Pros and Cons: A Look at this Year's Hall of Fame Vote

Logo is of the National Baseball Hall of Fame located in Cooperstown

This year's Hall of Fame vote results were a bit unusual to say the least.

While it was expected that Mariano Rivera be a lock to get in on the first ballot, it was surprising to find out that he's the first player in Major League Baseball history to receive 100 percent of the vote. Legends haven't received that many votes. Willie Mays? Nope. Hank Aaron? Nope. How about someone more recent such as Ken Griffey Jr.? Nope. Mickey Mantle, Rickey Henderson, Sandy Koufax, Yogi Berra, Johnny Bench? All nopes. I'm not saying Mariano Rivera didn't deserve it. Quite the opposite, in fact. I just don't think he should have been the first player to receive 100 percent of the vote.

I'm glad that Roy Halladay and Mike Mussina also got in. They deserved it and were some of the more dominant pitchers of their era.

Edgar Martinez should have been considered more of a fringe vote. He never accomplished any of the goals that used to get hitters automatically into the hall. He was less than stellar on defense, being one of the main reasons he was a designated hitter for the majority of his career. He hit just over 300 homers, he had a .312 career batting average, and he had 2,247 hits. All good numbers, but not necessarily hall-worthy.

Martinez was never the best hitter on his team at any given time. And there were times where he wasn't even the second best hitter on the team.

You can make the case that some voters voted for him (over 85 percent of them) because it was his tenth and final year of eligibility, but then why not vote for Fred McGriff? He hit 493 homers in his career, and had a .284 career batting average. He also had over 200 more career hits, almost 300 more career R.B.I.'s, more runs scored, and even more career stolen bases than Edgar Martinez. McGriff played the field at first base and he was the rare hitter of his generation that was not accused of using performance enhancing drugs. So how did McGriff receive less than 40 percent of the vote?

Also snubbed, were the obvious and expected: Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds. They received the most votes they ever had and still have three more years to make it, but still, their being snubbed every year is ridiculous. Some of the writers say its because they believe the two used P.E.D.'s, but then voted for players such as Mike Piazza and others that haven't gotten in such as Manny Ramirez and Sammy Sosa. That's just a personal vendetta then.

It's atrocious that Billy Wagner and his 422 career saves and being the most dominant lefty reliever in baseball history didn't get in, especially, in a year that Mariano Rivera, the most dominant righty got in.

Andy Petite received less than 10 percent of the votes while a player such as Omar Vizquel, who was never a dominant player and a constant number nine hitter in his career received nearly 43 percent of the votes.

Michael Young, Lance Berkman, Miguel Tejada, and Roy Oswalt also all fell off the ballot. It was ridiculous that Placido Polanco, a player with just over a thousand career hits, received any votes, let alone votes from writers who did not vote for Bonds, Clemens, Wagner, McGriff, or any other more deserving players.

While we're on topic, the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA), needs to reshuffle who is eligible to vote. There are 425 total eligible writers. According to ESPN, 232 of them released their ballots publicly including 60 who did not vote for Bonds and Clemens. Only six of the 60 are full-time baseball writers. Many of the 60 cover other sports, one writes on digital marketing, and one writes for the American Heart Association. Really? If being a professional writer who likes baseball qualifies you to vote for the hall of fame, then sign me up, too.

The lack of quality writers voting for the baseball hall of fame is possibly one of the main reasons why they votes have been screwy for the past decade or so. Get a real mixture of full-time baseball writers, current and of the past. Not someone who writes for a golfing magazine. Not someone who writes articles for CNET. It wouldn't hurt to allow some announcers to vote too. I would trust a vote by Vin Scully or Bob Uecker.

Next year's first-time eligible players will only saturate the votes as well. Derek Jeter, Paul Konerko, Alfonso Soriano, Cliff Lee, and Jason Giambi are just some of the names who are on the 2020 ballot. Jeter will be a shoe-in, but who knows about the others.