2013 FanSided MLB Hall of Fame Vote: Bagwell, Piazza Elected

Last month, after the BBWAA’s 2013 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot was revealed, we at FanSided MLB decided to hold a Cooperstown vote of our own. A group of 49 writers representing 24 different sites cast ballots both for an election just like the real one’s and an alternate election for which the BBWAA’s 10-vote-per-ballot maximum did not apply.

Below are the results of our voting, starting with the realistic election. Note that with 49 voters each candidate needed 37 votes to cross the 75-percent threshold for election to Cooperstown and three votes to hang on for the hypothetical 2014 ballot.

Without further ado, here are results! (click to embiggen)

In an incredibly close vote, Jeff Bagwell and Mike Piazza earn passage into Cooperstown with razor-thin margins of three and two votes, respectively. Craig Biggio, Roger Clemens, and Barry Bonds come within three votes of immortality. Tim Raines, Edgar Martinez, and Curt Schilling also received majority support, while Mark McGwire, Larry Walker, Jack Morris, Kenny Lofton, Fred McGriff, Lee Smith, Alan Trammell, Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, Dale Murphy, Don Mattingly, Sandy Alomar, and Bernie Williams earn more than the 5 percent necessary to stay on the ballot. Everyone else will be gone in 2014.

What happens if we eliminate the 10-vote limit? (click to embiggen)

Piazza surpasses Bagwell as the most popular candidate, and the two original inductees are joined by Biggio, Clemens, and Raines (Bonds falls two votes short). McGwire reaches the 50 percent threshold, and David Wells and Julio Franco gain enough support to survive on the ballot for another year.

Overall we were far more generous with our votes than the BBWAA usually is, averaging 8.9 players per ballot in the normal election and 10.6 in the unlimited vote—roughly double the BBWAA’s recent norm—though presumably that has something to do with the strength of the 2013 first-year candidate class.

I voted for Bagwell, Bonds, Clemens, Lofton, Martinez, McGwire, Piazza, Schilling, Sosa, and Larry Walker on my normal ballot. For the second election I also checked boxes for Biggio, McGriff, Palmeiro, Raines, Smith, and Trammell, and I also threw in a purely sentimental vote for Sandy Alomar.