twinsfan
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Joined: 12/21/2009
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The Baseball Writers’ Association of America decided at the winter meetings to form a committee to discuss the 10-vote limit and other possible changes. I’m not terribly bothered that I stopped voting for McGriff, Smith and Trammell this year. I would prefer it to be otherwise, but a natural weeding-out process took place. Not ideal, but not necessarily unjust.
This is Trammell’s 13th year on the ballot and Smith’s 12th. Neither seems likely of ever receiving the required 75 percent for induction. McGriff has been on the ballot only four years, but has yet to receive more than 23.9 percent of the vote. If I can find room for him in the future, I will.
My greater fear, as I filled out my ballot, was that certain players would not receive 5 percent, eliminating them from future consideration by the BBWAA. I was concerned, in particular, about two players - Mussina and Jeff Kent. Mussina, in my view, is a definite Hall of Famer. Kent is worthy, too, though I am not quite as bullish on his candidacy.
Maybe my fears are unwarranted – 569 votes were cast last year, and a candidate needed only 29 to exceed the 5 percent minimum. Still, Kenny Lofton received only 18 votes, falling off the ballot in his first year of eligibility. I don’t view Lofton as a Hall of Famer. I do believe he merited longer consideration.
In any case, the 10-man limit forced me to vote strategically. Trammell was my most difficult exclusion. In the end, I dropped him to add Mussina.
I considered ways to maneuver Kent onto my ballot as well, perhaps even by dropping Edgar Martinez, knowing that Edgar is unlikely to reach 75 percent this year, anyway. I even thought about including Kent over Mussina, sensing that it might be more difficult for Kent to hit the 5 percent threshold due to his occasionally frosty dealings with the media.
In the end, though, I tried not to overthink it, and simply went with the 10 candidates I felt were most deserving. In a perfect world, yes, the BBWAA would abolish the 10-vote limit, and we could choose as many candidates as we wished. But that world does not yet exist. So I made choices, difficult choices, choices that I would have preferred to avoid.
I won’t pretend my ballot is perfect. No ballot is perfect. All voters can do is take their best shot every year. And then try again.
See the entire article by Rosenthal here:
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/how-maddux-changed-rosenthal-s-hof-voting-perspective-122613
He admits he was one of those that never voted for 1st time candidates. Weird.
He's changing that this year. He doesn't want to be the one that ruins Maddux's chances at unanimous election. He'll leave that honor to some other writer(s).
_____________________________
“We are an unserious nation that's in serious $hit.”
-Me
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