Mauer is really holding steady, he's been consistently one or two votes ahead of Helton. it's always hard to tell but for most candidates with credentials some might find borderline, there's usually a 6-7% drop from where the tracker finishes. I feel like Mauer is somewhere between 73-79% in the end. Wagner and Helton are cutting it close.
― omar little, Tuesday, 23 January 2024 17:26 (eight months ago) link
it's going to be crowded again next year, anywhere from a dozen to fifteen players returning, plus Suzuki in the Adrian Beltre 95%+ shoo-in role, Sabathia, Pedroia as an Utley type, Kinsler as the poor man's David Wright, and King Felix.
― omar little, Tuesday, 23 January 2024 17:43 (eight months ago) link
I anticipate being bummed out at how little support Felix is going to receive.
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, 23 January 2024 18:32 (eight months ago) link
Can't share, but these are Posnanski's predictions (many obvious by this point):
Will Be Elected -- Beltre, Mauer, HeltonWill Just Miss -- Wagner, SheffieldComing Soon To a Hall of Fame Near You -- Jones, BeltranSolidly on the Ballot Going Forward -- Utley, A-Rod, Manny (seems to think A-Rod will eventually go in, Manny "not ever, not by the writers nor by any veterans committee")The 15% Club -- Rollins, Abreu, Pettitte, VizquelWill Make Another Ballot -- Buehrle, K-Rod, Hunter, WrightWill Not Make the Ballot Next Year -- the rest
He came up with a fun thing yesterday, based on something his friend said: a player's Hock Score:
I’m going to talk a bit over the next couple of days about my friend Jon Hock’s Hall of Fame thought experiment, which he sent in to express his support for Thurman Munson’s Hall of Fame candidacy:
"Try this as a thought experiment: Imagine Munson’s plaque in the Gallery in Cooperstown, then imagine watching a day’s worth of fans passing through. Tell me, where would Munson’s plaque rank in terms of fans stopping a little bit longer, maybe removing their cap and saying something about him to their daughter or grandson? I’d say top ten or 15 in the entire Gallery."
I’m not entirely sure that Munson’s plaque would draw quite that kind of attention, but I love the concept: Which players’ plaques would stand out in the Hall of Fame plaque room? That’s a really interesting way of thinking about the Hall of Fame, emphasis on the word "fame."
I can say with some confidence, that if Bartolo Colón somehow made the Hall of Fame, he’d have a HUGE Hock Score.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 23 January 2024 18:44 (eight months ago) link
Just to clarify, his predictions are not reflective of his own preferences--he voted for Manny, always has, and lobbies hard for him. But: "...and I can certainly live with that." ("That" being what I quoted above.)
― clemenza, Tuesday, 23 January 2024 18:53 (eight months ago) link
i kinda think Wagner might make up enough ground to get in but it'll be a true squeaker. i also think he'll be the last closer to make it for an extremely long time and maybe that's appropriate.
― omar little, Tuesday, 23 January 2024 19:04 (eight months ago) link
Think this is the first time I've ever watched this live...hey, I'm live-blogging!
― clemenza, Tuesday, 23 January 2024 23:15 (eight months ago) link
let's go
― omar little, Tuesday, 23 January 2024 23:16 (eight months ago) link
Jose Bautista just ran across the screen and did a bat-flip...not sure what that means.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 23 January 2024 23:16 (eight months ago) link
You take the first one, Omar.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 23 January 2024 23:17 (eight months ago) link
Beltre, Mauer...
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, 23 January 2024 23:17 (eight months ago) link
aaaaand Helton!
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, 23 January 2024 23:18 (eight months ago) link
Still majorly surprised that Mauer is a first-ballot guy. Not complaining, just surprised.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 23 January 2024 23:18 (eight months ago) link
Beltre, Helton, Mauer, and that's it
― omar little, Tuesday, 23 January 2024 23:19 (eight months ago) link
You were like 30 seconds ahead of me, Thermo. Is St. Marys that deep in the woods?
― clemenza, Tuesday, 23 January 2024 23:19 (eight months ago) link
gonna be curious to see those percentages. not surprised Wagner didn't make it.
does this mean Posey is going to be a first ballot guy now?!
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, 23 January 2024 23:23 (eight months ago) link
Sheffield is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXP1MSFwMnc
Not sure how he'll fair with the VC, which is much the harder of the two to predict.
(Never doubted that Posey would be first-ballot, I guess because his career ended well rather than petering out--plus, obviously, the WS titles.)
― clemenza, Tuesday, 23 January 2024 23:24 (eight months ago) link
Under 30% for Utley...that'll change quickly, I think.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 23 January 2024 23:25 (eight months ago) link
the best chance for several of these guys is the upcoming desert of star candidates, post-suzuki. Posey, Molina, and uh Hamels are the "best" between the Suzuki ballot and the Pujols ballot.
