Hall of Fame Voting

On January 6th the voting for the 2015 Baseball Hall of Fame will be announced and my guess is that we will be seeing quite a few new players elected to the HOF.  The class of newbies is strong headlined by Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz - a pretty impressive trio of hurlers.  Gary Sheffield also joins the ballot along with several hold overs who have been tied to PED usage.  I don't want to get into the PED/HOF debate but I will just go on record saying it is a travesty that perhaps the best hitter in baseball history (Barry Bonds) and perhaps the best pitcher in baseball history (Roger Clemens) aren't members in the Hall that was designed to celebrate baseball history.  Maybe I am a softy but I would have Pete Rose in as well.  I am all about what they produced on the field and how they performed compared to their peers during their era.

This is why someone I see as a pretty obvious candidate hasn't generated a higher voting percentage.  For almost a decade, Tim Raines was second to only Rickey Henderson as a disruptive force and leadoff hitter.

In his 23 year career, Raines accumulated 2605 hits, scored 1571 runs, stole 808 bases and drove in 980 runs.  All very impressive numbers for a leadoff hitter and in my opinion Hall of Fame worthy.  He was an All Star for 7 straight years starting in 1981 and was the AS MVP in 1987.  He won a batting title in 1986 and finished 3rd two other times.  His closest similarity score per Baseball Reference is Hall of Famer Lou Brock.  In addition to the stats and recognitions, I saw Raines play and he passed the eyeball test, he was obviously one of the most respected and best players of the era.

Despite all of this, he has not come close to being elected to the HOF and with this year's strong rookie class I doubt it will happen in 2015.  Here are his percentages, remember that you need 75% to be elected.
2008 BBWAA (24.3%)
2009 BBWAA (22.6%)
2010 BBWAA (30.4%)
2011 BBWAA (37.5%)
2012 BBWAA (48.7%)
2013 BBWAA (52.2%)
2014 BBWAA (46.1%)

I picked up this card a few months back and love having it as a part of my collection.  I wanted to have an Expos card of his in my collection and hope that one day it will move into my Hall of Fame Auto collection.

If I was voting, here would be my 10 person ballot - Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Craig Biggio, Pedro Martinez, Mark McGwire, Mike Piazza, John Smoltz Curt Schilling and Tim Raines.  I also would argue that Gary Sheffield, Jeff Bagwell, Jeff Kent, and Sammy Sosa are worthy based on their careers and there could be a couple of others.

My prediction is that the following players will be elected - Randy Johnson, Craig Biggio, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz.  I think that Jeff Bagwell and Mike Piazza have a fighting chance as well but with so many deserving candidates my guess it that they fall short once again.

Any thoughts on the HOF voting and who will get in this year?