The Baseball Writers Association of America ballot for the 2016 Baseball Hall of Fame class has been revealed. Among the first-timers to headline the ballot are Ken Griffey Jr. and Trevor Hoffman.
In the coming months, we'll be taking a closer look at each of the players on the ballot.
Here are the first-timers:
Ken Griffey Jr.
Trevor Hoffman
Billy Wagner
Jim Edmonds
Jason Kendall
Garret Anderson
Troy Glaus
Mike Hampton
Luis Castillo
Randy Winn
Mike Lowell
Mark Grudzielanek
David Eckstein
Brad Ausmus
Mike Sweeney
And the returnees, with the percentage of ballots each accrued last time around.
Mike Piazza, 69.9
Jeff Bagwell, 55.7
Tim Raines, 55
Curt Schilling, 39.2
Roger Clemens, 37.5
Barry Bonds, 36.8
Lee Smith, 30.2
Edgar Martinez, 27
Alan Trammell, 25.1
Mike Mussina, 24.6
Jeff Kent, 14
Fred McGriff, 12.9
Larry Walker, 11.8
Gary Sheffield, 11.7
Mark McGwire, 10
Sammy Sosa, 6.6
Nomar Garciaparra, 5.5
In order to gain enshrinement into the Hall of Fame, players must be selected on 75 percent of the ballots submitted by BBWAA members with at least 10 years in the organization.
Players will fall off the ballot if they receive less than five percent of the vote.
The initial feel is that Griffey is a lock, Piazza has a great chance to move up with the less crowded ballot and Hoffman probably has a shot as well. It'll be interesting to see what kind of gains Bagwell and Raines make now that the ballot is a lot less crowded than the past two votes.
