December is traditionally the Hot Stove season in baseball. In cold winters past, fans would gather around the wood-burning stove and listen to radio broadcasts of their favorite team’s signings. But December is also when the Baseball Writers’ Association of America sends out ballots to its members to vote on potential new entrants to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. Writers will hopefully fulfill their duty to elect deserving candidates, who will be officially announced on January 22, 2019. The formal induction ceremony is in Cooperstown, NY on July 21, 2019.
While we don’t have an official ballot, the writers (and readers) here at Outfield Fly Rule have annually put out a series of posts and articles detailing who we would vote for if we did have a ballot. It’s a fun exercise that helps pass the time in the offseason (and helps fill empty pages). Here are the players eligible on the 2019 MLB Hall of Fame Ballot:
Returning Hall of Fame Eligible Players (Years on Ballot)
- Edgar Martinez (10)
- Fred McGriff (10)
- Larry Walker (9)
- Roger Clemens (7)
- Barry Bonds (7)
- Curt Schilling (7)
- Sammy Sosa (7)
- Mike Mussina (6)
- Jeff Kent (6)
- Gary Sheffield (5)
- Billy Wagner (4)
- Manny Ramirez (3)
- Omar Vizquel (2)
- Scott Rolen (2)
- Andruw Jones (2)
First Time Hall of Fame Eligible Players
- Mariano Rivera
- Roy Halladay
- Todd Helton
- Andy Pettitte
- Lance Berkman
- Roy Oswalt
- Miguel Tejada
- Placido Polanco
- Kevin Youkilis
- Derek Lowe
- Freddy Garcia
- Vernon Wells
- Ted Lilly
- Travis Hafner
- Jason Bay
- Michael Young
- Jon Garland
- Darren Oliver
- Juan Pierre
- Rick Ankiel
The ballot also leads to entertaining, informative, and often contentious discussions as to what makes a Hall of Fame player. Clearly, people aren’t going to mistake Placido Polanco or Rick Ankiel or Travis Hafner for all time greats (although, Hafner received not one, but TWO votes from readers). Players like Chipper Jones or Greg Maddux need no discussion and are clear Hall of Fame players, no matter what a few idiot writers may say when ‘taking a stand’. But guys like Fred McGriff and Scott Rolen and Lance Berkman? Those are bubble guys who are certainly worth discussing, and that’s the role that writers should be filling. But I digress.
Currently, according to Ryan Thibodeaux’s Hall of Fame Vote Tracker, Mariano Rivera, Roy Halladay, and Edgar Martinez are trending as locks for election. Mike Mussina and Curt Schilling are trending above the 75% required for election, but not so comfortably above that their election is expected. Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds are floating just below the threshold needed for election.
In this year’s exercise, the staff at OFR, in conjunction with a composite readers’ ballot, have elected eight players to the MLB Hall of Fame for 2019. Those players are:
- Andruw Jones
- Mariano Rivera
- Roy Halladay
- Roger Clemens
- Barry Bonds
- Larry Walker
- Curt Schilling
- Mike Mussina
Surprisingly, former Atlanta Brave Fred McGriff missed out, appearing on fewer ballots than expected. Even our readers, who favor the Braves and tend to be less analytically inclined than the writers, only managed to list McGriff on 73% of the readers’ ballots. Andruw Jones made it on just 75% of the readers’ ballots, while he was a unanimous choice among the writers. Joining Jones as a unanimous choice among OFR writers were Halladay, Clemens, Bonds, Walker, Schilling, and Mussina. Scott Rolen likely would have been elected if the ballot was not clogged with all-time greats needing election (I’m looking at you, BBWAA members).
Over the next several days, each writer will publish a piece with their reasoning and rationale for each choice. Dylan Short explained his choices on the most recent Platinum Sombrero Podcast (arguably the most informative Braves-centric podcast available…definitely worth following/subscribing), a podcast he co-hosts with Doc Herbert of Talking Chop.
So, what are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter (@OFRSports) who should or should not have been voted in. You can also weigh in the conversation on our Facebook group.
Schilling,Rivera, Halliday, Mussina, Rolen, Martinez