― omar little, Tuesday, 23 January 2024 23:29 (eight months ago) link
not counting Cano and Braun, who seem like sub-10% guys potentially.
― omar little, Tuesday, 23 January 2024 23:31 (eight months ago) link
I'm glad Scott Boras isn't sitting on that couch.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 23 January 2024 23:33 (eight months ago) link
i'd be shocked if Cano was under 10
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, 23 January 2024 23:35 (eight months ago) link
Hard to say--the writers are especially punitive to players who tested positive well along the timeline.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 23 January 2024 23:37 (eight months ago) link
plus it was two PED suspensions, and his stats are really impressive but not A-Rod/Manny territory.
― omar little, Tuesday, 23 January 2024 23:39 (eight months ago) link
i think he's also sort of a curiously forgotten guy, maybe because of the manner in which his career petered out statistically. i've gotta believe he'll do better than Braun for reasons both related to their stats and obv Braun's much worse behavior w/r/t his PED use.
― omar little, Tuesday, 23 January 2024 23:41 (eight months ago) link
Mauer's only the third first-ballot catcher after Bench and I-Rod.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 24 January 2024 05:16 (eight months ago) link
poor billy
obviously there are arguments to be made about the true value of relievers, but he was lights-out when it was asked of him
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 24 January 2024 05:50 (eight months ago) link
Anyone else listen to Grimes’ “We Appreciate Power” and always hear “power” as “Mauer” and then start re-framing the lyrics to be about him? No one? Ok.
― Michael F Gill, Wednesday, 24 January 2024 17:25 (eight months ago) link
Next five ballots: https://www.mlb.com/news/future-baseball-hall-of-fame-ballots-preview
― clemenza, Wednesday, 24 January 2024 17:40 (eight months ago) link
Ichiro, Posey, Pujols, and Cabrera are first ballot inductees i bet. Molina, hard to tell. Sabathia? I'm maybe slightly agnostic on him; as far as lefty starters go he's probably closer to David Wells than he is Clayton Kershaw, but might have to dig in deeper considering the era he pitched in.
guys like Lester and Wainwright had nice careers, not dissimilar at all, but they should be in their team HOFs, not the MLB one.
really kinda curious to see where Granderson, Hernández, Kinsler, and Pedroia wind up in the voting next year. they were all great players to varying levels, though i don't think they would or necessarily should get voted in.
― omar little, Wednesday, 24 January 2024 17:59 (eight months ago) link
Jimmy Key (among my favourite Jays ever) and Russell Martin into the Canadian Baseball HOF.
https://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/article/martin-key-among-six-inductees-to-enter-canadian-baseball-hall-of-fame/
― clemenza, Tuesday, 6 February 2024 15:23 (seven months ago) link
Paul Godfrey, I should mention, was instrumental in getting Toronto a franchise. He engineered the deal that almost landed us the Giants in '76, before George Moscone rescued them and kept them in San Francisco.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 6 February 2024 15:43 (seven months ago) link
Comparison graphics frequently turn up on my FB wall. Some of them are far-fetched special pleading--someone trying to make a case that Dale Murphy was better than Reggie Jackson, stuff like that. One caught my eye today: John Smoltz vs. Kevin Brown. The graphic provided overall stats, i.e. including Smoltz's years as a closer, and their career lines were very similar. Just as starters:
Smoltz: 209-149, 3.40, 7.90 K/9, 2.92 K/BB, 1.192 WHIP, 3211.2 IPBrown: 210-143, 3.26, 6.60 K/9, 2.67 K/BB, 1.219 WHIP, 3237.2 IP
Again, very close. I thought Brown might actually come out looking better, but I think there's a small but clear edge there to Smoltz. When you add 1) Smoltz's three seasons as a first-rate closer (a role that, if I remember correctly, he volunteered to step into), 2) Smoltz's stellar post-season record (overall, Brown was mediocre in the post-season in a much smaller sample), and 3) Brown's PED associations, it's more clear-cut why Smoltz in the HOF and Brown isn't than I thought it would be.
― clemenza, Thursday, 28 March 2024 02:24 (six months ago) link
Only because he came up on a different thread today, I looked up Davey Johnson's one year on the HOF ballot (as a player; I think he was on the VC ballot as a manager this year). Three votes. You know who else got three votes that year? Jim Bouton!
― clemenza, Thursday, 30 May 2024 02:49 (four months ago) link
Agree with Posnanski here:
With Sale, though, the story goes beyond this year. This guy was one of the best pitchers in baseball from 2012 to 2018. He finished top-six in the Cy Young voting in each of those seven seasons, and he piled up almost 50 WAR (both Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs), and you know what? He’s 35. If he can pitch like this for three or four more years--even close to this level--and maybe take one Cy Young Award, he’s going to the Hall of Fame.
Of course, that last sentence there is loaded with a million question marks. But I do think he's still viable. And I had totally written him off.
