On Wednesday, the Baseball Writers Association of America will announce the National Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2011. There's no telling how the results will shake out, but after seeing how the voters have gone the last few years, one thing's for sure: they'll get it wrong.
Roberto Alomar missed induction by eight votes last year, and Bert Blyleven fell just five ballots short. In 2009, Jim Rice earned enshrinement while Tim Raines is still waiting for his turn. And some of the best players of our generation will never reach immortality because of PEDs. Whether or not you agree with the BBWAA, it's easy to understand why others don't.
With voters like Dan Graziano and Terence Moore already saying preposterous things like that they didn't vote for Jeff Bagwell because they have unfounded hunches that he took steroids, it looks like this year's election has the potential to again exude massive amounts of stupidity.
So Bleacher Report's Featured Columnists decided to take it upon ourselves to decide who gets into the Hall of Fame. Forty-two writers checked off their ballots for a mock Hall of Fame vote, the results of which are in this slideshow.
We played by the same rules as the real BBWAA. Each voter could name up to 10 of the 33 eligible players. Candidates needed at least 75 percent (32 votes) to make it into Cooperstown, while five percent (three votes) was necessary to remain on the ballot for 2012.
In addition to the full results (listed at the end), we've featured the 17 players who received at least three votes with arguments from both people who supported them and those who didn't explain their votes. The result, we hope, is a thorough analysis of each candidate's strengths, weaknesses, and chances for induction.
So read on and be sure to tell us what we got wrong!
- Login to post comments