Hall of Fame voters’ choice is worse. In particular, someone needs to explain how PED Officer Gary Sheffield beat PED Officer Alex Rodriguez in the polls.
For anyone to ignore the cheating and say it’s not important or steroids fix it anyway you like it I know But I don’t know how Sheffield can get anywhere near the 75% needed for inclusion (according to poll watcher @NotMrTibbs, it’s at 74%, but I think it will drop when all the votes are counted). -At 39%. So, 35% vote for Sheffield, not A-Rod. Amazing!
Ballot #176 is from second-time voter Sam Miller. He adds Helton (now net +0), Sheffield (+13), Abreu (-2) and Buehrle (-4) while dropping Ramírez (-2) and Jones (+2) after reconsidering the domestic violence charges against them.
He explains why he checked ten names after… pic.twitter.com/y3yz2Ij8zY
— Ryan Thibodaux (@NotMrTibbs) January 18, 2024
A-Rod was the shortest shortstop of all time, won three MVPs, hit 696 home runs and was one of the best players in the game for 15 years. It is for good reason that Sheffield received between 11 and 14 per cent in its first five years in the polls.
Some prominent and influential voters supported his claims and became the think tank. It’s ridiculously easy to influence us, 11% went to 74% in 2018 (almost two-thirds of voters changed their minds!). Some may think A-Rod cheated more than Sheffield. If not, A-Rod (and Bonds and Roger Clemens) will be there first.
https://t.co/3WeTXmqwqx. Sheffield and A-Rod both took PEDs, only one of them is an alltime great yet the other one is nearly doubling his vote total. What the heck are we doing!
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) January 19, 2024
They track all votes cast by voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of America. As of Thursday, 175 of a possible 384 votes had been cast, meaning more votes were known than in recent weeks, but more than 200 votes were still unknown.
Here are the top 10 vote getters: those who scored above 75% (admission standard) are highlighted in bold.
1. Adrian Beltre, 98.9%, 173 votes
2. Joe Mauer, 83.4%, 146 votes
3. Todd Helton, 82.9%, 145 votes
4. Billy Wagner, 80.0%, 140 votes
5. Gary Sheffield, 73.7%, 129 votes
6. Andruw Jones, 72.0%, 126 votes
7. Carlos Beltran, 66.9%, 117 votes
8. Chase Utley, 43.4%, 76 votes
9. Alex Rodriguez, 39.4%, 69 votes
10. Manny Ramirez, 36.0%, 63 votes
Almost half of the votes are already available (45.6%), and the votes are still in the same form. 19 players have been removed from the Hall of Fame With the number of votes known, the fan will count the number of candidates eliminated in this cycle’s Hall of Fame debates. 19 former players, one less than Beltrán, fell short of the 288 votes needed to elect Hall.
When you call on Tuesday, you’ll need 171 of the remaining 209 votes. 12 players are at risk of being left out of the 2025 election but for every story that comes out, at least 13 voters will vote to cancel the 2025 election. Shields, Omar Vizquel and David Wright are all under the 5% threshold (for 20) to Vote) should remain on the ballot next year.
Vizquel only needs two popular vote votes to reach 5%, so he’s safe. But everyone on that list needs 7 to 20 votes to be returned. Closest to Vizquel are Wright, Rodriguez and Buehrle, who each received 13 votes and need just seven votes to qualify for the 2025 election.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame class of 2024 won’t be announced until Tuesday, but little has been confirmed before next week’s announcement. The Baseball Hall of Fame Vote Tracker tracks all votes cast to date. Because many surveys are already known, some results are predictable and others possible.
Rodriguez is a three-time MVP and was a 14-time All-Star during his 22-year career with the Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers and New York Yankees. Had Rodriguez not admitted to doping, his 3,115 hits, 696 home runs, .295 batting average and 117.5 WAR would have earned him the No. 1 pick.
Ramirez, the longtime shortstop for the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox finished his career with 12 All-Star hits, 555 home runs, 2,574 hits, a .312 batting average and 69.3 WAR, but at this point he has only 36.8% votes so far.
