You Always Remember Your First Time

[MFS62]

The question stated you could vote for up to 10.
Those are the same rules actual HoF voters are bound to.
Later

[batmagadanleadoff]

Wright's secret stash of homers is right there with Wagner's secret stash of saves that will suddenly get him in after 10 years on the ballot. Baseball writers seem to let candidacies develop over time, which is why a player has 10 years on the ballot and not just one. But you know that. We understand the real reason for your post.

We understand the real reason for your post.

I doubt that you understand. The reason for my post is that David Wright is not a Hall of Famer. He was already done --- toast -- by his age 31 season, four years before he would officially retire, after having already missed large chunks of almost two seasons even before that. He had the talent and the character to make the HOF and was on a HOF trajectory for the first few seasons of his career. But he lacked luck. Injuries demolished whatever chances he once had of Cooperstown enshrinement.

Career WAR (49.2) Average HOF 3B (68.4)
JAWS (44.3) Average HOF 3B (55.8)

But if youse wanna turn this into a Romper Room festival of giddy posts where every Met supposedly belongs in the HOF because they're Mets, go ahead. If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands. If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands. Ring around the rosey. Pocketful of poseys. Yay!

I couldn't help but to revisit these posts. The idea that David Wright belongs in Cooperstown is almost as absurd as the notion that Gary Carter's Mets uniform should be retired.. if David Wright's a Hall of Famer, then so are Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry. This is mind bogglingly ridiculous. Wright and Carter were wonderful Mets deserving of much praise. But that's not enough. Some of youse insist on remembering them as if they were Willie Mayses and Mickey Mantles.

And then the Beltran thing. If Derek Jeter was ever involved in a cheating scandal like Beltran was, you'd never hear the end of it from Zip a Dee Doo Dah. He'd be comparing Jeter to Charles Manson and Ted Bundy forever.

[batmagadanleadoff]

A) Had big, unmistakable peaks of greatness.

B) Had a clear impact on winning.

C) Had a period in their career when they were among the elite players at their position.

Doesn’t that describe Utley, Wright and Pedroia in particular? None of them made it to within 100 hits of 2,000 — let alone 3,000. But they were Stars, with a capital “S.” They were big, bold faces of those teams they played for. And they elevated everyone around them … until injuries slammed the brakes on their march toward Cooperstown.

Jayson Stark voted for David Wright on his Cooperstown ballot. Here comes some brilliant logic: Stark assumes that Wright would've been inducted had he not gotten hurt, and so votes for Wright even though he did get hurt.

Maybe the Veterans Committee will vote Bud Harrelson into the HOF one day. Harrelson would've gotten into the HOF if he was as big and strong as Aaron Judge. And Harrelson would've also gotten into Cooperstown had he hit 800 HR's.

I guess they're gonna vote players in for things they didn't do instead of the things they did do; for imaginary accomplishments that they never accomplished.

[MFS62]

The voting results will be announced today.
Later

[metirish]

Looks like Ichiro , CC and Wagner are on track , Beltran apparently close

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

Here's the Hall of Fame Ballot Tracker, which as tallied about half the ballots prior to the announcement later tonight. The percentages tend to drop, so Wagner can't really afford to lose too may. I think Beltran will fall short. A litle surprised about Sabathia, who I did not think of as a first-ballot guy.


Public Ballots: 202
Anonymous/Unverifiable Ballots: 11
% of Ballots Known: 54.3%


Ichiro Suzuki 100.0%
CC Sabathia 92.5%
Billy Wagner 85.4%
Carlos Beltrán 81.2%
Andruw Jones 72.8%
Chase Utley 52.1%
Álex Rodríguez 39.9%
Manny Ramírez 36.2%
Andy Pettitte 31.9%
Bobby Abreu 24.4%
Félix Hernández 23.9%
Jimmy Rollins 20.2%
Dustin Pedroia 15.0%
Omar Vizquel 12.7%
Mark Buehrle 12.7%
David Wright 10.8%
Francisco Rodríguez 8.0%
Brian McCann 3.3%
Russell Martin 3.3%
Ian Kinsler 3.3%
Torii Hunter 2.3%
Ben Zobrist 0.0%
Troy Tulowitzki 0.0%
Fernando Rodney 0.0%
Hanley Ramírez 0.0%
Adam Jones 0.0%
Curtis Granderson 0.0%
Carlos González 0.0%

[Frayed Knot]

Ichiro Suzuki (one vote shy of unanimous)
Carsten Charles Sabathia
William Edward Wagner

[metsmarathon]

who is the absolute coward who anonymously chose not to vote for ichiro..?!

