I was waiting for Joe to say, "that's why you were a lousy GM, Steve," but to his credit Joe refrained.

Hehehe.

I too was disappointed to see the low Raines total.

Are baseball writers that clueless?

Phillips is good at spotting mediocre, overpaid, and/or over the hill players but not too good at recognizing excellence.

Dave, according to these votes, the answer is

Yes, they are that clueless.

Others receiving votes: Rod Beck 2, Travis Fryman 2, Robb Nen 2, Shawon Dunston 1, Chuck Finley 1, David Justice 1, Chuck Knoblauch 1, Todd Stottlemyre 1.

These voters names should be make public. Sheesh.

And so the Hall of Fame run of Brady Anderson comes to an end.

I'm really surprised Raines didn't get at least 40% in his first year. It's about time Goose got in! He was better and more durable than Sutter. Interestingly, according to Baseball Reference's HOF Monitor, both Rice and Dawson are likely HOFers. Raines, just misses by a bit. I'm shocked Concepcion didn't get in... it seems every player from Venezuela points him out as their hero. Davey didn't have great offense, but his defense and influence should've gotten him in by now.

PS. voters who vote for players obviously not HOF material...should be penalized in some way. Maybe they should be removed from voting and replaced by someone else. After all, anyone voting for Knoblauch or Stottlemyre, can't possibly understand who the HOF is for. It's irritating to see guys get votes who, even though they were good enough to stick around a few years, clearly are not HOF material.

Are the ballots made public? Wouldn't it be interesting to see if the writers who voted for the Knoblauchs on the ballot left off guys like Rice, Blyleven, Dawson? What would the BBWAA have to say on that?

I don't think there's many Venezuelans in the BBWAA.

The ballot allows for ten names. If you can find me ten surefire HOFers up for election, I'll buy the idea that there should be some outrage at guys using a vote here and there to tip their respective hats to players they like, probably covered in close quarter, and know neither will nor deserve to get in.

I would also like to nominate that last sentence for the run-on Hall.

The votes should definitely be made public. This isn't a presidential election for God's sake, no need for secret ballots!

I have to think that Rice, Dawson and Blyleven are getting a boost -- at least a slight one -- because of the steroids scandal. For one thing, many writers are withholding votes for tainted players like McGwire and may feel obligated to put someone on their ballots. For another, the (presumably non-tainted) accomplishments of players from the 70s and early 80s may be looking better in light of later, PED-assisted performances.

re; tim raines and the 2008 HOF vote

tim raines by all reasonable sabrmetric measures is the second greatest leadoff man of all time, and he produced runs by the truckload not only during his prime, but also during his decline phase as well.

he was very nearly the players that Tony Gwynn and Rickey Henderson were--a switch-hitting outfielder with tons of walks, stolen bases, high OBA and high stolen base average, taking lots of extra bases on hits, creating tons of extra runs, plus he played a good defense, better than Henderson or Gwynn.

Looking at this ballot, I'd want Tim Raines on my all-time all-star team before I'd want Mark McGwire or Jim Rice. Raines beats up on right-handers while McGwire and Rice have platoon differentials that are based on beating up on lefties and hitting in hitters parks like Fenway and St. Louis. Raines did most of his damage in Montreal, not much of a hitters park, and later on in neutral parks during the wandering phase of his career.

If I had to choose between Raines and Henderson, I'd probably still want Raines because of the platoon differential, though Henderson's overall OBA during his peak years is probably higher. Raines is probably a better OF, though.

Consequently, you'd have to vote for Raines to the HOF. He's as good as or better than McGwire or Rice.

He's a lot better than Tony Perez.

--art kyriazis, philly

re: Tommy John, Jack Morris, Andre Dawson

Here's some inequity in the voting.

Why is Andre Dawson up in the 60th percentile of voting, while Tommy John and Jack Morris are struggling to get over 50%?

Tommy John & Jack Morris in their prime were each easily better players than Dawson both as to career years and as to career and win shares.

Also, again, Tim Raines is a better player and was a better player than Dawson. They played together for some years in Montreal.

--art kyriazis, philly

plus he played a good defense, better than Henderson or Gwynn. That's crazy talk