Abreu, in 18 years with the Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets, Abreu hit 288 home runs and had 2,470 hits, 60.2 WAR and two All-Star appearances while batting .291. As it stands, the outfielder is on 19.3% of ballots.
Pettitte, the Two-time star, hitting .291. He finished his Yankees career with 256 wins, 2,448 strikeouts, 3.85 ERA, 60.2 WAR, three All-Star selections and six Cy Young Awards.
Rollins, who won the National League MVP in 2007 and was a three-time All-Star, has 231 hits, 2,455 strikeouts, 47.6 WAR and four Gold Gloves in his career, and received 14.0% of the vote this time.
In addition to these five players, Omar Vizquel, David Wright, Francisco Rodriguez, Mark Buehrle, Torrey Hunter, Jose Batista, Ba Toro Colon, Matt Holliday, Victor Martinez, Adrian Gonzalez, Brandon Phillips, Jose Reyes, James Shields can’t attend.
By 2024, this proportion will reach 75%. Adrian Beltre, Joe Mauer, Todd Helton, Billy Wagner, Andruw Jones, Carlos Carlos Beltran and Chase Utley are other players who avoided going undrafted. Utley needs 99.5 percent of the remaining votes to earn a spot in Cooperstown this summer, so the Phillies second baseman joins Rodriguez, Ramirez, Abreu, Pettit and Rollin Si camp together.
Beltre seems to be a consistent regular this season, while Mohr, Helton and Wagner are also solid. So far, no one has been disqualified from the 2025 election, although Bautista, Colon, Holliday, Martinez, Gonzalez, Phillips, Reyes and Shields appear to be among the casualties middle.
The official announcement will be broadcast live at 18:00. ET from Cooperstown on MLB Network.
Here you will find the answers to the most pressing questions before the big announcement (the election distribution among the announced ballots is from January 15): The exclusive broadcast of the 2024 BBWAA Hall of Fame announcement will begin on January 23rd at 4:00 p.m. ET on MLB Network, leading up to Hall of Fame President Josh Ravitch’s announcement of the results at 6 p.m.
The first contestants are: Jose Batista, Adrian Beltre, Bartolo Colon, Adrian Gonzalez, Matt Holliday, Victor Martinez, Joe Mohr, Brandon Phillips, Jose Reyes, James Shields, Chase Utley and David Wright.
Beltre has the best chance of being elected this year, his first year on the ballot. Beltre received 98.8% of the public vote as shown on Ryan Thibodaux’s Hall of Fame Ballot Tracker. Two more candidates will be on the ballot this year – Helton and Wagner.
Helton has received an approval rating of 83.1 percent in public polls this year, compared to Wagner’s 79.4 percent. Since the close vote will have a smaller margin, Moore, Helton and Wagner will likely win. If Moore doesn’t make Cooperstown this year, he still has nine years of eligibility, Helton four years and Wagner just one.
Utley’s position is remarkable because of the overwhelming support he received in the first year’s election. According to fan Thibodaux, Utley has a 45.6 percent save rate. According to Anthony Calamis, who tracked the polls with Thibodaux, only one Hall of Fame candidate on the BBWAA poll received more than 40 percent support on the first ballot, but the final unselected Cooper Stonetown (not counting current candidates) – Steve Garvey . None of them are in the Hall of Fame.
One of only four players in AL/NL history to hit more than 500 home runs and steal at least 250 bases (along with Bonds, Rodriguez and Willie Mays), Sheffield has seen his approval ratings rise in recent years, but his reputation has not it was done, mentioned in Mitchell’s research on the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
Sheffield finished with a career OPS+ of 140 and a bWAR of 60.5. Only seven non-career players with the highest OPS+ and bWAR are not in the Hall of Fame. — Bonds, Albert Pujols (not yet included), Rodriguez, Mark McGwire, Ramirez, Miguel Cabrera (not yet included) and Shoeless Joe Jackson. It’s not yet known if Sheffield will be barred from the Hall of Fame due to his ties to PEDs, but his eyes are on the rise as this is his last chance to be voted into the Hall of Fame by the writers.
