It had long been speculated that Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz would enter the Baseball Hall of Fame on their first try. Not only did that happen, but they will be joined by Craig Biggio making this the largest Hall of Fame class in sixty years.
Let’s take a look at who got in and who didn’t make the cut.
Inductees:
Randy Johnson, 1st Year, 97.3 percent. 15 voters did not choose Johnson. I would love to hear explanations from each of them as to why “The Big Unit” was not Hall of Fame worthy.
Pedro Martinez, 1st Year, 91.1 percent. No shock here, as Pedro was expected to get in right away.
John Smoltz, 1st Year, 82.9 percent. It was speculated by some that Smoltz might have to wait a year due to such a crowded ballot, but he was able to follow his closest contemporary, Dennis Eckersley as a first ballot inductee.
Craig Biggio, 4th Year, 82.7 percent. Biggio narrowly missed the cut last year, and it was a travesty that he had to wait this long.
Not Inducted:
Mike Piazza, 3rd Year, 69.9 percent. Piazza’s percentage rises seven percent from last year and is headed in the right direction. This bodes well for his future chances.
Jeff Bagwell, 5th Year, 55.7 percent. This is a marginal increase from last year, but still down from the 59 percent he received in 2013.
Tim Raines, 8th Year, 55.0 percent. Raines is poised to be the first victim of the new ten year rule, and he only has two more years to gain twenty more percentage points of the vote. The good news is that this is Raines’ highest vote total since he has been on the ballot.
Curt Schilling, 3rd Year, 39.2 percent. Schilling made a large gain from his sub 30 percent percentage from last year, but he had 38.8 percent that he had on his first year.
Roger Clemens, 3rd Year, 37.5 percent. A slight increase from last year, but basically we know the percentage that he and Barry will receive from the voters. There is little reason to think he will crack 40 percent.
Barry Bonds, 3rd Year, 36.8 percent. See Clemens, Roger.
Lee Smith, 13th Year, 30.2 percent. Smith gained 0.3 percent from last year but has been as high as 50.6 in the past. Any chance that he will have will likely have to reside on the Veterans Committee.
Edgar Martinez, 6th Year, 27.0 percent. This is Edgar’s second straight year under 30 percent after exceeding that threshold in his first four years on the ballot. This is more due to the logjam ballot, but this is still not very promising.
Alan Trammell, 14th Year, 25.1 percent. Up five percent from last year, but it won’t matter as a fifty percent jump is unheard of.
Mike Mussina, 2nd Year, 24.6 percent. A nice four percent elevation in this crowded ballot is promising for Mussina.
Jeff Kent, 2nd Year, 14.2 percent. Kent suffered a slight decrease from his 15 percent last year.
Fred McGriff, 6th Year, 12.9 percent. This is a slight increase from last year but since he had been over 20 percent in the past, this is not looking very good for his Hall of Fame chances.
Larry Walker, 5th Year, 11.8 percent. The exact same story as McGriff as he is up a bit but well under the 20 percentage points he had in previous years.
Gary Sheffield, 1st Year, 11.7 percent. Considering how the other PED guys have fared this is a minor victory for Sheffield.
Mark McGwire, 9th Year, 10.0 percent. This is the sixth year in a row that McGwire has seen his voting percentage drop. Enough said.
Don Mattingly, 15th Year, 9.1 Percent. In Mattingly’s first year on the ballot he had 28.2 percent. He would never come close again.
Sammy Sosa, 3rd Year, 6.6 percent. Sosa sees his lowest voting percentage thus far, down from the 12.2 percent he had in his first year.
Nomar Garciaparra, 1st Year, 5.5 percent. Garciaparra survives the ballot, but barely. Can he hang on again next year?
The only significant one and done name was Carlos Delgado who only received 3.8 percent of the vote.
We will be looking to revise the Baseball list to reflect the next batch of eligible players.
We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate this year’s class, and we look forward to watching their inductions in the summer.
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