2019 HOF Returning Players

On Tuesday January 22nd the bbwaa will make their announcement as to who they voted in for the 2019 class of baseball's hall of fame.  As I do each year I will review the returning players to the ballot.  This year I am introducing a section called final thoughts in which I address my thoughts on pplayers appearing on the ballot for their fianl year of eligibility.

The players returning from last years ballot listed from the highest percentage of votes received to lowest are ...

Edgar Martinez 70.4% of the vote in 2018. 10th and final year on the  ballot   Edgar's  highest % came in 2018. Final Thoughts: He is considered likely for HOF inclusion this year.  

Mike Mussina 63.5%  of the vote in 2018.  6th year on ballot  Mussina's highest % came in 2018.

Roger Clemens   57.3 % of the vote in 2018. 7th year on the ballot,   Clemens  received his highest %   in 2018,

Barry Bonds  56.4% of the vote in 2018. 7th  year on the ballot,  Bonds received his highest %  in 2018.

Curt Schilling 45% of the vote in 2017. 6th year on the ballot,    Schillings highest % was 52.3 in 2016

Omar Vizquel 37.0% of vote 2nd year on the ballot, 


Larry Walker 34.1% of the vote in 2018. 9th year on the ballot . Larryreceived his highest percentage of the vote in 2018.

Fred McGriff  23.2 % of the vote in 2018.  10th and final  year on the ballot. Fred's  highest %  was 23.9 in 2012, his 3rd year on the ballot. Final Thoughts: While I consider the Crime Dog a border line hall of famer, most voters have not.  He hasn't ever gotten 1/4 of the writers vote and needs 3/4 for inclusion.  Harold Baines making it to Hall through  the veteran's committee should increase McGriffs vote total, but it wont triple it. 

Manny Ramirez 3nd year on the ballot, voters were just being voters last year when the put Manny on only 22% of their ballots.  Manny's highes total was in 2017   receiving  23.8% of  votes on his inaugural ballot.

Jeff  Kent 14.5%  of the vote in 2018. 6th year on the ballot  . 2017 was Kent's highest total to date, receiving 16.7% on his 5th year on the ballot.

Gary Sheffield 11.1% of the vote in 2018. 5th year on ballot. Gary's highest was 13.3% in 2017 his 4th year on the ballot.

Like Sheffield, Billy Wagner received 11.1 % of the vote in 2018.  This is his 3rd year on the ballot.
2017 was his highest percantage of the vote.

Scott Rolen received 10.2 % of the vote in 2018.. It is his 2nd year on the ballot

Sammy Sosa wnt down to 7.8% of the vote in 2018.  This is his 7th year on the ballot.   In 2012 Sammy received 12.5%, his highest percentage in his first year of consideration.

Andruw Jones  received 7.3% of the vote in 2018. It is 2nd year on the ballot. 

2018 HOF Voting in Review

In 2018 there were 33 former players on the ballot of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) for consideration into Baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown New York.  Fourteen had appeared on the 2017 ballot failing to receive at least 75 % of the vote.  Nineteen were appearing for the first time.  No players were on the ballot for their final year of eligibility.  None of the returning player received less than 5% of the vote.  This means that of the 33 players on the ballot they were either elected to the Hall with 75% or more of the vote (4 players), received less than 75% but more than 25% of the vote and have returned to the 2019 ballot ( 15 players), or received lass than 5% of the vote in their initial year and are not on the ballot for 2019 (14 players)

The 4 players who were inducted into the hall of fame on July 29th 2019 were ...
(Ihave includerd teir hall of fame induction speeches as an added bonus)
Chipper Jones









Vladimir Guerrero




Jim Thome


Trevor Hoffman

 

8 of the 14 players who failed to receive 5% of the vote did receive at least one vote.  These players were Carlos Lee,  Livan Hernandez, Kerry Wood, Chris Carpenter, Hideki Matsui, Johnny Damon, Johan Santana and Jamie Moyer.  The 6 who received no votes were Carlos Zambrano, Orlando Hudson, Jason Isringhausen , Aubrey Huff, Kevin Millwood and Brad Lidge.  

I will begin my 2019 HOF coverage in earnest with my next post featuring the 15 players returning to the ballot in 2019. 

Closing the book on 2009

In a few weeks, the 2019 announcements for who the BBWAA selected into the Hall of Fame will be made.  Today begins my first installment into Hall of Fame coverage.  Today and tomorrow I will be looking backward before I look ahead,  In 2018 the book was closed on the Hall of Fame nominees from 2009 the truth is the book was closed long before that due ti the unique circumstances of the 2009 election.

There were 23 names on the 2009 ballot 13 returning to the ballot from previous years and ten on the ballot for the first time.  Due to the unique circumstances, I mentioned above all ten of these new players did not return to the ballot in 2010.  Nine failed to receive 5% of the vote and were taken off subsequent ballots and one was elected on his first ballot and also removed from subsequent ballots.

Ricky Henderson was the player to make the Hall on his first ballot that year receiving 94.8 percent of the vote.  Jim Rice was on the other end of the spectrum that year receiving 76.4 % of the vote in his 15th and final year of eligibility (Eligibility has since been switched to 10 years)

The remaining 12 who returned to the ballot in 2009 came back to the ballot in 2010.  3 of those players were eventually voted into the Hall of fame during their time of eligibility (Andre Dawson 2010 9th year of eligibility, Bert Blyleven 2011 14th year of eligibility, Tim Raines 2017 1oth and final year of eligibility) 4 more players were not elected by the writers but since elected by the veterans committee these are Jack Morris 2018 Alan Trammell 2018 and as I mentioned yesterday Harold Baines 2019 and Lee Smith 2019.  So unless there is further action done by the veterans committee a total of 9 of the 23 candidates for enshrinement in 2009 are in Cooperstown.

Tommy John was on the ballot for the 15th and final time in 2009 receiving 31.7% of the vote, his highest percentage, but not even 1/2 of what was needed for enshrinement.

 Dave Parker, Don Mattingly and Dale Murphy all returned to the ballot in 2010 but all eventually dropped out without ever receiving the votes needed for enshrinement.

The Class of 2009 who appeared on the ballot for their first and only time were (listed in order of votes received)

Rickey Henderson 511 Votes (94.8%)
Mark Grace  22 votes (4.1%)
David Cone 21 Votes (3.9%)
Matt Williams 7 votes (1.3%)
Mo Vaughn 6 Votes (1.1%)
Jay Bell 2 Votes (.4%)
Jesse Orosco 1 Vote (.2%)
Greg Vaughn 0 votes
Ron Gant 0 votes
Dan Pleasac 0 votes.


The book has closed on 2009 Hall of Fame wise,  Tomorrow we will look back at the 2018 bbwaa hall of fame process before we open the book on 2019 on Friday.