Womack: Ranking the chances of the new 2017 Hall of Fame ballot

From SABR member Graham Womack at The Sporting News on October 5, 2016:

In July, the Baseball Hall of Fame revamped its process for voting on veteran candidates, creating four committees based on era. On Monday, the first ballot dropped for the newly formed Today’s Game Committee, which will consider candidates who made their greatest contribution to baseball between 1988 and 2001. Results for committee voting will be released on Dec. 5. What are the odds that each candidate gets inducted? Here’s a breakdown of the ballot.

Bud Selig

Chances of being inducted this year: 90 percent

Why he could get in: Love him or hate him — and chances are, you weren’t terribly fond of him — Bud Selig might be the best commissioner in baseball history. Annual revenues for the sport went from $2 billion to $9 billion under his watch while the majors added four teams. Sure, he also presided over a strike, cancelled World Series, and the Steroid Era and once wrote to a fan that he considered Abner Doubleday baseball’s true founder. But other commissioners have done far worse.

Working against him: Executives sometimes take years to get in Cooperstown after their tenure ends. Commissioners Happy Chandler and Bowie Kuhn each were enshrined more than 20 years after they finished.

Read the full article here: http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/news/baseball-hall-of-fame-2017-ballote-eligible-selig-steinbrenner-mcgwire-belle/19k4ouqn1y1sq1pj4rficgvnso



Originally published: October 5, 2016. Last Updated: October 5, 2016.