• Percentage results have been added, both actual and public only
• Total number of votes cast by each voter has been added
• I tried to make it look a little less ugly, but didn’t really succeed.

The actual results and public ballot results were pretty close in most cases, which is nice. There were some exceptions, of course.

• Lots of people who don’t make their ballots public love Don Mattingly. He got 17.8% of the total vote but just under 10% from the public ballots.
• Jack Morris was on 58.7% of public ballots, and 66.7% total ballots.
• Tim Raines was the opposite of Morris. He was on 57.14% of public ballots and 48.7% total ballots.

Tim Raines received 37.5% of the total vote last year, so I was really happy to see him gain 10%. It means he will probably hang on through the crazy ballot time coming up and has a real chance to get voted in by the writers at some point.

You can check out the final version of everything here. If work stops kicking my ass I’ll see if I can figure out anything fun to do with it in the next few days.

Here’s the link to the tracker itself — I’ll be putting up a link for it in the header as well in case this post gets buried.

As a warning, if you tag along on Twitter I post a lot about my cats and other non-baseball stuff.

[Juan] Gonzalez: A two-time MVP and an RBI machine. Like Jim Rice, the American League’s most-feared hitter at his peak.

This is pressing all my buttons at once. I am so annoyed at reading this sentence that I have to right about why.

First off, Gonzalez’s MVPs were terrible and he should have not won them if the award means “Best Player in the League” and not “Dude Who Hit Homeruns in Texas”. Check out the voting billboard on B-R: 1996, 1998. His winning two MVPs has irked me basically since it happened and is one of those things that just makes me irritation irritated.

Next let’s say Gonzalez’s peak was from 1993-1999. His line during that time was , .307/.356/.599 which is really good even if you take into account Arlington. It’s important to note that he was good.

Now let’s take a look at some people hitting in the American League at the same time as Juan Gonzalez. This is just an off the top of my head list sampling.

Gonzalez winds up in the middle of the pack here, which is certainly excellent company but by any measure he’s not the best hitter of the group. “Most feared” then does not mean “best hitter” (which we already knew). In that case, what does it mean? Does it mean he was intentionally walked the most because pitchers and managers were so scared of him that they refused to throw him anything to hit? From 1993-1999 Gonzalez was intentionally walked 55 times. Edgar Martinez who missed much of 1993 and a big chunk of 1994 due to injuries was walked 56 times in the same time period.

Calling someone “most feared” really means–as far as I can tell–that you want to say someone a really good hitter, but can’t call him the best because it’s clearly not true and need to come up with some way of saying that he was really good with a bit of extra impact. That’s silly, Juan Gonzalez was an excellent hitter during his peak and doesn’t need any kind of silly mythos to emphasize that. Especially when you want me to believe that pitchers would rather face Ken Griffey or Frank Thomas rather than Gonzalez. That’s without even considering that it’s a ridiculous question to pose anyway because who would want to face any of these guys??

I’m not even going to touch “RBI machine” because it’ll cause my brain to explode.

Here’s a link to the spreadsheet, and here’s an embed:

Per usual if you find any ballots please let me know, I am bound to miss some even with news and blog searches and Google alerts. I appreciate your help, kind audience.

As a reward I will highlight the worst ballots that I come across.

Marty Noble – Barry Larkin, Dave Parker

You may say that he got one out of two right, I would say that it is ridiculous to think only two people on the ballot deserve induction and that one of them is Dave Parker. This ballot simply doesn’t make sense in any context. Small hall? Then probably neither of them should be included. Big hall? If your Hall is big enough for Dave Parker it should have half the people on the ballot and you’d run out of votes.

The Jack Morris but no Bert Blyleven Crew

Murray Chass, Jon Heyman, Bruce Jenkins, Danny Knobler, Buster Olney, Dan Shaughnessy, Joel Sherman and Tom Verducci all voted for Jack Morris but not Bert Blyleven. If you don’t think Bert is a Hall of Fame pitcher and don’t buy the arguments of people like Rich Lederer that’s fine.We all have different ideas about what the cutoff for the Hall should be. But if you don’t think Bert belongs then there is absolutely no way that Jack Morris should be one.

Bert outclasses Morris in every important pitching category. Rate states, counting stats, you name it. Not even the fancy things that Shaughnessy thinks suck out all the joy of the game. The only thing he doesn’t have is a 10 inning Game 7 of the World Series shut out. On the other hand, he also doesn’t have two horrible losses in the 1992 World Series like Jack Morris.

