Jaffe: Breaking down the 2018 Hall of Fame ballot
From SABR member Jay Jaffe at Sports Illustrated on January 24, 2018:
It’s a quartet for Cooperstown! For the second time in four years but just the fourth time in the 82-year electoral history of the Baseball Hall of Fame, the Baseball Writers Association of America has elected a four-man class. In the results announced by Hall president Jeff Idelson on Wednesday evening, first-year candidates Chipper Jones and Jim Thome, second-year candidate Vladimir Guerrero and third-year candidate Trevor Hoffman all received at least 75% of the 422 ballots cast—and those ballots were packed fuller than ever. The quartet will join Jack Morris and Alan Trammell, the two candidates elected by the Modern Baseball Era Committee in December, in being inducted on July 29 in Cooperstown, New York.
What follows here are four quick thoughts about the election results, as well as the results themselves. As in years past, I’ll have candidate-by-candidate coverage and a look at the next five years of voting over the next few days.
Read the full article here: https://www.si.com/mlb/2018/01/24/baseball-hall-fame-voting-election-results-chipper-jones-vladimir-guerrero-jim-thome-trevor-hoffman
Originally published: January 26, 2018. Last Updated: January 26, 2018.