{"id":7878,"date":"2013-12-26T12:03:08","date_gmt":"2013-12-26T17:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=7878"},"modified":"2013-12-26T12:03:08","modified_gmt":"2013-12-26T17:03:08","slug":"2014-hall-of-fame-ballot-obligatory-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=7878","title":{"rendered":"2014 Hall of Fame Ballot Obligatory Post"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Its<\/a>

Its Morris’ 15th year; its now or never. Photo John Iacono via si.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Before starting, if you hadn’t heard Deadspin has bought a Hall of Fame vote this year and is going to submit it as populated by crowd sourcing. \u00a0Click on this link<\/a> to go to Deadspin.com’s page to vote. \u00a0Voting at deadspin ends on 12\/28\/13 and all hall of fame ballots are due to be mailed back to the BBWAA by 12\/31\/13. \u00a0The class of 2014 will be announced later in January.<\/p>\n

Everyone else has a post about how they’d vote if they had a BBWAA ballot. \u00a0Here’s mine. \u00a0Only its slightly different from how i’ve done these in the past.<\/p>\n

Joe Posnanski<\/strong>\u00a0has put out a survey in October 2013 that anyone can take that simply asks you to rank the 2014 candidates 1-10<\/a>. \u00a0It is an interesting exercise because it very quickly highlights the depth of the ballot, since\u00a0as everyone knows, there are many very deserving candidates who are outside the top 10 and who may very well fall off the ballot this year because of the glut of candidates. \u00a0It also makes you think; if you rank your candidates 1 to 10 … how many names would you be leaving off your ballot that you’d want to vote for?<\/p>\n

So, instead of doing a “who’s on\/who’s off” post like i’ve done in years past (and like everyone else does) here’s a different take driven by Posnanski’s ranking question.<\/p>\n

My first 8 “Yes Votes” were relatively easy: Maddux, Bonds, Clemens, Thomas, McGwire, Bagwell, Glavine, Piazza<\/strong>. \u00a0I don’t think there’s one of those 8 candidates who shouldn’t be a slam dunk hall-of-famer based on baseball accomplishments. \u00a0 (That most all of them likely do not get in because of PED suspicions is another story). \u00a0The only one of my top 8 that doesn’t match with Posnanski’s survey results is McGwire (replace him with Raines<\/strong>, everyone’s favorite\u00a0Bert Blyleven<\/strong>-style charity case for getting more support).<\/p>\n

Then I got stuck. \u00a0Who were the last 2 I’d put on the ballot? \u00a0Lets look at the rest of the 2014 ballot<\/a>:<\/p>\n