The worst part about people citing the post season appearances Morris had is that they completely ignore what Blyleven did.

If Morris gets a boost for his postseason pitching, which was pretty similar except for one game to his regular season pitching than so should Bert. Maybe Jon Heyman’s eyes were closed when Blyleven was in the games, I don’t know.

Jack Morris was a good pitcher and had a good career and I really don’t want to take anything away from him, but it’s like saying you’d pick Andy Pettitte for your team instead of Mike Mussina. Then again I expect to be annoyed at people voting for Andy and not Moose in the future.

The Jay Mariotti Idiot Achievement Award

Jay Mariotti is an attention whore, I get that. This year he decided to play attention whore and send in a blank ballot. I don’t really have an issue with blank ballots as a concept. There are people who want to vote for no-one and have their ballot count because they’re very small hall type guys, for example. But Mariotti decided to use his 2010 ballot as something to get people to pay attention to him.

Now, the baseball gods can strike me down, Reali, but guess what? I didn’t vote for anybody in the baseball hall of fame this year. Ya know why?  To me…the first ballot is sacred. I think Roberto Alomar is an eventual Hall of Famer, not the first time. Edgar Martinez, designated hitter, eventually, but not the first time. Same goes for maybe Fred McGriff. As far as Blyleven and Dawson…if they haven’t gotten in for years and years I cannot vote them in now. Ripken, Rickey Henderson and Gwynn. They are true first ballot Hall of Famers, but I didn’t vote for anybody, throw me out of the Baseball Writers. I don’t care.

Last year he voted for Blyleven and Dawson, so what changed between now and then? Well enough people weren’t looking at him, I guess and he needed to do something to change that. The BBWAA should take his ballot away. He wants to get kicked out or whatever and they absolutely should comply with that. He can tell the world he got kicked out but then he can’t pull stupid stunts like this anymore.

They probably won’t, however, so he’ll continue to use things like this as an opportunity to get people to pay attention to him. It’s a shame.

For my own crazy purposes, I keep track of the Hall of Fame ballots that are made public by writers every year. You can see the crazy nerdsheet here.

This year, the shocking thing that happened was the difference between the support between online voters and whoever it is with a vote that doesn’t make their ballot public (which is a lot of people, once you have a Hall of Fame vote you have it forever) for Roberto Alomar. I expected a difference in Bert Blyleven for sure and I was disappointed that he missed it by five ballots but Andre Dawson going in by himself was a shock.

So here are some ugly graphs covering the vote over the past two years. I’ll probably write up my oh-so important thought on this later. They’re kinda big so the full-size versions are linked. I may also make the graphs less ugly!

Comparison of return candidates and their vote totals 2009 and 2010.

]]> http://teamnerdrage.com/2010/01/06/2010-baseball-hall-of-fame-results-with-ugly-graphs/feed/ 1 http://teamnerdrage.com/2009/01/12/swimming-in-dangerous-waters-finding-the-worst-hall-of-fame-ballots/ http://teamnerdrage.com/2009/01/12/swimming-in-dangerous-waters-finding-the-worst-hall-of-fame-ballots/#comments Mon, 12 Jan 2009 17:01:20 +0000 leokitty http://teamnerdrage.com/?p=1090 Most ballots for the Hall of Fame are meh. There are a lot of dumb decisions that are only mildly offensive such as voting for Jack Morris and not Bert Blyleven like Buster Olney, not voting for Bert Blyleven, etc. There are some writers who go with big ballots and vote for people they don’t necessarily believe should actually be in the Hall, but rather deserve consideration and this is a fine and not aggravating at all viewpoint. You get to pick ten players, after all. Even if you’re a “small hall” person who believes only the Mantles, Ruths and Koufaxes of the world should be in there it’s hard to get mad at this approach. However, each year there are just some really bad ballots. Here are the worst of the ~60 that I dug up:

Pedro Gomez – Jay Bell, Andre Dawson, Rickey Henderson, Dave Parker, Jim Rice, Alan Trammell

Gomez gets a mention because he voted for Jay Bell, which is terrible. But Pedro Gomez is a pretty terrible sports reporter whether or not he’s stalking Barry Bonds so this isn’t surprising. Other than Trammell and Parker his ballot is just what the cool kids are doing in the BBWAA with Dawson and Rice.

