The ballot for the 2014 Hall of Fame class is out.
Deadspin claims they purchased a ballot from one of the BBWAA members and are going to let a fan polling decide who the votes are for. Some are saying it makes a mockery of the voting process; others say the process is already a mockery. I say - Big Deal. It's one of some 600 ballots. One ballot isn't going to have a noticeable effect.
Others are commenting on the weakness of some of the names on the ballot. Moises Alou? Ray Durham? The thing is, you're not voting for who gets on the ballot. There are hard and fast rules about how long you played in the major leagues, and how long it's been since you retired. If you aren't worthy of being elected, you will not get enough votes to stay on the ballot, and will not get into the Hall.
Others are confused about the whole process. You can't choose more than ten players on any given ballot. But this ignores the fact that you can stay on a ballot for up to fifteen years. Surely, that's enough time to get voted in. And
tangotiger notes that (with the exception of Gil Hodges), every single player who has received at least fifty percent of the votes at some point has eventually made it into the Hall.
Joe Posnanski suggests that because of that, why not just make the voting a smaller percentage instead of the current 75%? "Make it 60%. There are many, many advantages to doing this, but the main point is that it would not CHANGE who goes into the Hall of Fame. The players would just get in there quicker and without all the unnecessary squabbling and minority filibustering."
Personally, I don't think there's anything at all wrong with the current system. You have to wait five years after retirement before appearing on the ballot, which allows a proper assessment of your career. And if you're not an obvious case, you've got as many as fifteen tries to get the required amount of votes. The sheer number of votes allows for the general consensus to rule - so the occasional "protest" vote, accidental blank ballot, or sale of voting rights isn't going to affect the outcome. The plaques in Cooperstown aren't organized by how many tries it took you to get in, or by how many votes you got.
Anyway, here's the list. You can vote for as many as ten players. Asterisks denote players on the ballot for the first time.
Moises Alou *
Jeff Bagwell
Armando Benitez *
Craig Biggio
Barry Bonds
Sean Casey *
Roger Clemens
Ray Durham *
Eric Gagne *
Tom Glavine *
Luis Gonzalez *
Jacque Jones *
Todd Jones *
Jeff Kent *
Paul Lo Duca *
Greg Maddux *
Edgar Martinez
Don Mattingly
Fred McGriff
Mark McGwire
Jack Morris
Mike Mussina *
Hideo Nomo *
Rafael Palmeiro
Mike Piazza
Tim Raines
Kenny Rogers *
Curt Schilling
Richie Sexson *
Lee Smith
J.T. Snow *
Sammy Sosa
Frank Thomas *
Mike Timlin *
Alan Trammell
Larry Walker
My votes? Bagwell, Biggio, Glavine, Maddux, Martinez, Piazza, Raines, Schilling, Thomas, and Trammel.