Sodo Mojo’s Hall of Fame Ballot Series, Part 1

The National Baseball Hall of Fame will soon make the announcement of their 2018 class. Ballots from members of the Baseball Writers Association of America were due today, and about 30% of the votes have been revealed.

The Seattle Mariners have had good luck in recent years, sending their first player to Cooperstown in 2016. As the fan base anxiously follows the impressive start of Edgar Martinez, we here at Sodo Mojo have been tasked with filling out our personal ballots.

Before we begin, it is crucial to understand the restrictions placed upon us. First, we are only voting for those players on the official ballot. The players eligible are listed here.

Second, we are only allowed to vote for 10 players. This particular restriction has been heavily debated by many participants, but has fallen on deaf ears thus far. A 10 player limit forces good players off the ballot sooner than they deserve to be.

Along with that problem, the 10 player limit also contributes to back loading the ballot. It works like this. Writer A and 100 of his cohorts want to vote for 12 players. Because of the 10 player limit, players 11 and 12 are forced to stay on the ballot longer than he would, thus siphoning off votes from new candidates.

Ultimately, this self-imposed limit leads to “ballot strategy”. This causes all of the writers to try to figure out the best way to spend their votes, rather than just casting their vote for whoever they deem worthy.

With all this in mind, we present our first writer ballot of the Sodo Mojo Hall of Fame Game!