Hall of Stats

Last Wednesday, the Boston Herald’s Michael Silverman published his Hall of Fame ballot. Silverman checked the boxes next to:

1. Barry Bonds
2. Roger Clemens
3. Greg Maddux
4. Curt Schilling
5. Jeff Bagwell
6. Mike Mussina
7. Tom Glavine
8. Mike Piazza
9. Frank Thomas
10. Tim Raines

Silverman then went on to lament the fact that he needed to cut Edgar Martinez, Craig Biggio, Mark McGwire, and Jeff Kent from his ballot. Leaving aside the fact that he didn’t include Alan Trammell in that list for a moment, this ballot is significant for (at least) one reason: it’s the best ballot published so far this year, according to Hall Rating.

@leokitty has been tracking all public Hall of Fame ballots since 2009. I pulled her latest spreadsheet (as of the morning of December 30) and added up all the ballots, by Hall Rating. Silverman came out on top.

Here are all the collected ballots so far:

Silverman’s placement didn’t come as a huge surprise to me after hearing him speak about this topic last year on Ross Carey’s podcast. Michael clearly gets the objective metrics and is very thoughtful about the entire voting process. I was impressed.

In case you’re wondering how close Silverman came to a “perfect score” (by Hall Rating)… he’s quite close. He would have needed to swap out Thomas and Raines (yes, Thomas actually ranks eleventh) for Trammell and Larry Walker. That “perfect ballot” would have a score of 1965, meaning Silverman achieved 98.7% perfection (again, according to Hall Rating).

My personal ballot would probably differ from the “perfect ballot” a bit. I filled out one online poll and left off Walker and Glavine in favor of Martinez and Thomas. But really, I’d vote for 17 or 18 guys on this ballot. Choosing ten is impossible and counter-intutitive.

It’s fulfilling to see saber-friends Pat Caputo, Dan Shuaghnessy, and Murray Chass near the bottom, isn’t it?

I’ll try to make some updates to this as more ballots come in.