MLB Bullets Awaits The Election Returns

The Hall of Fame voting results are announced today at 1 pm Chicago time on the MLB Network and MLB.com. This is a big deal for me, because it means I can go another year without having to talk about voting for the Hall of Fame. I've still have to write one entry on Friday talking about who got in, but Al will also have a post for you shortly after the results are announced to talk about the results and a certain former Cubs pitcher who will enter Cooperstown wearing a Braves cap.

I seriously want to see Megyn Kelly walk into MLB Studios asking if they're sure they got the results right.

• Jay Jaffe, who has made a career out of trying to figure out who is and isn't getting into Cooperstown, tells us what to expect when they announce the results today. Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas are definitely getting in. Craig Biggio is around even money to get in and Mike Piazza might get in, although the odds are against it. Jack Morris is shut out again. He has four more things to expect as well.
• Joe Posnanski not only explains his ballot, ranking the top 24 candidates in his mind, but he also goes in depth about the history of the Hall of Fame and how it came about.
• Jayson Stark also explains his ballot in depth and talks about how frustrating the process has become.
• Jon Heyman explains his ballot and says he's not going to vote for anyone connected to PEDs. This year. Maybe next year too, but he reserves the right to change his mind sometime in the future. He does vote for Biggio, so he doesn't buy into the senile ranting of Murray Chass. He also votes for a full ten people, but beyond the questionable vote for Morris, he oddly votes for Fred McGriff and Don Mattingly. He doesn't say so, but it does sound like he's just trying to keep them on the ballot, although it's clear he does think both of them are Hall of Famers.
• Jonathan Bernhardt, writing before Ken Gurnick's announcement of only voting for Jack Morris, says that Maddux won't be unanimous because of the problem of "blank ballots," cast by voting trying to make a protest. He thinks it's time to take the vote away from people who abuse the vote in this way.
• Every writer for MLB.com listed their ballot here. Carrie Muskat's ballot is quite reasonable.
• Richard Justice feels bad he didn't vote for Mike Piazza, but there wasn't room on his ballot. Also, as a BBWAA member, he calls for the vote to be expanded to people outside of the BBWAA. That's a nice idea, but when you need 75% of the vote to get elected, expanding the franchise will just make it harder to elect anyone. That is, it's easier to get 75% of four or forty people to agree on something than it is to get 75% of four hundred or four thousand. Every additional "no" vote cancels out three new "yes" votes. By all means expand the franchise, but writers who haven't covered baseball for over a decade need to lose their voting privileges. Unfortunately, Murray Chass still gets to keep his ballot.
• Justice also talks to Biggio about his career and his memories of being a rookie and all the veterans who helped him along the way.
• Jeff Bagwell is content in retirement, whether or not he is inducted into Cooperstown.
• Chris Cwik says that even though Frank Thomas was primarily a DH, he's easily qualified for induction into the Hall of Fame. He also questions the notion that players who were primarily DHs are doing poorly in Hall balloting, explaining that there simply wasn't a great candidate before Thomas. (Yes, he addresses Edgar Martinez.)
• Phil Rogers has a look back at The Big Hurt's career. (That nickname is still the best thing that Hawk Harrelson has ever done in the game.)
• Gabe Kapler says he idolized Pete Rose growing up, but he says he shouldn't be elected to Cooperstown.
• Going back to Jay Jaffe, he lists his first team of players who waited way too long to get inducted into Cooperstown. In retrospect, you wonder what the sportswriters of the 1950s had against Arky Vaughan. I suspect the big issue was that he died in a boating accident shortly after retiring and the sportswriters were more interested in honoring those who were still around and buying them drinks.
• Riffing on Lou Whitaker's comments from last time, Grant Brisbee wonders who the next Lou Whitaker will be, by which he means "some really great player that gets totally ignored in Hall of Fame voting." I completely disagree with his choice, whom I think is going to get a lot of support for Cooperstown when the time comes.
• Moving on from the Hall of Fame, Jorge Arangure Jr. remembers growing up listening to Jerry Coleman and how much he meant to him. I guess Coleman did win the Frick Award, so we aren't completely out of Cooperstown yet.
• William Tasker remembers Jerry Coleman's excellent 1957 World Series, which were the last seven games he would ever play. Coleman's heroics in the Series are mostly forgotten in Yankees lore because, well, the Braves won Game 7.
• Speaking of Don Mattingly (and we were a while ago), if you're still reading, the Dodgers finally gave their manager a two-year extension.
• Mark Saxon thinks the extension gives the Dodgers some much needed stability.
• Every wonder what it's like to scoop all the major baseball writers while you're still in high school? SB Nation's own Chris Cotillo remembers what happened after he tweeted "Source: Nationals acquire Doug Fister from Tigers."
• He's got one more scoop as well, reporting that Andruw Jones has re-signed with the Rakuten Golden Eagles.
• A look at Masahiro Tanaka's NPB stats compared to other pitchers who have come over from Japan.
• The Red Sox are not expected to pursue Tanaka as they already have a full rotation of pitchers.
• Are the Angels in on Masahiro Tanaka? That depends on what you mean by "in." They like him, but they think of him as more of a "friend."
• Jack Moore thinks the Rays might just keep David Price for the 2014 season.
• The Reds think it will be difficult for the team to sign Homer Bailey to a long-term contract. Bailey is a free agent after this season.
• Jeff Sullivan says the reason why Stephen Drew is having trouble finding a new team is that no one is really in the market for a shortstop right now.
• The Royals signed catcher Ramon Hernandez to a minor-league deal.
• And the Indians signed Jeff Francoeur to a minor-league deal as well.
• There were reports that the Indians were interested in signing Bobby Abreu. NOT!
• Was Michael Bourn's drop in stolen bases caused by changing leagues?
• Speaking of the Indians, Craig Calcaterra approves of their new logo. Not the one the Cleveland Indians are using. That's still offensive. He's talking about the new Spokane Indians logo. The Spokane Indians are a Rangers farm club, just to let you know.
• Peter Gammons talks to Scott Boras, who has some ideas for for changes in baseball. Yes, some of them are self-serving, but a 64 team college baseball tournament during spring training is a good idea.
• Finally, to honor the 25th anniversary of the movie Major League, the Topps company is issuing baseball cards of the players from that movie. They're even done in the style of the 1989 Topps set.