Here is the complete voting. Blyleven received almost 48% of the vote, while Alan Trammell garnered 13%.  It seems quite possible that Gossage will get more votes than Raines, Blyleven and Trammell next year.  There is work to do.

Only Rice and Gossage gained votes year over year, with Rice dropping slightly in % of vote.

As for Jay content... (votes - % of vote)
Jack Morris - 202 37.1% - dropped from 214 41.2% last year
Jose Canseco - 6 1.1% - off the ballot
Tony Fernandez - 4 0.7% - off the ballot
Devon White - 0 0.0% - off the ballot

I figure Gossage is in next year on his own, with Rice, Dawson, Raines all getting a fair amount of votes but Blyleven holding around 50-60% range, Lee Smith dropping (no longer has saves record), Harold Baines off the ballot but all others holding on.  Only Raines will do well for the newbies.

I was listening to the fan yesterday.  Blair and Wilner were on McGowan's show.

They were talking about the Hall of Fame, and discussing next year.  THey said that the only major player coming up is Tim Raines, and McCowan says "definitely not a hall of famer", and Blair agrees.

If McCowan and Blair, one of whom is probably the leading sports talking head in Canada, the other one of the leading baseball reporters and a guy who used to cover the Expos don't think that Raines is a Hall of Famer... I think Raines has no chance.

Which is too bad, because he certainly deserves it.

Sorry for the somewhat off-topic nature of this post, but I needed to get that out.

Bauxites, tell your friends, neighbours, colleagues and cats.  Tim Raines was a great, great ballplayer, a better one than Tony Gwynn (for instance), whether you look at peak, prime or career.

Now _that_ is sad that Blair, a smart baseball writer from what I can tell, would be anti-Raines.  At least he isn't Pro-Dawson and hopefully (not 100% sure) is anti-Rice too. 

Now _that_ is sad that Blair, a smart baseball writer from what I can tell, would be anti-Raines.  At least he isn't Pro-Dawson and hopefully (not 100% sure) is anti-Rice too.

I heard Blair yesterday as well. He doesn't support Rice. The only ones he voted for (and the only eligible candidates he feels should be in) are Gwynn, Ripken & McGwire.

Odd that in his blog he suggested the weakness of voting systems because most HOF voters wouldn't support McGwire (and electoral voters supported  Bush and Harper), yet yesterday I heard him defend Ripken aginst McKeown's uncertainty on him, partly by citing the number of times he was elected to start the All-Star game. "So you trust the voters?" McKeown asked (or something like that). "Yes". Guess it depends on the voters.

Tim Raines was a great, great ballplayer, a better one than Tony Gwynn (for instance)

Well, let's see:

Raines - career BA .294, OBP .385, SLG .425, SB 808, HR 170, Hits 2,605, BB 1,330, Runs 1,571, RBI 980 in 2,502 games

Gwynn - career BA .338, OBP .388, SLG .459, SB 319, HR 135, Hits 3,141, BB 790, Runs 1,383, RBI 1,138 in 2,440 games

Playing in almost the exact same number of games, Raines walked a lot more, but Gwynn hit for a much higher average, resulting in virtually identical OBP's.  Raines hit a few more HR's and scored more runs, but Gwynn had a better slugging percentage and drove in more runs.  Raines was a much more prolific base stealer.  HOF voters no doubt tend to over value some of Gwynn's attributes such as hits and batting average, while undervaluing Raines' ability to draw walks. 

I'm not sure how they compare defensively.  Offensively. they look pretty darn close to me.

Dan Gordon has most of the analysis.  When one factors in stolen base effectiveness and baserunning ability, Raines ends up as a slightly better offensive player than Gwynn.  Gwynn and Raines were both good outfielders when they were young.  Raines aged better in this respect, as he didn't add signficant weight and lose as much speed as Gwynn did. 

This is not to take anything away from Gwynn, a very comparable hitter to Rod Carew. 

I have no problem with Mcgwire not being voted in immediately, but I am worried that the backlash to steroids will go too far. McGwire is a guy who is just a hall of famer regardless of steroid use. Bonds is one of the greatest players ever regardless of steroid use. When it comes to more borderline players like Palmeiro, I think steroids could be a deciding factor, but performence enhancing drugs don't make people hit 583 HRs or walk over 1300 times. (just ask Alex Sanchez). McGwire, even on steroids is more deserving than Rice or Dawson. Tim Raines IMO is an easy HOFer, but because he didn't do the things that voters really care about (hit for high average, hit lots of HRs, drive in runs) and he did things that are always underapreciated (walk, hit for extra base hits, be one of  the greatest base-runners/stealers ever) he probably won't get in. 

The problem with keeping steroid users and/or alledged steroid users out of the hall of fame is that we don't have a definitive list of who used steroids and who didn't. Roids have been around a lot longer than the last 10 years so who's to say they have not been used in the 60's, 70,s or 80's?  They have been around since the 30's  at least in some form or other so who do we paint with the brush?  Little guys who hit homeruns, power pitchers?  Doesn't seem fair to pick on guys who did something that was not banned by baseball and was not even illegal in years gone by.

In the last half-century, the two best leadoff hitters in baseball were Rickey Henderson and Tim Raines.

These were Rock Raines' OPS+ numbers from 1983 to 1989: 129, 138, 153, 146, 149, 120, 132.  In '85 and '86, his OPS+ numbers were second-best in the National League.  He won a Silver Slugger award in 1986.  This is a leadoff hitter winning a Silver Slugger.  He was a faster, more patient Paul Molitor, but without Paul's exceptional decline phase.  I'd rather have Raines on my team than Gwynn.

Next up is the Veterans Committee voting with results to be announced in February.  Ron Santo is on the player's ballot.

The VC should ensure that the egregious exclusion errors of the writers (Arky Vaughan would be the prime example among MLB players) are corrected.  Santo falls squarely within that category.

The vet committee as is today seems to have a lot more trouble putting people in than anyone expected, given no one has made it yet via that method.  I suspect the HOF is putting pressure on them to vote someone in this time.

I'd vote for...
Jim Kaat - 283 Wins, would've had a Cy Young if there were AL and NL versions in 66 (voted TSN AL Pitcher of the Year), 16 gold gloves (record for pitchers, tied with Greg Maddux), very steady long career guy.  FYI: I would for Tommy John on the regular ballot as well
Joe Torre - A mixed player, was a catcher, 1B, 3B who we also curse as a manager :)  Should be in via a special 'overall contributions' category but until the 'Buck O'Neil' award is made I'd put him in the regular area.

Tempting, but no - Luis Tiant, Minnie Minoso, Dick Allen

On the composite ballot I'd go for...
Charlie Finley - Dang he was a fun owner
Whitey Herzog - why isn't he in already?
Billy Martin - one of my all-time favorite managers to hate, he could make any team a winner for a season
Marvin Miller - Changed the game in many ways
Buzzie Bavisi - Changed the Dodgers into a winning organization
Phil Wrigley - kept the lights out of Wrigley Stadium and created the AAGPBL

I would also seriously consider Gabe Paul, Dick Williams, and Doug Harvey

A large list for that composite ballot, largely due to the Vet's not putting any of them in for quite a few years now.

If no one gets in this time I suspect we'll see the Vet committee revamped again.