Bruce Jenkins – Rickey Henderson, Don Mattingly, Mark McGwire, Jack Morris, Jim Rice

Sometimes I feel like I should just include everyone who votes for Jack Morris on terrible ballots list, because like Jenkins they always justify him like this:

Defined the type of toughness lacking in so many starting pitchers today. He would have laughed at pitch counts, had they existed. Big winner who finished games (133 times) and was especially good in the postseason. Yes. And I’d love to see a “no” voter try to look Morris in the eye.

You don’t vote a pitcher into the Hall of Fame because he’s “tough” and if you honestly think he’s tougher than the guys pitching on the mound today, you live in nostalgia land. He also ignores the fact that something similar to a pitchcount has pretty much always been utilized except in extreme crazy circumstances (Charlie Dressen with Ralph Branca for example, which led to disaster), but I guess keeping pitchers healthy is secondary to proving how tough they are.

I also love that he uses the number of complete games Morris threw as some super-plus while some other guy on the ballot named Bert threw a lot more. He also got the number wrong, but that’s ok because stats are stupid anyway in Jenkins-land.

Michael Knisley – Rickey Henderson, Lee Smith

Even if you are a small hall guy this ballot is ridiculous because the other guy on it is Lee Smith. This was posted in ESPN’s megaballot so I don’t know the reasoning but I’m going to assume it is as horrible as the ballot itself. It probably involves “saves” and “a lot of them”.

Corky Simpson – Bert Blyleven, Andre Dawson, Tommy John, Don Mattingly, Jim Rice, Alan Trammell, Matt Williams

I am not going to pick on Corky for leaving off Rickey Henderson because he is 88 and I really do believe him when he says that he missed his name on the ballot. He belongs here, however, for his rant against McGwire for steroids and subsequent vote for Matt Williams. Even without that, voting for Matt Williams is equivalent to voting for Jay Bell. Sorry, Corky.

Dave Van Dyck – Andre Dawson, Rickey Henderson, Tommy John, Lee Smith

This is another head-scratcher. At first glance it appears to be a guy who is on the small hall boat but then you notice that three of the four are borderline at best (don’t try to talk me into Dawson, it won’t work).  He doesn’t even give the reasoning for leaving people off but his reasons for including them are:

Andre Dawson: The consummate pro, a rare six-tool player (counting clubhouse charisma) who could run and throw and hit for power, his 1987 MVP season with the Cubs was the decade’s best.

His 1987 season was actually pretty terrible in retrospect and he won on the Dingers Fallacy. I’m not sure what you could look at in that season (outside of home runs) and come away with “wow that was really the best season in all of the 1980s”. Is is the .328 OBP???

Tommy John: He won 288 games, despite spending parts of his careers (pre- and post-surgery) as a reliever. His guinea-pig historic elbow procedure is another reason for inclusion.

Wins. I hate wins. But if we’re going to talk about them that’s an average of 11 or so wins a season over his 26 years. Oh but yes he won 20 games three times, the most important thing a starting pitcher can do. Tommy John is a borderline guy who they should probably find some space for because of the surgery that bears his name but he is not a clear shot because of 288 wins.

Lee Smith: In his day, he was nearly as feared as Gossage when he sauntered — and Smitty never did anything quickly, except finish games — in from the bullpen. Those 478 saves speak for themselves.

Yes if wins weren’t enough there’s fear and saves. What can you do but shake your head.

The results are announced in 90 minutes or so, and then I’ll be done being angry for a while (maybe).

ESPN Writers Ballot

Buster Olney: Rickey Henderson, Jim Rice, Andre Dawson, Jack Morris, Mark McGwire.

Brendan Roberts: Rickey Henderson, Bert Blyleven, Tim Raines, Mark McGwire, Lee Smith.

Howard Bryant: Rickey Henderson, Jim Rice, Bert Blyleven, Andre Dawson.

Jim Caple: Rickey Henderson, Jim Rice, Bert Blyleven, Andre Dawson, Jack Morris, Tim Raines, Mark McGwire, Alan Trammell.

Jerry Crasnick: Rickey Henderson, Jim Rice, Bert Blyleven, Andre Dawson, Jack Morris, Tim Raines.

