BA Mock Hall Enshrines Mariners Teammates Griffey, Martinez
No player ever has sailed into Cooperstown with 100 percent of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America vote. Hank Aaron apparently didn’t accomplish enough for nine writers in the 1982 election because they omitted the home run king from their ballots. More recently, 16 writers failed to vote for Greg Maddux in 2014, and 15 writers left Randy Johnson’s name off their 2015 ballots.
The Baseball America electorate, on the other hand, saw fit to enshrine its sixth unanimous selection to its mock Hall of Fame in 2016. Ken Griffey Jr. appeared on all 23 ballots cast via e-mail this year, and he joins Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and Frank Thomas from the class of 2014 and Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez from the class of 2015 as players who received 100 percent of the BA vote in our three alternate-universe elections.
The BA electorate did not draw conclusions nearly so firm about players other than Griffey on our 2016 alternate-universe ballot, for Edgar Martinez cleared the necessary 75 percent threshold by only one vote. Tim Raines fell one vote short of election after missing by two votes last year. No other candidate cleared 60 percent in the 2016 proceedings.
With just Griffey and Martinez elected from the 2016 ballot, and only one other player (Raines) seriously considered, the BA mock HOF exercise has accomplished its goal after just three elections. By shedding the controversial stars from the ballot, as our electorate did by enshrining 13 players combined in 2014 and 2015, the BA voter bloc was free to consider the merits of a smaller group of players than the BBWAA voters. Thus, we wrestled not with which deserving players to include on a 10-man ballot, but with which borderline players to exclude because their credentials don’t quite measure up to Hall standards.
As to the controversial stars cited above, our electorate granted mock Hall passes—though not unanimously—to Jeff Bagwell (79 percent), Barry Bonds (79 percent), Roger Clemens (83 percent) and Mike Piazza (92 percent) in 2014 and Craig Biggio (95 percent) in 2015. Other non-unanimous selections include Mike Mussina (76 percent), Curt Schilling (81 percent) and John Smoltz (95 percent), all in 2015.
Please note that no one who participated in our mock election is an actual HOF voter, though three BA writers gained admission to the BBWAA in 2015. Those who participated in this vote either work on the BA editorial staff now or spent significant time on staff in the past. We believe that no one takes a broader view of the game than BA, a media outlet that covers players from the amateur ranks through the draft, up the minor league ladder and on to the big leagues.
The Chosen Two
Ken Griffey Jr. and Edgar Martinez join Randy Johnson from last year’s election as three premier stars from the dangerous mid-90s Mariners teams. Martinez stuck around in Seattle long enough to help lead the 2001 team to 116 wins by batting .306/.423/.543 (160 OPS+) in 132 games in his age-38 season. He retired after the 2004 season.
| Player |
Pos | Primary Team | Votes |
Pct |
| Ken Griffey Jr. | cf | Mariners | 23 | 100.0% |
| Edgar Martinez | dh | Mariners | 18 | 78.3% |
A Majority Of The Vote
Three players appeared on more than half of ballots cast but fell short of the 75 percent threshold required for election to our mock Hall of Fame.
Tim Raines and Larry Walker received marginally more support in 2016—but still not enough—while Alan Trammell lost ground. He polled at 61.9 percent last year.
Newcomer Trevor Hoffman and his 601 saves received much more support than fellow closer Billy Wagner.
| Player |
Pos | Primary Team | Votes |
Pct |
| Tim Raines | lf | Expos | 17 | 73.9% |
| Trevor Hoffman | rhp | Padres | 14 | 60.9% |
| Alan Trammell | ss | Tigers | 13 | 56.5% |
| Larry Walker | rf | Rockies | 13 | 56.5% |
More Than A Quarter Of The Vote
Corner players such as Jeff Bagwell, Barry Bonds, Edgar Martinez and Frank Thomas have gained passage to the BA mock Hall, but fellow mashers Gary Sheffield, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire remain on the outside looking in.
| Player |
Pos | Primary Team | Votes |
Pct |
| Gary Sheffield | rf | Marlins | 9 | 39.1% |
| Sammy Sosa | rf | Cubs | 8 | 34.8% |
| Mark McGwire | 1b | Athletics | 7 | 30.4% |
| Billy Wagner | lhp | Astros | 6 | 26.1% |
Pockets Of Support
Four players received scattered votes but probably don’t have enough momentum to gain election one day.
| Player |
Pos | Primary Team | Votes |
Pct |
| Jeff Kent | 2b | Giants | 5 | 21.7% |
| Lee Smith | rhp | Cubs | 4 | 17.4% |
| Jim Edmonds | cf | Cardinals | 3 | 13.0% |
| Fred McGriff | 1b | Braves | 2 | 8.7% |
The best peak performers to receive zero votes in our balloting were shortstop Nomar Garciaparra, third baseman Troy Glaus, catcher Jason Kendall and lefthander Mike Hampton.
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