Mathguy64 said:
Farmer posted this in the HOF thread.
Voting Update:
Public Ballots: 154
Anonymous/Unverifiable Ballots: 10
% of Ballots Known: 42.7%
Last Updated: 1/16/24 at 07:59 PST
Adrin Beltr 98.8%
Joe Mauer 82.9%
Todd Helton 82.9%
Billy Wagner 79.3%
Gary Sheffield 75.0%
--75%--
Andruw Jones 72.0%
Carlos Beltrn 66.5%
Chase Utley 44.5%
lex Rodrguez 40.2%
So can anyone alive explain to me why Chase Utley has 44.5% of the vote and Berkman got 5 votes?
Anyone?
Berkman's problem was the first ballot he was on. Let's look over who else was on that ballot.
Remember if I'm Joe Baseball voter, I've got 10 votes to cast here.
Berkman vs. Mariano Rivera: Rivera got 100% of the vote. That's 1 of my votes
Berkman vs. Roy Halladay: This is the first vote Halladay was in after his untimely death in 2017. No way I' not voting for him, I'll look like a monster. That's 2 of my votes
Berkman vs. Edgar Martinez: It was Martinez's 10th year of eligibility. The guy hit .312 with a .933 OPS for his CAREER. The push to get him in was real. That's 3 of my votes.
Berkman vs.
Mike Mussina: Mussina won 270 games, 7 gold gloves and was a 5-time all-star and played hihis entire career on the East Coast in the limelight of the AL East That's 4 of my votes
The next bunch of guys were all tied up in the steroid realm - Curt Schilling, Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds. All three were in their 7th year of eligibility. If you think they should't get in because of the steroids, I'm cool with that. But I cannot look myself in the mirror and think that Lance Berkman was better than any of those three guys. That gets me to 7 of my votes used up.
Berkman vs. Larry Walker. Yes, he's a Colorado guy, but he was a fantastic player before he got to Colorado, finishing in the top 10 MVP voting 3 times before.Colorado, then winning one while he was there. And unlike Berkman, he was a mofo on defense, with a cannon for an arm. Larry Walker had a better career than Lance Berkman, so that's 8 of my votes used up.
Berkman vs. Omar Vizquel, who is the 2nd greatest defensive shortstop of al time behind Ozzie. Vizquel sucked ass early on on offense, but then he became a force and wound up with 2,877 career hits and 404 stolen bases. He also won 11 Gold Gloves at an incredibly difficult position. Vizquel had a better career than Lance, so that's 9 of my votes used up.
So I've got 1 vote left at this point for the other 26 guys on the ballot:
Let's just look at the hitters that finished ahead of Berkman in voting:
Fred McGriff, Manny Ramirez, Jeff Kent, Scott Rolen, Todd Helton, Gary Sheffield, Sammy Sosa, Andruw Jones, Michael Young, Miguel Tejada.
10 guys, and Lance makes 11. Here is how he rates on key stats among those 11.
Games played: 11th
Runs scored: 10th
Hits: 11th
Home Runs: 8th
RBI: 10th
He had great slash numbers 4th in that bunch in average and 3rd in OPS.. But people vote for the HOF on your body of work, and Lance hung it up earlier than most.
Throw int he fact that you had pitchers like Billy Wagner and Andy Petitte also competing for that vote and you see how he got so few. It's not fair, but it's the way that the Hall has always been decided. I would suspect he'll get in with that Veterans Committee at some point down the road.
