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It’s Hall of Fame election results day!
Wednesday’s Say Hey, Baseball includes Cooperstown election day, Ken Griffey Jr. and Bartolo Colon working out.
Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images
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It’s Hall of Fame election day! Are you excited? If you’re Ken Griffey Jr. or one of his many fans, the answer is undoubtedly “yes.” If you’re Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens or one of the dozen or so worthwhile candidates who won’t be making it this time around for one reason or another, then uh, well at least you don’t need to worry about this for another year, right? Or at all, if you’re Alan Trammell. Sorry, Alan. Both you and Lou Whitaker deserved better.
The voting system is still broken, as it limits writers to just 10 votes -- we’ve discussed this before, but making the Hall of Fame vote into a yes or no system with no cap makes a lot more sense than setting limits. Jim Edmonds will probably be the innocent victim lost this time around because of that ridiculous, unnecessary limitation. But hey, let’s not focus too much on the negative today. Let’s save that for tomorrow. Today is a happy time, when Junior Griffey will be enshrined, and maybe even Jeff Bagwell and Mike Piazza will make it, if Ryan Thibs’ tireless efforts to track public ballots have told us anything.
Tim Raines looks like he’s getting close, if it doesn’t happen this year. That’s worth celebrating, too, as Raines has long been overshadowed on the ballot despite his superiority to many players already enshrined -- including some of the players he shared ballots with. So, let’s stick with the happy attitudes for now. All-time greats are going to be inducted! This is a good thing! It’s just too bad there won’t be more of them at the podium this July.
- Remember, there is only one correct Hall of Fame ballot, and you still have a few hours to argue about it!
- Only 90s kids will understand this article about the greatness of Ken Griffey Jr.
- Eric Stephen at True Blue LA is still stinging from the Dodgers' trade of Mike Piazza.
- Not everyone is enthused about the Hall of Fame, considering its many issues. I'm not exactly jumping for joy about it, either, but you might already be aware of that.
- Here is a video of Bartolo Colon working out with ropes.
- What should it take for a closer to get into the Hall of Fame? It's not a simple question to answer, for a number of reasons.
- Alex Anthopoulos has reportedly joined the Dodgers' front office after leaving the Blue Jays behind.
- Ryans Howard and Zimmerman are suing Al Jazeera for defamation over those PED reports. No word yet on who they will sue for the way their careers have gone lately.
- Paul DePodesta, known for Moneyball and a number of high-profile front office gigs in MLB, is now guiding the Cleveland Browns. It's unexpected, but makes a lot of sense given DePo's abilities with strategy and structure.
- Jeff Sullivan wrote about the rise of all-fields offense, and while it's too early to say for sure, it might be the first response to the spike in strikeouts and pitcher dominance.
- Xander Bogaerts had an impressive 2015, but he's still just a young, developing player with plenty left to prove.
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