― clemenza, Friday, 28 June 2024 18:03 (three months ago) link
Jason Stark's (read a really annoying book by him a few years ago) "tiers," explanations of which are found in a long Athletic piece:
IN RIGHT NOW
Mike TroutJustin VerlanderMax ScherzerFreddie Freeman*
(*new to the In Right Now Club)
INJURED LIST DIVISION OF THE “IN RIGHT NOW” CLUB
Clayton KershawJoey Votto
IN THE RED ZONE
Mookie BettsPaul GoldschmidtBryce HarperNolan ArenadoManny Machado
ACROSS THE 50 (FUN NEW CATEGORY!)
Aaron JudgeShohei OhtaniJose Altuve
MOVING THE CHAINS
Gerrit ColeJuan SotoJosé RamírezFrancisco LindorCarlos Correa
GET BACK TO ME IN FIVE YEARS
Ronald Acuña Jr. Bobby Witt Jr.Gunnar HendersonAdley RutschmanJulio RodríguezVladimir Guerrero Jr.Fernando Tatis Jr.Rafael DeversKyle TuckerYordan AlvarezCorbin CarrollEmmanuel Clase
LET’S TALK NEXT YEAR
Jacob deGromCorey SeagerChristian YelichAlex BregmanMarcus SemienAndrew McCutchenXander BogaertsYu Darvish
STILL ALIVE (SOMEHOW!)
Giancarlo StantonChris Sale
CLOSERS CORNER*
Craig KimbrelKenley JansenAroldis ChapmanJosh Hader
(*could all be sending thank-you cards to Billy Wagner next January)
CATCHERS CORNER
Salvador PerezJ.T. Realmuto
GRADUATED
Miguel CabreraAdam WainwrightZack GreinkeEvan LongoriaNelson CruzMadison Bumgarner
NOT PICTURED ANYMORE
Wander Franco
― clemenza, Friday, 5 July 2024 18:42 (three months ago) link
I like Correa's chances a little more than Lindor's; same career WAR, Correa has a year on him. Lindor's been accumulating WAR with the Mets, but he doesn't seem like the same player: .285/.346/.488 in Cleveland, .252/.329/.447 in New York.
― clemenza, Friday, 5 July 2024 18:51 (three months ago) link
Miguel Cabrera 1st yearAdam Wainwright noZack Greinke yesEvan Longoria *Nelson Cruz *Madison Bumgarner no
very different players, but longoria and cruz are kind of flipped versions of each other in terms of how their early and late careers went. longoria did all his outstanding stuff in his 20s, and provided average value throughout his 30s with a bunch of injuries. cruz didn't cruz until his late 20s going into early 30s, and then had an absolutely outstanding 30s. but...he was a dh, so the bar for his career offensive output is higher
― z_tbd, Friday, 5 July 2024 18:58 (three months ago) link
Cruz also got suspended for 50 games for buying drugs from the Biogenesis clinic
― The Yellow Kid, Friday, 5 July 2024 19:05 (three months ago) link
(xpost to myself) Lindor has a much better narrative-profile, though--Ernie Banks, basically, as opposed to scandal-damaged and then the failed-physicals debacle--so Lindor's is in fact the better bet.
― clemenza, Friday, 5 July 2024 19:08 (three months ago) link
damn, had totally forgotten about that. helps to explain how he had a .328 ISO as a 39-year-old
― z_tbd, Friday, 5 July 2024 19:33 (three months ago) link
I am once again asking the @SFGiants to offer Barry Bonds a pro-rated league minimum deal and an opportunity to pinch-hit in one game at the end of the season so that his Hall of Fame eligibility clock resets.— Ryan M. Spaeder (@theaceofspaeder) August 1, 2024
― 龜, Friday, 2 August 2024 16:08 (two months ago) link
I guess I should have known, but I didn't realize you could reset the clock once your ballot window had expired. I don't think they'd be doing Bonds a favour, though, just setting him up for another 10 years of purgatory.
― clemenza, Friday, 2 August 2024 16:22 (two months ago) link
Lads i have just been to the hall of fame. I had fun
― Its big ball chunky time (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Wednesday, 7 August 2024 01:41 (one month ago) link
First time?
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Wednesday, 7 August 2024 02:21 (one month ago) link
Second walk, timely DP.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 7 August 2024 02:25 (one month ago) link
Oops.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 7 August 2024 02:26 (one month ago) link
Ya first time; may never need to go again unless im reaaaaaly close bc its a shitfuck to get here
― Its big ball chunky time (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Wednesday, 7 August 2024 02:29 (one month ago) link
Corey Seager has really picked it up after a slow start. He's 30 now, and getting close to good-bet territory, I'd say (giving him some extra credit for his post-season heroics). Needs maybe two or three AS-level seasons, and two or three scenery seasons after that?
― clemenza, Monday, 12 August 2024 21:33 (one month ago) link