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<\/a><\/p>\nThe 2024 Baseball Writers of America Baseball Hall of Fame ballots have been announced \u2013 and congratulations to Adrian Beltre<\/strong>, Todd Helton<\/strong> and Joe Mauer<\/strong> \u2013 worthy candidates all.\u00a0 In this post, I\u2019ll be taking a look at the differences (and similarities) between the official BBWAA results and Baseball Roundtable\u2019s unofficial reader\/fan balloting.\u00a0 YOu’ll find some (handy?) charts at the end of the post.<\/p>\n Spreading Out the Love<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The 83 reader respondents and the 385 official BBWAA voters voted for about an equal number of players per ballot.\u00a0 The writers averaged 7.0 players per ballot, the readers 6.9 (a year ago, those figures were 5.9 and 6.2, respectively). The readers, however, spread out their support a bit more. Among readers 14 of the 26 players on the ballot (53.8%) got at least 20 percent of the vote, as compared to ten (38.5%) for the writers.<\/p>\n Getting that Magic 75 Percent<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Among readers, only two players received the 75-percent support required in the BBWAA voting \u2013 First-time candidate Adrian Beltre<\/strong> (90.4%) and Todd Helton<\/strong> (79.7% in his sixth year on the ballot). Coming very close were first-timer Joe Mauer<\/strong> (73.5%) and nine-timer Billy Wagner<\/strong> (74.7%.) The most significant difference, of course, was that Mauer got the necessary 75-percent support among the writers, but fell short among Roundtable readers.\u00a0 In reality, it was not much of a difference.\u00a0 Mauer got 76.1 percent of the writer vote and 73.5 percent among Roundtable reader respondents. (Two more reader votes would have put him at 75.9%.)<\/p>\n The top four players on both tabulations were: Beltre, Helton, Joe Mauer and Wagner (although Wagner and Mauer finished 3-4 with the writers and flipped to 4-3 for the readers.)<\/p>\n The biggest variable came at number five, where Gary \u2018Sheffield<\/strong> got a boost from the writers in his final year on the ballot, going from 55,0% to 63.9, but still falling short. Sheffield finished ninth on the reader voting at 32.5%.<\/p>\n Other notable variations:<\/p>\n Gainers and Losers<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The biggest gainers on the fan ballot were Billy Wagner<\/strong> (up 17.1 percentage points) and Andy Pettitte<\/strong> (up 12.9).\u00a0 The largest declines were Francisco Rodriguez<\/strong>\u00a0 (down 30.1 percentage points) and Alex Rodriguez<\/strong> (down 19.8).\u00a0 Note: Francisco Rodriguez was a bit outlier in 2023, with 42.4 percent in the reader balloting and just 10.8 percent from writers. Things were more aligned in 2023, 7.8 percent\u00a0 from the writers and 11.3% from the readers. \u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n In the official BBWAA voting the movement was not as notable. \u00a0biggest gainers were Carlos Beltran<\/strong> (up 10.6 percentage points) and Gary Sheffield<\/strong> (up 8.9) while the largest decline was attributed to Andy Pettitte<\/strong> (down 3.5 percentage points).<\/p>\n Off The Ballot<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Things were pretty even here.\u00a0 Eight players receive less than the five percent needed to stay on the official ballot, while seven fell below that mark on the reader ballot. A couple of differences:<\/p>\n Who Missing?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n When asked which players no longer on the ballot, they would like to see in the Hall of Fame, readers named 33 different players. Here\u2019s a list of the players mentioned on more than one reader ballot (number of mentions in parentheses).<\/p>\n Barry Bonds (9)<\/p>\n Roger Clemens (9)<\/p>\n Jeff Kent (9)<\/p>\n Lou Whitaker (6)<\/p>\n Pete Rose (5)<\/p>\n Don Mattingly (3)<\/p>\n Mark McGwire (3)<\/p>\n Dick Allen (2)<\/p>\n Dwight Evans (2)<\/p>\n Bobby Grich (2)<\/p>\n Ron Guidry (2)<\/p>\n Keith Hernandez (2)<\/p>\n Thurman Munson (2)<\/p>\n Luis Tiant (2)<\/p>\n Players with one mention: Ken Boyer, Jim Creighton, Bill Dahlen, Rap Dixon, Curt Flood, Steve Garvey, Joe Jackson, Tommy John, Kenny Lofton, Roger Maris, Dale Murphy, Joe Nathan, Al Oliver, Rafael Palmeiro, Dave Parker, Johan Santana, Curt Schilling, Urban Shocker, Sammy Sosa. Side Note: Still waiting for confirmation, but the winner of the prize drawing was a Pennsylvania reader.\u00a0 The prize includes a 1990 Topps Set; A 1986 Topps Traded Set; a Bill Murray minor-league (in uniform) bobblehead; a “The Wizard” replica Cardinals’ Nickname Day jersey; and 1960’s Coke and Fresca bottlecaps with Willie Mays and Bill Mazeroski on the inside.<\/p>\n Primary resources:<\/em>\u00a0 baseball-reference.com<\/p>\n Baseball Roundtable – Blogging Baseball Since 2012.<\/strong><\/p>\n Baseball Roundtable is also on the Anytime Baseball Supply<\/em> Top 66 Baseball Sites list.\u00a0 For the full list, click here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n
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<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>Baseball Roundtable is on the Feedspot<\/em> list of the Top 100 Baseball Blogs.\u00a0 To see the full list, click\u00a0here.<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nI tweet (on X) baseball @DavidBaseballRT<\/h3>\n