I think that's a good move that the Royals didn't make. This screams "overpay" for a guy who just had a career year last year. Aside for 2022 and this past year, his WAR was never more than 2.0 in a season.

Thank goodness.

I just have a hard time understanding whoever that 1 writer that left off Suzuki. I mean, what was the basis of that?

I say this in jest, but also with some amount of it being realistic...it's probably some hardened old-school guy who still can't forgive Japan for Pearl Harbor. It's either that (prejudice) or it was a completely accidental omission.

To me, those are the only two logical possibilities. Ichiro checks every single box you could have to be in the HOF.

NY writer who wants to maintain that Mariano is the ONLY unanimous player ever elected.

I'm just speculating, obviously, but would this really surprise anyone?

He should have his voting privileges rescinded.

It could be that.

It could also be a small Hall voter that voted for Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez and nobody else.

The Hall of Fame revealed there were no blank ballots turned in this year.

You believe in groupthink?

60 career WAR, 107 career OPS+, .757 career OPS

Ichiro was slam dunk but he wasn't a Willie Mays or Henry Aaron. 99.7% on over 400 votes is pretty ****ing amazing in itself. How hard is it to get that many people to agree on one thing?

To me, I think doing what the Astros did is DRASTICALLY worse than a guy taking steroids or HGH. Not even close.

MLB is testing the automated ball strike zone and ball/strike challenging system during spring training.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">How many games will your team play in front of the automated strike zone? Full list, and many other details of what awaits as MLB tests out the robo umps: <a href="https://t.co/cW79GRqgtF">https://t.co/cW79GRqgtF</a> <a href="https://t.co/mGWFaoodfe">pic.twitter.com/mGWFaoodfe</a></p>&mdash; Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) <a href="https://twitter.com/EvanDrellich/status/1882827400452657568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Honestly, IMO, the whole unanimous thing is stupid because to some degree its about playing politics and keeping everyone happy for different reasons. It's not about only what's done on the field, because if it was we wouldn't have guys like Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Nolan Ryan (hell, even George Brett), Ken Griffey Jr., etc. not getting 100% of the vote.

There's a group of roughly 40-50 baseball players over the history of the game that are no doubt, first ballot, elite best of the best HOFer's that no one could really make much of an argument (performance wise) for them NOT being in the Hall of Fame.

So it's CLEARLY not about making a decision based on their play on the field. And that's the way its always been, like it or hate it.

I mean, Ted freakin Williams only got 93% for his induction!

Who were the 7% ****ing morons that didn't think HE belonged in the Hall of Fame?!?


So, again, a lot of 'politics' and who likes you and who doesn't.

Again, probably New Yorkers.

Touche

Speaking of politics, Tom Seaver got 425 of 430 votes in 1992, which at the time, was the highest percentage (98.8%) on writer's ballot in Hall of Fame voting history.

The five non-votes were tracked down.

Three didn't vote for Seaver as a protest for Pete Rose not being included on the ballot.

One didn't vote for Seaver because he never voted for candidates in their first year. This is the type of voter that gives the whole voting body a bad rep.

The last one made a mistake on his ballot and checked the wrong box, which was meant for Seaver.

Adding to this, there's politics on both the writer's ballot and the commitee processes, which looks at the players the writers passed over.

C.C. Sabathia was probably not your typical first-ballot Hall of Famer, but he was well liked by the writers, so he's in the first try.

Curt Schilling has a much superior career to Sabathia, but he goes 10 years on the writer's ballot and doesn't get in because of non-baseball reasons.

In December of 2022, the Contemporary Era Committee has a chance to get Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens into the HOF after the writers passed over them. They both get less than four votes out of 16 total.

Instead, the Contemporary Era Committee votes in Fred McGriff because he's a good guy and everybody likes him!