2015 Hall of Fame - preview

The BBWAA ballot for 2015 induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame is out. As I did last year, I’m going to publish my ballot in three stages.  First I will evaluate all the former Red Sox players.  I will focus on new additions to the ballot as I already assessed the holdover candidates in last year’s column. I will then do the same for players of interest to Canadians – either those who were born in the Great White North, or played in Canada, as I did last year. Finally I will publish my ballot by completing it by adding other deserving candidates.  




Here are the names on the ballot, alphabetically: Returning candidates are indicated by showing the % votes they received last year.

Red Sox
   Jeff Bagwell (54%)
   Tony Clark
   Roger Clemens (35%)
   Cliff Floyd
   Nomar Garciaparra
   Tom Gordon
   Pedro Martinez
   Curt Schilling (29%)
   Lee Smith (30%)
   John Smoltz

Canadian Connections
   Roger Clemens (35%)
   Carlos Delgado
   Cliff Floyd
   Randy Johnson
   Jeff Kent (15%)
   Edgar Martinez (25%)
   Pedro Martinez
   Fred McGriff (12%)
   Tim Raines (46%)
   Larry Walker (10%)

The Rest
   Rich Aurilia
   Craig Biggio (74.8%)
   Barry Bonds (35%)
   Aaron Boone
   Jermaine Dye
   Darin Erstad
   Brian Giles
   Eddie Guardado
   Don Mattingly (8%)
   Mark McGwire (11%)
   Mike Mussina (20%)
   Troy Percival
   Mike Piazza (62%)
   Jason Schmidt
   Gary Sheffield
   Sammy Sosa  (7%)
   Alan Trammell (21%)

Just taking a quick glance I can already see 12-15 players I would put into the Hall.  Once again, it will be tough to keep my ballot to 10.  Stay tuned as I update my ballot over the next couple of weeks.

Madison Bumgarner did NOT win Game 7

(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

And eventually, MLB got it right and fixed the scoring mistake.  I suspect their "mistake" was fully intentional.  Anyhow, before they fixed it I posted an article on my scoring blog.  Check it out if you were as confused as I was as to how he could get the win, when Jeremy Affeldt was the pitcher of record when they took the lead.

Postseason walkoff errors

After the Giants won Game 3 of the NLCS on a walkoff error, there was a lot of misinformation and confusion about the last postseason walkoff error. Most people didn't realize that just last year, the Middlebrooks obstruction play was, in fact, scored as an error.  So that inspired me to write a post on my Scoring Rules blog about how obstruction is scored.  At the end of that article, I also put a short description and link to all the postseason walk off error games. Thought that might be of interest to a wider audience, so I'm reposting that part of it here.

List of all postseason games ending in a walkoff error:

1914 WS Game 3 Braves 5 – A’s 4 – almost exactly 100 years ago, R1,R2 and the pitcher made a throwing error in the 12th on a bunt, trying to get the lead runner at 3rd, who scored on the play.  I tried to put up a video clip, but apparently whoever videotaped this game didn't have the foresight to upload it to Youtube.

2014 American League Awards

Every year I get to cast a vote towards the Boston Chapter of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance annual awards.  I usually post my ballot here ahead of time, with lengthy explanations defending my vote.   I was a little late this year, and although I was able to cast my ballot ahead of the deadline, did not have time to post my ballot here.

So.. without further commentary, here were my votes for this year's awards.


(You may take a look at Boston Red Thoughts to see the official entry that the Boston Chapter submitted to the BBA)

Connie Mack (manager)
1 Lloyd McClendon
2 Ned Yost
3 Buck Showalter

Willie Mays (rookie)
1 Jose Abreu
2 Yordano Ventura
3 Marcus Stroman

Goose Gossage (reliever)
1 Delin Botances
2 Greg Holland
3 Andrew Miller

Walter Johnson (pitcher)
1 Corey Kluber
2 Felix Hernandez
3 Phil Hughes
4 Jon Lester
5 Chris Sale

Stan Musial (mvp)
1 Mike Trout
2 Victor Martinez
3 Corey Kluber
4 Jose Altuve
5 Robinson Cano
6 Miguel Cabrera
7 Nelson Cruz
8 Felix Hernandez
9 Adam Jones
10 Michael Brantley

Giancarlo Stanton strikesout after being removed from game

How did that happen? I explain it fully over at Baseball Scoring Rules.