Bagwell, Raines, and Rodriguez Enter the Hall
The 2017 Hall of Fame class is a party of three, and voting totals suggest the electorate is becoming more accepting and forgiving.
Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines, and Ivan Rodriguez were inducted into The National Baseball Hall of Fame on Wednesday, as results of the Baseball Writers Association of America’s voting were revealed on MLB Network.
Raines appeared on 86.0% of ballots in his last year of eligibility. His candidacy was promoted passionately by many, including former FanGraphs contributor Jonah Keri.
With Rodriguez’ induction to the Hall on his first ballot appearance — and the appearance both of Barry Bonds (53.8%) and Roger Clemens (51.8%) on more than 50% of ballots for the first time — voters appear to be softening against those suspected of and tied to PED use.
In 2016, Bonds appeared on 44.3% of ballots, Clemens 45.2%.
Yahoo’s Jeff Passan noted only three players who’ve appeared on 50% of ballots at one point have failed, later, to enter the Hall.
As for those honored Wednesday, Raines posted a .385 career OBP mark and ranks fifth all-time in steals (808). His stolen-base success rate is best among all players who recorded at least 400 attempts.
Bagwell was the 1994 NL MVP and hit 449 career homers. His 149 wRC+ ranks 20th among all hitters since 1901 to accumulate at least 8,000 plate appearances.
Rodriguez, known for his cannon of a throwing arm, won 13 straight Gold Gloves and was the 1999 AL MVP.
The following are the complete voting results:
| Player | Voting % | Year on Ballot |
|---|---|---|
| Jeff Bagwell | 86.2 | 7 |
| Tim Raines | 86.0 | 10 |
| Ivan Rodriguez | 76.0 | 1 |
| Trevor Hoffman | 74.0 | 2 |
| Vladimir Guerrero | 71.7 | 1 |
| Edgar Martinez | 58.6 | 8 |
| Roger Clemens | 54.1 | 5 |
| Barry Bonds | 53.8 | 5 |
| Mike Mussina | 51.8 | 4 |
| Curt Schilling | 45.0 | 5 |
| Lee Smith | 34.2 | 15 |
| Manny Ramirez | 24.0 | 1 |
| Larry Walker | 21.9 | 7 |
| Fred McGriff | 21.7 | 8 |
| Jeff Kent | 16.7 | 4 |
| Gary Sheffield | 13.3 | 3 |
| Billy Wagner | 10.2 | 2 |
| Sammy Sosa | 8.6 | 5 |
Vladimir Guerrero (71.7%) missed by just a few percentage points in his first year on the ballot, and Trevor Hoffman (74.0%) was one point short of induction.
Next year’s class could be a group of four if Guerrero and Hoffman gain a few more votes, as both Chipper Jones and Jim Thome are regarded as having an excellent chance of earning first-ballot admittance to the Hall.
In addition to Jones and Thome, other 2018 first-ballot appearance notables include Andruw Jones, Scott Rolen, and Omar Vizquel.
As noted by Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci during the telecast, the total of 12 players to be inducted over the last four years represents a Hall of Fame record for a four-year period under the current voting rules.
The biggest gainer in 2017 was Edgar Martinez, who improved from 43.4% last year to 58.6% this cycle. But Martinez has a lot of ground to make up in the last two years he has remaining on the ballot. Next year will mark his ninth year of eligibility.
The biggest decline among vote-getters from last year was experienced by Curt Schilling, who dropped from 52.3% to 45.0% his year. While the ballot was crowded, and the 10-name limit has been met with plenty of criticism, Schilling could have also been hurt by his political commentary.
A Cleveland native, FanGraphs writer Travis Sawchik is the author of the New York Times bestselling book, Big Data Baseball. He also contributes to The Athletic Cleveland, and has written for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, among other outlets. Follow him on Twitter @Travis_Sawchik.
Google: Jeff Bagwell PEDS
Google: Ivan Rodriguez PEDS
Bonds and Clemens are scumbags in addition to being PED abusers.
Perhaps President Trump will award Curt Schilling the Presidential Medal of Freedom?
Google: Elvis Presley from outer space
Yes, steroid users got paid millions for cheating, won awards for cheating, now will likely be honoured for cheating. With recent news of young athletes dying from using PEDs and thinking it can’t hurt, condoning PED cheaters looks even worse.
Maybe he will grant Roger Clemency.
Or Bond with Barry.
