Hand Full of Atlanta Braves On 2016 Hall of Fame Ballot

Hand Full of Atlanta Braves Hope for Call to Hall

There are a hand full of Atlanta Braves on the National Baseball Hall of Fame ballot this year. Those former Braves are Billy Wagner (2010, 1st year), Garret Anderson (2009, 1st year), Troy Glaus (2010, 1st year), Mike Hampton (2003-08, 1st year), Gary Sheffield (2002-03, 2nd year), and “The Crime Dog” Fred McGriff (1993-97, 7th year).

The announcement for the National Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2016 will be announced on Wednesday, January 6th, 2016.

As a member of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, I have the privilege to cast votes for the Hall of Fame. However, these votes are not considered by the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Still, the only votes that do matter are the traditional baseball writers or the BBWAA.

Though strides are being made to accept the Internet-based writers, the Hall has yet to acknowledge the IBWAA for allowance in to their fold. Hopefully, one day soon, we will be able to cast a counting vote.

This year, even for the BBWAA, the rules have changed. No longer is there a 15 year longevity period to remain on the ballot, though, the 5% rule still applies. That means that to remain on the ballot a player needs to accumulate 5% of the votes.

The longevity time has been cut from 15 years to 10 years; a couple of members are grandfathered in. Those players are Alan Trammell and Lee Smith.

An interesting note, because of the rule change, Mark McGuire is entering his last year of eligibility. This is his 10th and final year on the ballot.

New to the ballot aside from Wagner, Glaus, Anderson, and Hampton, are Ken Griffey, Jr., Jim Edmonds, Trevor Hoffman, Brad Ausmus, Luis Castillo, David Eckstein, Mark Grudzielanek, Jason Kendall, Mike Lowell, Mike Sweeney, and Randy Winn.

There are differences between the BBWAA and IBWAA ballots. The biggest is that Tim Raines, Jeff Bagwell, and Mike Piazza have already been voted in by the IBWAA.

My Ballot

Here are my votes for the IBWAA Hall of Fame vote. The IBWAA can vote up to 15 players. I did not use all my votes. The IBWAA, like the BBWAA, requires 75% of votes for a player to be inducted.

As you can see, I only voted for 10. I did this because I wanted to challenge myself and get a perspective on what the BBWAA writers go through when casting their votes. I also voted for only three first-timers. Junior, Hoffman (who I believe will make it), and Wagner (who I think will not make it in his first ballot).

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Being that none of these votes actually figure into the decision of the Hall of Fame, I will abstain from rambling on with the reasons behind my votes or non-votes. What I will say though, is that I think Griffey, Jr., and Hoffman are shoe-ins. We may only see just those two be elected this year.

In seven days the inductees are announced. You will be able to watch the live announcement on MLB Network, with coverage beginning at 3:00 PM.