the eight new voters. A new voting pool could shake things up. Last year, the Baseball Hall of Fame announced that voters would have to be active members in the BBWA within the last 10 years. The change eliminated more than 100 voters. Raines has one more year on the ballot after this before the 10-year period is up with Bagwell still having four more chances.


The next candidates with the highest totals after the four above include first-timer Trevor Hoffman (63%), Curt Schilling (59.1%), Barry Bonds (51.4%) and Roger Clemens (50.8%). Hoffman and fellow reliever Billy Wagner are likely to be the only first-year players to receive the required 5% of votes to stay on the ballot for next year. This is the final year on the ballot for Mark McGwire (13.8%) and Alan Trammell (44.8%).