this year's Hall of Fame ballot

I'm curious to see how many votes Belle and Gooden get (this is their first year, isn't it?)

W/out doing any number crunching (in honor of how 95% of the BBWAA do their thing), I'm gonna say that Belle & Dawson are shown love. (Yes, I do smoke crack, thanx.) Given how thin the crop seems, tho, maybe a Sutter or Blyleven can (rightfully, at least in BB's case) sneak in.

Have there ever been years when no one was inducted?

If Hal Morris does somehow get in, his plaque better include CLUTCHMEISTER on it.

There will be one Cinci sportswriter drop a vote on Hal Morris, he was a real popular player for the Reds.

I think Sutter will get the nod this year, he was close last year.

I'd vote for Blyelven, Sutter, Rice, Gossage, Dawson and Parker, but I am easy and grew up watching baseball at the end of the 70s and into the 80s.

I hope Willie McGee gets in just so we can see what his plaque looks like.

http://www.apeculture.com/images/williemcgee.jpg

if you told me three people are going in i'd guess sutter, gossage, and dawson, but i don't think three are going in.

I've never cared less about who gets in.

Well, I stuck with it long enough to get a half-dozen of those circa-'93 Topps "Top Prospects" with Derek Jeter on 'em.

David R. is crazeeee. No way the stiff-upper-lip/play-the-right/white-way writers give Albert 'Don't Call Me Joey' Belle any kind of first-ballot love.

I think I agree with this ... maybe Dawson as well.

The ballot is so weak, I'm wondering if voters will feel compelled to list more borderline candidates just to fill up their ballot a bit. Maybe we'll see anomalous one-year spike for guys like Mattingly.

I think Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn will be eligible next year.

His HOF argument is similar to Raffy's (before the steroids thing, of course), but weaker IMO.

In past years I identified each player's peak value by his best five consecutive seasons, with allowances made for seasons lost to war or injury. That choice was an admittedly arbitrary one, and for the 2006 ballot I've revised the methodology to instead use each player's best seven seasons without concern as to whether they're consecutive or not.

OK, this helps to explain Smith's high ranking. I don't like this methodology, since it basically rewards career value all over again by allowing inconsistently great players to gain more peak value.

Lee Smith was a good closer on mostly bad teams, but he STUNK the few times he pitched in the playoffs. You can't say that about Gossage or Sutter.

Tommy John is an interesting vet to bring up. He pitched for a long, long time and won a bunch of games for good teams, but was never dominant. Hey how many other pitchers have a surgery named after them? There are probably some Yankee fans out there wondering what would have happened if Billy Martin had not pinch hit for him in the 4th inning during game 6 of the 1981 World Series.

I think Tommy John like Jim Kaat falls just a bit short, but he was a really good pitcher for a long time.

SM*LL S*MPLE S*ZE

Who wants to draw parallels between Albert Belle's corked-bat scandal & Sammy Sosa's corked-bat scandal?

NEW YORK (AP) -- Bruce Sutter was elected to the Hall of Fame on Tuesday, just the fourth relief pitcher given baseball's highest honor.

Sutter was selected on 400 of a record 520 ballots cast by 10-year members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America for 76.9 percent.

Players needed 390 votes (75 percent) to gain election. Jim Rice fell 53 votes short, finishing second with 337 votes (64.8 percent), one ahead of Goose Gossage.

Fuck yeah.

VS

http://onlineathens.com/images/012005/13954_512.jpg

Rice 128
Dawson 119
Garvey 116
Parker 121
Belle 143

http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/OPSplus_career.shtml

Granted, there are a lot of currently active players on the list, but their numbers will come down a bit as they decline.

cooperst0wnd

NY Post:
"I just don't get it," a frustrated Gossage said in Colorado yesterday, moments after he was told fellow reliever Bruce Sutter would be the only man going into Cooperstown this summer. "I'm at a loss for words... I just can't believe Sutter got in before me."

Not as memorable as "Take it to the fat man upstairs."

"no soup for you, jim rice."

No shit?

Of course, people don't really remember him for his bat, and glove-wise, his numbers are excellent. His peak and career Wins Above Replacement are amazing.

I cannot understand why Sutter got in and not Gossage. Maybe there was some vote splitting of some kind, but I have to believe that Gossage was just as effective and maybe even a bit more 'feared' than Sutter. The only thing I can figure is that Gossage pitching so many years past his prime that it somehow tarnished his image.

I have no doubts that if Rice, Dawson or Parker played in the late 90s they would have put up just as crazy numbers.

Gossage may have pitched "many years past his prime," but unlike others (eg Steve Carlton) he was still effective at the end. From '89-94 he was generally above average, tho typically used for an inning of non-save work each appearance.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/g/gossari01.shtml

i think i know what you mean, except ripken didn't play in the 70s. kinda confusing phrasing.

Yeah, let me say that again ...

During the 80's, shortstops were crappy hitters by and large, with Ripken being a notable exception. I don't remember 70's baseball (many of us don't), but that decade is also known for its bad-hitting shortstops. Comparing Concepcion's numbers to those of the average or replacement-level shortstop of his day supports the notion that shortstops were just as bad with the bat in the 70's as we remember them being in the 80's.

Over at ESPN.com, Rob Neyer did a chat session, and one of the questioners pointed to Sutter’s having a Cy Young Award, whereas Gossage doesn’t, as evidence of the former’s Hall worthiness.

Have you ever actually looked at that award? Sutter took a fractured vote with 77 of a possible 120 points, and just 10 of 24 first-place votes. It was one of the lowest winning vote totals of the 12-team era. Moreover, Sutter benefited from one of the more ridiculous split votes of all time, as Astros teammates Joe Niekro and J.R. Richard finished 2-3 right behind him, sharing 13 first-place votes. Richard, however, was vastly superior to Niekro in every way that year, with a lower ERA (and RA) in more innings, a 313/98 strikeout-to-walk ratio (versus Niekro’s 119/107), and eight more complete games than Niekro. Niekro’s edge? A 21-11 record against Richard’s 18-13, which was worth nine first-place votes to Richard’s four.

Sutter’s Cy Young Award is essentially the product of cluelessness among some voters in evaluating those two pitchers. If Richard gets proper credit, he wins the Cy Young Award, and a major part of Sutter’s Hall of Fame case, certainly vis-à-vis Gossage, disappears.

What’s galling is that Sutter is getting his Cooperstown pass in much the same way that he got that Cy Young Award: through a crack in a voting process. This is the most frustrating aspect of his election, and the one that calls the electorate into greatest question. What was acknowledged openly in the coverage of yesterday’s voting results was the idea that Sutter benefited from the lack of qualified first-ballot candidates. With no new players to vote for (Orel Hershiser led the way with 58 votes, and only two new candidates, he and Albert Belle, will make it back for another year), the voters changed the question from, “Is this player a Hall of Famer?” to “Who is the best player in this group?” That’s simply the wrong question to ask; this isn’t the MVP award, where you’re trying to determine a winner from among a field of candidates. This is the Hall of Fame, where the standards are set and it is entirely possible to have a year in which no one meets them.

As far as I can determine, following are the players in the Baseball
Hall of Fame with the fewest career Win Shares:

168 Bruce Sutter
181 Dizzy Dean
185 Lefty Gomez
186 Chick Hafey
188 Rollie Fingers
191 Ray Schalk
191 Addie Joss
193 Fred Lindstrom
193 George Kelly
194 Sandy Koufax

The HOF's page on the candidates of the Negro League and pre-Negro League black players' election, results to come Feb. 27:

http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/negro_leaguers.htm