Jayson Stark: Rickey Henderson, Jim Rice, Bert Blyleven, Andre Dawson, Jack Morris, Tim Raines, Mark McGwire, Dale Murphy.

Michael Knisley: Rickey Henderson, Lee Smith.

Peter Gammons: Rickey Henderson, Jim Rice, Bert Blyleven, Jack Morris, Tim Raines, Alan Trammell.

Pedro Gomez: Rickey Henderson, Jim Rice, Andre Dawson, Alan Trammell, Lee Smith, Jay Bell (ahaha WHAT?).

Tim Kurkijan: Rickey Henderson, Jim Rice, Bert Blyleven, Andre Dawson, Jack Morris, Tim Raines, Mark McGwire, Alan Trammell, Lee Smith.

TJ Quinn: Rickey Henderson, Jim Rice, Bert Blyleven, Andre Dawson, Jack Morris, Dave Parker.

It includes my absolute favorite “bad” ballot of the year in Dave Van Dyck. Look for him bellow, here’s the listing with links to their reasoning.

Mark Gonzales: Bert Blyleven, Rickey Henderson, Jim Rice

Teddy Greenstein: Bert Blyleven, Andre Dawson, Rickey Henderson, Don Mattingly, Jim Rice, Lee Smith

Phil Hersh: Andre Dawson, Rickey Henderson, Don Mattingly, Jim Rice, Lee Smith, Alan Trammell

Dan McGrath: Bert Blyleven, Andre Dawson, Rickey Henderson, Jack Morris, Jim Rice

Fred Mitchell: Bert Blyleven, Andre Dawson, Rickey Henderson, Tommy John, Jack Morris, Tim Raines, Jim Rice, Lee Smith

Phil Rogers: Harold Baines, Bert Blyleven, Andre Dawson, Mark Grace, Rickey Henderson, Jack Morris, Jim Rice, Tim Raines, Alan Trammell

Paul Sullivan: Harold Baines, Andre Dawson, Rickey Henderson, Tim Raines, Lee Smith

Dave Van Dyck: Andre Dawson, Rickey Henderson, Tommy John, Lee Smith

Bob Verdi: Bert Blyleven, Andre Dawson, Rickey Henderson, Jack Morris, Jim Rice, Lee Smith

I think it’s interesting to look at this spread because it’s different from many of the folks we’ve seen such as Ken Davidoff who are pretty much expected to vote for folks such as Bert Blyleven. It’s disheartening because this is probably more representative of the BBWAA as a whole and it paints somewhat of a bleak picture for Blyleven’s candidacy. I haven’t taken a look at all the pick justification articles soon–I’ll probably put the best of everything into a post by itself within the next week.

In case you’ve missed it: Here’s where you can find all the votes I’ve found.

Here is his ballot:

* Bert Blyleven
* Andre Dawson
* Tommy John
* Don Mattingly
* Tim Raines
* Jim Rice
* Alan Trammell

I don’t mean to be cruel to an old man (he is 88!) but how can you leave Rickey Henderson off your ballot?

I did some additional research and found that he’s listed as a member of the BBWAA writing for the Tuscon Citizen (thank you, Diamondbacks media guide). Corky Simpson is the man who infamously voted Alabama #1 every week in the NCAAF poll but I can’t tell if it’s the same guy. I admittedly didn’t know why that was a huge deal but I found this in an old CNNSI mailbag:

Who knows? If the Bulldogs win it all, Waddell could be a latter-day version of Corky Simpson, the AP football voter who chose Alabama No. 1 every week of the 1992 season. Not one other voter picked the Crimson Tide No. 1 that year — until Alabama upset Miami in the Sugar Bowl to win the national title.

The funny thing? The legendary Simpson was (and still is) a columnist for the Tucson Citizen, home paper of the currently No. 1-ranked Arizona Wildcats

I don’t think he’s right about not voting for Rickey, however. The worst thing is that there’s not even any fun reasoning, it’s just sort of there:

Others honored with nomination this year and who may well be voted into the Hall of Fame, include Harold Baines, Jay Bell, David Cone, Ron Gant, Mark Grace, Rickey Henderson, Jack Morris, Dale Murphy, Jesse Orosco, Dave Parker, Dan Plesac, Lee smith, Greg Vaughn and Mo Vaughn.

Oh, ok. I guess Rickey Henderson may well be voted into the Hall of Fame. That’s cool.