2008 MLB Hall of Fame Ballot Count

Links (15)

The Worst Hall of Fame Arguments of 2008
Published 1/1/2008 by Vegas Watch at Vegas Watch
... , tangotiger makes the amusing point that Raines' worst five years were easily better than Coleman's best five. Tim Raines is going to fall short of the Hall of Fame this year, and he has reasoning like this to thank. ...

Rangers Continue Search For Pitching Help
Published 1/1/2008 by Joey Matschulat at Baseball Time in Arlington
... But alas, it’s beginning to appear as though none of my Hall of Fame hopefuls will make it in this time around. According to a preliminary tally of votes compiled by ESPN’s Keith Law, Gossage is the lone candidate currently poised to receive the 75% share of the vote necessary to gain entry to Cooperstown. ...

My (Make-Believe) Hall of Fame Ballot
Published 1/2/2008 by One More Dying Quail at One More Dying Quail
... from 1975 to 1985 (excluding 1976, when the White Sox inexplicably made him a starter), there may not have been a better reliever in baseball. Gossage, unfortunately, has two things working against him: his best seasons came before closers routinely ran up large save totals, making his career mark of 310 seem rather inadequate; and he hung on for eight seasons after that dominant peak ended, replacing the image of a feared closer with that of a washed-up middle reliever. If Keith Law is correct, the real voters might be starting to figure out that the former reason for ...

Baseball Hall of Fame Case: Goose Gossage
Published 1/3/2008 at FanIQ Blog
... Probably. Gossage was 21 votes shy last year, and according to Keith Law's continuing ballot count, Gossage is easily above the 75% threshold. I will go on record here and predict that Goose Gossage is the sole writers' election this year. ...

The Class of 2008: Relievers by Jay Jaffe
Published 1/4/2008 at Baseball Prospectus
... project's widening exposure parallels that trend--though the doubling of the Hall's reliever ranks is almost certainly the more influential factor. In any event, there's a very good chance we'll be talking about the Goose's enshrinement in the coming days. The physically intimidating Lee Smith stepped into the large shoes vacated by Sutter in Wrigleyville and did a very credible job in six years as the Cubs' 100-inning-per-year closer. From 1983-1987, he finished in the top five in saves every season, leading the league once. He was in the top five in ...

This Week's Links (12/31-1/4)
Published 1/4/2008 by Vegas Watch at Vegas Watch
Hall of Fame edition, because there wasn't a whole lot else going on this week. Looks like Gossage is in, while Blyleven, Rice, and Dawson all have a shot. Raines does not. Dave Studeman's imaginary ballot. OMDQ's imaginary ballot. Heyman's ballot really was bad. Jay Jaffe on this year's SP candidates (subscription only). Posnanski on Morris, and the Pozcars results. More on the Blyleven-Morris "comparison".

Trammell, grass, and the Hall of Fame
Published 1/4/2008 by billfer at The Detroit Tiger Weblog
... since being on the ballot and actually saw his numbers at their lowest in 2007 when he only had 13.4% of the vote. My hope was that with a weak ballot he could have maybe gained some steam and broken the 30% mark. However, Keith Law’s unofficial tally has him improving, but only to 22%. ...

What a Relief!
Published 1/4/2008 by Jay at The Futility Infielder
... 49.2 58.0 44.9 80.4 Doug Jones 66.5 48.2 57.4 33.0 73.8 Lindy McDaniel 72.0 44.1 58.1 31.3 73.7* Bruce Sutter 59.0 47.6 53.3 37.4 72.0 HOF Roberto Hernandez 66.8 46.5 56.7 28.2 70.7 Stu Miller 63.5 43.6 53.6 34.1 70.6* John Wetteland 58.5 46.5 52.5 35.0 70.0 Tom Henke 59.9 42.7 51.3 36.8 69.7 Tug McGraw 60.1 38.5 49.3 39.6 69.1 Dan Quisenberry 55.2 48.2 51.7 34.0 68.7 Kent Tekulve 64.7 40.3 52.5 30.3 67.7 Rivera surpassed Eckersley atop this list last year. With Gossage apparently poised for enshrinement after receiving 71.2 percent of the vote last year, the day where six of ...

Gossage still looking good
Published 1/5/2008 by Andrew Fletcher at Scott Proctor's Arm - A New York Yankees Blog
ESPN's Keith Law is continuing to unofficially update the Hall of Fame voting from published ballots he's seen or has received on his blog. ...

Tommorrow’s Cooperstown election results today
Published 1/7/2008 by Chris Jaffe at The Hardball Times
... few years, he's tallied every BBWAA who publishes his ballot . It ain't perfect but it works pretty well. In 2005, for example, his tally was within three percent on six of the top ten. Keith Law's doing something similar this year at his blog. It's a bit more extensive as some voters he knows who aren't publishing their ballots have told Law how they voted. An element of bias creeps in as the people friendly with Law are more likely to be friendly to sabermetric darlings. In fact, in Law's most recent update , Blyleven led Rice. That won't be how it shakes out. In ...

Tomorrow’s Cooperstown election results today
Published 1/7/2008 by Chris Jaffe at The Hardball Times
... few years, he's tallied every BBWAA who publishes his ballot . It ain't perfect but it works pretty well. In 2005, for example, his tally was within three percent on six of the top ten. Keith Law's doing something similar this year at his blog. It's a bit more extensive as some voters he knows who aren't publishing their ballots have told Law how they voted. An element of bias creeps in as the people friendly with Law are more likely to be friendly to sabermetric darlings. In fact, in Law's most recent update , Blyleven led Rice. That won't be how it shakes out. In ...

Goose Hearts Beckett & Papelbon
Published 1/7/2008 by Texas Gal at Center Field
... Awww- come on, Goose! Don't hate on the fistpump! Goose has come very close (but no cigar!) to getting into the Hall of Fame over the last few year - but all indications are he'll get in when the inductee(s?) are announced tomorrow.

Mark McGwire and the Hall of Fame
Published 1/8/2008 by JC at Sabernomics
... It looks as though McGwire will get enough votes to remain on the ballot for a while, and I hope that eventually the writers will get over their moral indignation and put him in the Hall. However, I won’t be surprised if McGwire declines his invitation. ...

SI’s Hall of Fame Primary
Published 1/8/2008 by Mike McClary at :: The Daily Fungo ::
... By most accounts, neither Tram nor Morris will be voted in this time around. (Nor will anyone else for that matter.) In time, though, Tigers fans can expect to see at least one of them enshrined. ...

Class of One
Published 1/8/2008 by Earl at The GYS Network
No real surprise, given Keith Law basically tallied the votes beforehand: Goose Gossage made it in to the Hall, Jim Rice didn't. But Rice fell short by only 16 votes; next year he'll almost certainly get in because of the "sympathy vote" arising from his last year of eligibility. Here is Rob Neyer's argument that Rice doesn't belong in; he got almost 800 comments, yet no one disagreeing with him made a very strong point. Thoughts? In any case, you have to wonder how much Gossage, Rice, etc. are benefiting from the weak field. As we've discussed ...