Buy Barry Bonds
I don’t agree with Schilling’s views at all but I’m sorry to see some voters counting his statements against his Hall of Fame candidacy.
The chart shows that 55% of the voters are human garbage.
Any baseball shrine without Pete Rose and Curt Schilling is unworthy of being recognized.
“55% of the voters are human garbage”
You have some serious issues.
Just to clarify your trollish position:
PEDs rumor (no positive tests) = no HOF
Betting against the team you actively managed = OK for HOF
Seems odd to me that Curt would choose Jimmie Foxx as his Fangraphs handle, but I’m also now thankful users can’t post memes in the comments.
Based on what I have read/listened to it’s not his alt-right views that made him lose points this year it was as meme he posted this fall stating that journalists should be hung from trees.
Naturally the Baseball Writers of America did not take to kindly to that and thus some took a one year abstinence from Curt. I think his votes will be back up again next year.
Curt Schilling is a First Ballot HOF pitcher. That’s not an opinion, it’s a fact. John Smoltz First Ballot election provides the proof as Schilling is clearly better.
Curt Schilling’s recent tweets have nothing to do with his not being in the HOF. Schilling has held himself out as a very Conservative Republican for many years. The majority of voters have made it plain they aren’t going to enshrine him in Cooperstown for this reason. The fact they lie about this proves they are human garbage.
One of the enshrined members of the Baseball writers in Cooperstown is BILL CONLIN.
Google: Bill Conlin pedophile
Your idea of a fact is wrong, apparently. I’d also suggest calming down.
Google: Curt Schilling public money
Kind of makes you pine for the simpler days of Free_AEC…
(I never thought I would make that comment.)
For whatever reason, I don’t see Thome getting in first ballot. If a guy like Vlad, who has very wide appeal, doesn’t get in first year, I see Thome just missing.
Chipper will be a lock. I can see him eclipsing 90%.
I think Vlad’s just missing this year bodes well for Thome next year. They had similar 1 and 7 year peaks looking at WAR, but Thome has more appeal for “traditionalists” with the greater edge on counting stats (HR, RBI)
Chipper Jones will get in next year, and all these players may too:
Clemens, Bonds, Martinez, Ramirez, Thome, Hoffman, Mussina, Schilling.
These players will get more love from voters than expected: Andruw Jones, Vizquel, Scott Rolen, Fred McGriff, Sosa, Wagner.
Vlad Guerrero may not get in with how voting changes are going. His best chance is that baseball voters who understand baseball and facts will hold sway and that “no 1st balloters” will wake up and fix their error.
I think it’s important to note that it is not Schilling’s political commentary that drove down his vote total. It was his choice to retweet a picture of a man in a shirt that “jokingly” called for journalists to be hanged. Even in 2016, that kind of joking veiled threat doesn’t constitute an actual political position.
Agreed. I think it is perfectly reasonable for some of the Baseball Writers of America to take a stand against promoting harm to journalists. If there is a long-term effect from it over the next few years (there wont be) he always has the Era committees (who are not all journalists) who can vote him in.
Schilling is never going into the HOF unless the Baseball Writers group is cleaned out, the bone scraped with a scalpel. These are the same scum that refer to most of the USA as “Fly over territory” and were 100% in agreement with Hillary when she labeled two thirds of the geographic area of the USA to be inhabited by “Deplorables”, which goes a long way to explaining why most of this geographic area looks like they are apart of a country that lost all the wars they fought since the early 1940’s.
Okay Curt, that’s enough for now.
Trevor Hoffman as almost-1st-ballot HOF when a) Edgar Martinez (also a “weird” position for the voters) is significantly lower after a number of years and b) Lee Smith is now off the list after 15 years kind of perplexes me.
Mannnnnnn Larry Walker’s vote total bums me out.
Walker should have snorted coke, shot himself up with HGH and Andro, gave an interview with the New Yorker that made it clear that he holds an extremely strong negative racial attitude against another group of Americans and also committed statutory rape against a teenage girl while married (she later killed herself).
If Walker had done all this he would have gone in as the first unanimous selection ever.
2018=C.Jones,Thome,Hoffman and Guerrero
2019=Rivera and E. Martinez
2020=Jeter and possibly Bonds/Clemens
2021=Mussina and Bonds/Clemens if they don’t make it in 2020.
I made a 20 year projection model and it amazed me how quickly the ballot opens up in 2020 and 2021
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WRMzbOP0iZTuBvcSPgG1_09RGzeClPfJX9mgy58FIxo/edit?usp=sharing