It looks like he won’t be inducted this year, but given his qualities, he’s a good prospect for years to come. However, with eight years left to run for office, he is trailing with 66.9% of the votes cast publicly. Jones has seen his support grow in recent years, and Thibodaux’s fan base is 71.9%. But time is running out for the former midfielder, who has won 10 Golden Gloves awards. There are three years left to vote.
Wright is in danger of being drafted in his first year. He needs at least 5 percent to avoid that fate, and is trailing at 6.9% in opinion polls. In his first 10 seasons, Wright hit 222 home runs, had a career .888 OPS and was selected by seven All-Stars, all the way to Cooperstown. Still, Wright has the same resume as Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett, and many expect his case to gain more attention in the coming years.
Fans reacted as follows:
Votes for Sheffield, who had a variety of legal issues over many years
Does not vote for Ramirez over a DV report that did not result in charges because his wife, who posted this recently, did not cooperate.
I'm all for having a conscience when voting but what? pic.twitter.com/uU9YaEldoM
— Chris, in solidarity ✊ (@cokes311) January 18, 2024
This ballot is perplexing to me. Adding Helton because he doesn't want to be the reason Helton doesn't get in, but not applying the same logic to Wagner. Voting for ManRam and Jones last year, but leaving them off for things that didn't impact baseball – yet voting for Beltran.
— Crary (@Centreball) January 18, 2024
I think the problem is he is trying to mathematically qualify many of these idiots who have a vote by saying how far off or close they all are to each other. And then comparing his votes to those. Math is great,but still comparing to imbeciles.
— Matt Guthrie (@M_GUTH1) January 18, 2024
Sheffield is likable
— statspros (@statspros) January 19, 2024
A-Rod failed a drug test and got suspended. He's in the Manny Ramirez camp. Those guys never get in IMO.
— Warren (@swd2) January 19, 2024
If Selig is in, let them all in. Picking and choosing guys like this is so unserious
— Martino Puccio (@MartinoPuccio) January 19, 2024
Heyman with the L on a day that ends with Y. pic.twitter.com/Haxr9i6t3b
— Adam DeCicco (@AdamDeCicco) January 19, 2024
Arod is the best player of all time and the best there ever was
— Las Vegas Raiders 365 (@DailyLVRaiders) January 19, 2024
Not fair. Sheffield hardly took PEDs.
— David (@DCstedt4) January 19, 2024
Fantastic piece to hold voters accountable and call out the inconsistencies in the process.
— Billy Reinhardt (@BillyReinhardt) January 19, 2024
Sheffield denied all steroid allegations while talking with us earlier this month. Full convo linked ⬇️https://t.co/rxTlOxOk0g
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) January 19, 2024
It's really simple, Jon. Gary Sheffield was never suspended for PEDs when the league told players to cut it out. A-Rod was.
— TexasPharmD (@TexasPharmD) January 19, 2024
You guys brought this on yourselves. The baseball HOF is the most elite designation in sports. And writers ruined it by playing to personal bias. It’s not that I think David Ortiz shouldn’t be in but he can’t be in while Bonds, Clemens, A-Rod, etc are not. Unacceptable
— Michael Sinnott (@CNote780211) January 19, 2024
Because Sheffield's allegations of PED use are way less concrete than A-Rod's. There's still people who argue that Sheffield didn't actually cheat whereas everyone knows A-Rod was indeed a cheater and arguably the biggest cheater in the sport's history when it comes to PEDs.
— Marcus S., A Child of the Internet (@goodwillfiction) January 19, 2024
PED suspension especially if it's the 2nd time should come with an automatic ban from the Baseball Hall of Fame. Bonds and A-Rod completely made a mockery out of the career stats.
— John Taylor (@wvpirate) January 19, 2024
The writers are simply gatekeepers making decisions based on who they liked and who they didn’t. Thats the real criteria. Can’t even try to spin it another way.
— Big Daddy Giambi (@TheGiambinooo) January 19, 2024
Arod got caught a 2nd time. Pretty sure there’s never been a positive test for Sheffield or real concrete evidence. It’s okay if you just don’t like Sheffield like the rest of the media
— Zach McClain (@McClain_1111) January 19, 2024
