Ten quick thoughts on Hall of Fame voting results

Ten quick thoughts on the new Hall of Fame class, which will consist of Chipper Jones, Vladimir Guerrero, Jim Thome and Trevor Hoffman:

1. Thanks to voting trackers and Twitter accounts like @NotMrTibbs, the drama usually associated with the results is somewhat lessened. And everyone had a pretty good idea that Jones, Thome and Guerrero would gain entrance, while Hoffman and Edgar Martinez were borderline. Turns out, four of the five made it, with Martinez just missing out. No real surprises here.


2. Martinez missed by 20 votes, and although next year represents his final year of eligibility, he should make it. No one has ever gotten this close to election and missed out.


3. The ballot is getting pruned. This marks the second time in the last four years that four players have been elected, with 16 players elected over the last five years. That will help those who complain that the maximum number of 10 players on a ballot is too limiting. Some have taken to "strategic'' voting -- i.e. voting for players who are in danger of falling off the ballot, or who might miss or make it by a handful of votes, while not voting for obvious choices like, say, Jones.


4. I would hope that sort of strategy helps explain why someone like Jones wasn't unanimous. He was left off a dozen ballots. It continues to be an embarrassment to the BBWAA that a player has never been unanimously elected. Who wouldn't vote for Willie Mays? For Hank Aaron? For Ted Williams? Absurd.


5. For a number of years, it's been widely assumed that Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds -- each tainted by suspected or confirmed PED use -- would eventually gain entrance. That still may be, since they have four more cracks at the ballot. But their vote percentage went up only marginally this year compared to last year. Clemens went from 54.1 percent last year to 57.3, while Bonds went from 53.8 percent to 56.4 percent. That's not the sort of dramatic surge that is expected. And while it's true that new (i.e. younger) voters overwhelming support both, neither may have enough time to make up the necessary ground.


6. On the subject of Bonds and Clemens, I don't understand this: Clemens got 242 votes while Bonds got 238. How do you vote for one and not the other? Their numbers and credentials are inarguable. Seems to me, you either vote for both (as I did this year), or neither, presumably because you have an objection to their suspected PED use. I know that Peter Gammons voted for Bonds and not Clemens because he once co-authored a book with Clemens and thought voting him would represent a conflict of interest. That explains one "split'' vote; what about the others?


7. There's reason for optimism if you're a supporter of Mike Mussina, too. Mussina got 63.5 percent of the vote, falling 49 votes shy. That, too, looks like a gap that should be closed, given that Mussina has five years of eligibility remaining.


8. From a selfish standpoint, I'm glad that Andruw Jones, for whom I voted, got enough support to remain on the ballot. I harbor no illusions that Jones will join his many Braves teammates in Cooperstown, but it would have been a shame for the best center fielder of his generation -- who also hit 434 homers -- to be off the ballot after just one year.


9. Another pet peeve beyond the lack of unanimous choices: the practice of voting for players who clearly don't meet the standards, either as a lark or personal favor. Think of it: someone who had the honor or privilege of voting this year believed Carlos Lee to be worthy of the same honor as Ruth, Mantle, Gehrig and Musial.


10. If you're already wondering about next year, here are the top names eligible for the ballot: Mariano Rivera, Roy Halladay, Todd Helton, Andy Pettitte, Lance Berkman, Roy Oswalt, and Miguel Tejada. Oh, and Kevin Youkilis and Derek Lowe.