[Frayed Knot]

David stays alive with 8.1%

[Centerfield]

who is the absolute coward who anonymously chose not to vote for ichiro..?!

A guy who deserves to have his vote rescinded.

[Frayed Knot]

Ichiro still not speaking English in interviews ... which is kind of disappointing in that he reportedly speaks/understands the language much better than he lets on.
Will he speak English at his induction ceremony? Sounds like probably not despite his 19 seasons on this side of the Pacific.

[Edgy MD]

Wagner, lest it go unremembered, was in his tenth and final year on the ballot.

He will be, somewhat surprisingly, the first lefthanded reliever in the Hall of Fame.

[MFS62]

who is the absolute coward who anonymously chose not to vote for ichiro..?!

I'm guessing it was a dick MFY fan (that's redundant) who wants to keep Mariano Rivera as the only unanimous HOF entry.

Later

[kcmets]

No Pettitte, at least there is a smidgeon of reasonableness in the world.

[TransMonk]

Next year's first-time class is even weaker, IMO.

[TheNextMetsManager]

Ichiro still not speaking English in interviews ... which is kind of disappointing in that he reportedly speaks/understands the language much better than he lets on.
Will he speak English at his induction ceremony? Sounds like probably not despite his 19 seasons on this side of the Pacific.

well, he's not English. I'd expect him to speak Japanese, given that he's from there.

[metsmarathon]

Next year's first-time class is even weaker, IMO.

without doing much analysis, there's no hall of famers on next year's first time ballot, and probably only hamels even sticks around past a first year.

[Bob Alpacadaca]

That’s gotta help Andruw Jones and Beltran!

[The Hot Corner]

That’s gotta help Andruw Jones and Beltran!

I would certainly expect so.

[metirish]

Happy for Wagner , goes in as an Astro? Or no team cap ?

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

Happy for Wagner , goes in as an Astro? Or no team cap ?

I suspect an Astro. I was hoping that Sabathia would go in with Cleveland's logos, but he actually spent more time in the Bronx and I'm not sure he never wore a Cleveland cap with the C.

[Cowtipper]

Ichiro wasn't deserving of 100 percent. 100 percent implies perfection and that latter half of his career was anything but.

A great class nevertheless.

With the weak batch of first timers next go-around, Beltran and Andruw Jones are lined up very well for election. After that, it looks like there will be some sparse elections, as none of the other holdovers are particularly close.

Sabathia probably didn't deserve the first ballot, but with Felix Hernandez getting 20 percent on his first try, you can tell the standard for starters has fallen precipitously.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Ichiro wasn't deserving of 100 percent. 100 percent implies perfection and that latter half of his career was anything but.

That's nonsense. A non-vote for Ichiro is a statement that Ichiro is not a HOFer. If every voter held that absurd view, Ichiro wouldn't have gotten a single vote. Or did Mariano Rivera win the Cy Young award in his last season?

Babe Ruth didn't deserve to go in unanimously? Willie Mays? Yogi Berra? Tom Seaver?

A player is either a HOFer or he isn't.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Ichiro wasn't deserving of 100 percent. 100 percent implies perfection and that latter half of his career was anything but.

That's nonsense. A non-vote for Ichiro is a statement that Ichiro is not a HOFer. If every voter held that absurd view, Ichiro wouldn't have gotten a single vote.

Which would have removed him from the ballot and from HOF consideration for decades.

[Cowtipper]

Well, by that logic, if every player is a Hall of Famer or he isn't, then every player that earns election should earn 100% support.

Ichiro is a great, but not an all-time great. He spent nearly ten years of his career as a total dog. And before then, though he hit for sexy high averages, he was mostly just a singles hitter.

If I were a voter, I could easily understand doing a little voting strategery to keep some less-discussed players on the ballot. In doing so, I could easily see myself dropping a Suzuki—a shoo-in—for someone who is just holding on.

A lot of eventual Hall of Famers just hold on in the early going these days. Wagner earned 10% support his first two tries. Same with Scott Rolen. Todd Helton earned just 16%. Larry Walker's vote totals dropped to about 10% a few times. So I could see doing a little strategery.