Baseball Hall of Fame

Voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of America have until Dec. 31 to submit their Hall of Fame ballots, and the results will be announced Jan. 6.

It's not too early to stack up odds for the 2017 class, though, using past trends and exit polling of BBWAA voters as a guide.

There are no first-ballot locks in this group. There are, however, several guys who should keep their schedules clear for the July 30 induction ceremony, including a perennial HOF also-ran in his final year of eligibility. 

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Tears began flowing immediately. Like, we’re talking instantly. Hall of Fame inductions always are emotional. But this one, what a weepfest.

And it was absolutely, sniff, touching.

Careers often become sentimental journeys while we’re paying scant attention, whether you’re talking baseball, teacher or auto mechanic. The thing is, so many of us don’t even stop to realize it until you look up one day and the twilight is beginning to set in.

Baseball's Hall of Fame will open its doors to two of the most impactful hitters in recent memory when Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza enter the Cooperstown, New York, shrine Sunday.

Two of the top hitters of their generation will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame as the 2016 class.

Legendary slugger Barry Bonds has been denied a spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame thus far due to connections to performance-enhancing drugs, but the all-time home run king has no doubt that he belongs in the hallowed halls in Cooperstown, New York.

When you think Ken Griffey Jr., the first picture that pops into your mind is of the precocious young star who took the game by storm in Seattle. When it comes to Mike Piazza, it's hard not to settle on him leading the New York Mets to a Subway Series showdown against the Yankees.  

There's still a year to go before MLB will announce the 2017 Baseball Hall of Fame class, but it wouldn't be the worst idea for Tim Raines, Jeff Bagwell, Trevor Hoffman and Vladimir Guerrero to start looking into travel arrangements in upstate New York.

After we dug through the numbers—both advanced and otherwise—and examined the recent voting trends, those are the four former big leaguers who have the best odds of making it to the Hall in 2017.

The 2016 MLB Hall of Fame class has officially been announced, and this year it will be Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza joining the hallowed halls of the game's immortals.

According to BBWAA.com, Griffey picked up a record 99.3 percent of the votes in his first year of eligibility, while Piazza earned induction in his fourth year on the ballot with 83.0 percent of the vote.

While those two players were both deserving of enshrinement, there were once again a number of notable snubs, and that's what we'll focus on here.

Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza attained baseball immortality Wednesday, earning enshrinement in the Hall of Fame.

The Seattle Mariners, Los Angeles Dodgers and Miami Marlins honored the two stars:

Here are the full results from the Baseball Writers' Association of America:

SAN DIEGO — Closing is no day at the beach…but a day at the beach sure played an accidental role in developing one of the greatest closers in history.

Ah, the sands of time.