After 2 weeks of multiple health screens and asking everyone to quarantine, I surprised my closest inner circle with a trip to a private island where we could pretend things were normal just for a brief moment in time.
Going to go re-introduce myself to my children for a while. Thank you all for following. I hope you enjoyed this Hall season as much as I did.
Congratulations, Scott Rolen!
I'm taking a year off of baseball. I realized that it's probably unhealthy to give so much of my attention and brain space to something that, these days, only makes me feel some combination of sad and angry. Fuck you, John Fisher.
See you in November.
Ballot
#114
is from first-time voter David Skretta. He submits a blank ballot. In his email, David wrote, "Those that I believe performed at a Hall of Fame level on the field did not reach that threshold in such areas as character and integrity."
Tracker:
We asked 31 experts last January to guess where Mauer would finish his first year on the ballot. The responses: 23, 27, 35, 40, 40, 40, 42, 45, 46, 53, 54, 55, 55, 56, 60, 60, 61, 61, 62, 64, 65, 65, 65, 65, 66, 68, 68, 70, 70, 76 and 79%.
Mauer is currently tracking at 84.3%.
I'm still shaking, but here's what happens on our end next:
- We take a short break.
- We update the sheet with all the actual results, pre/post/private data, etc.
- We add a whole bunch more ballots from now on through to the big BBWAA ballot reveal 2/5.
- YOU DON'T UNFOLLOW!
In case we get busy in the last couple hours, I just want to say thanks to you all for following our work. Thanks
@baseballhall
for letting us do it. Thanks to all in the
@officialBBWAA
for tolerating me. Thanks
@tonycal93
,
@ShutTheDore
, and
@jmdevivo
for your amazing work.
We think we'll see a couple of more last minute ballots, but before we get there, let me say thank you to all the
@officialBBWAA
voters who've shared ballots and to
@baseballhall
for letting us have all this fun.
Thank you to all of you for following the Tracker, Season 11. 🙏
Ballot
#1
is from Adam Rubin. Gary Sheffield, in his final year of eligibility on the BBWAA ballot, gains a vote and is +1. First-year candidates Adrián Beltré, Chase Utley and David Wright receive Rubin's vote.
In the Tracker:
Speaking of free agents, I've decided to try rooting for the Mariners in the AL and the Padres in the NL this season. I'll re-evaluate my relationship with the A's as events (such as a shovel in the ground for a new Oakland stadium) warrant. Happy baseball!
After hundreds of hours of deep contemplation, I have settled on my rooting interest rankings for the remainder of the season and playoffs:
1. Mariners
2. Semiens
3. White Sox
4. Atlanta
5. Rays
6. Brewers
7. Astros
8+. Yankees/Red Sox/Giants/Dodgers/Cardinals
There were 51 10-player ballots revealed last year out of 333 total public ballots.
There are 51 10-player ballots among the first 103 revealed this year.
Seems like a good day to let my Seattle friends know that thanks to an incredibly generous invitation from
@Kevin_Martinez
and the Mariners, I'll be at the games 8/9 and 8/10 to celebrate Edgar's HOF induction. I absolutely can't wait. (And there's more to say later, too. 👀)
I heard the concerns about the ownership group and their unwillingness to spend in Oakland. I believe that will be different in Las Vegas. There will be additional accountability to the Stadium Authority Board and we will have the best community benefits agreement in the country.
Fun fact: Scott Rolen, Todd Helton, and Billy Wagner are all exactly 20% above where they were at the 130 ballot mark last year.
Rolen: 48.5% -> 68.5%
Helton: 35.4% -> 55.4%
Wagner: 31.5% -> 51.5%
I don't know if it will continue to be a busy ballot day or not, but allow me to take a moment to say thank you to
@baseballhall
and
@officialBBWAA
for allowing the ballot tracker project to exist and to
@tonycal93
and
@ShutTheDore
for the endless help and lively Slack chatting!
Just here with a note of appreciation for Marcus Semien. He had a better season this year than 6-time All Star and 2002 MVP Miguel Tejada ever had, but Semien wasn't an All-Star, didn't win a Gold Glove, didn't win a Silver Slugger, &won't win MVP. Still, he was friggin' great.
Ballot
#2
is from a voter who wishes to remain anonymous. Joe Mauer receives his first vote as a Hall of Fame candidate and Adrián Beltré his second.
In the Tracker's Anonymous section: