Based on the public voting, Jamie Moyer could join a long list of players who received just a single vote for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
While the baseball world eagerly anticipates a player transaction, any player transaction, really anything at all will do, the publicly released votes for the Baseball Hall of Fame keep trickling in. Ryan Thibodaux (@NotMrTibbs on Twitter) is tracking the votes that have been made public so far.
Three other players are close. Edgar Martinez is at 80 percent, and Trevor Hoffman is just behind him at 78 percent. Neither can afford to lose many votes if they are to stay above the 75 percent threshold needed for induction. Mike Mussina, at 73 percent, would need to surge a bit on the remaining ballots to get there.
Another Twitter user, Nathaniel Rakich (@baseballot), is using the currently known votes and previous year’s results to predict the final vote percentage. He has Jones, Thome, Guerrero, and Hoffman making it, with Edgar Martinez falling a half percentage point short and Mussina’s rate dropping into the mid-60s.
SEATTLE, WA – AUGUST 08: Former Seattle Mariners pitcher Jamie Moyer throws out the ceremonial first pitch following ceremonies inducting him into the Seattle Mariners’ Hall of Fame prior to the game against the Texas Rangers at Safeco Field on August 8, 2015 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images) /
Baseball Hall of Fame: Playing by the numbers
Here is a player worth keeping an eye on, but there’s one guy who could extend a Hall of Fame voting streak that stretches back 30 years. Every year since 1987, there has been at least one player who earned a single vote. By “a single vote,” I mean just that: one vote. No more, no less.
This is something of a tradition. There have been players who earned just one vote in almost every BBWAA Hall of Fame election going back to the first group of players in 1936. That year, nine people received a single vote. Six of these nine would eventually make the Hall of Fame (Fred Clarke, Sam Crawford, Home Run Baker, Rube Marquard, Dazzy Vance and Connie Mack).
In the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, it was common for the BBWAA ballot to have 70 or more names listed and there were often 20 or more players who received a single vote. The 1959 ballot contained 154 names, 41 earning a single vote. Sanity prevailed in the mid-1960s when the number of players on the ballot dropped, as did the one-vote guys. Since 1964, there has never been more than seven one-vote guys on the BBWAA ballot.
The mid-1970s had a sudden disappearance of one-vote guys in 1974, 1976, and 1977. The only other year with zero one-vote guys was 1987. Thankfully, reliever Al “The Mad Hungarian” Hrabosky got a single vote in 1988 to start the current 30-year run.
Baseball Hall of Fame: One vote a time
Recent years have seen fewer one-vote guys, likely because there are so many worthy names on the ballot that a voter can’t afford to throw away a vote. In 2015, the only one-vote guy was Darin Erstad. Garret Anderson was that guy in 2016. Last year, it was Tim Wakefield. None of them are Hall-worthy, but they each got a vote.
This year’s only one-vote guy so far is Jamie Moyer. You may remember Moyer from his days pitching for the Seattle Mariners or the Philadelphia Phillies or the Chicago Cubs or the Baltimore Orioles or maybe even the Texas Rangers, Colorado Rockies, St. Louis Cardinals, or Boston Red Sox.
Moyer spent 25 years in the big leagues and won 269 games, which is 35th all-time and more than Jim Palmer, Bob Feller, and Jack Morris, all of whom are or will be in the Hall of Fame. Of course, Moyer also allowed 522 home runs, the most in history, and his career ERA was just barely better than league average.
Baseball Hall of Fame: One vote wonders
The writer who voted for Moyer is Bob Sherwin, currently writing for Golferswest.com. Sherwin is a 34-year newspaper veteran who spent many summers covering the Seattle Mariners. In his column about his Hall of Fame vote, he acknowledges that the nine players he voted for this year are the most he’s ever listed on a ballot.
He didn’t vote for the PED-tainted names like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, or Manny Ramirez. He did vote for the five players most likely to make it this year: Vladimir Guerrero, Chipper Jones, Jim Thome, Trevor Hoffman and Edgar Martinez, along with the guy expected to finish sixth in the final voting, Mike Mussina.
Jeff Kent got a vote from Sherwin, as did Omar Vizquel. Sherwin describes Vizquel as “statistically the greatest defensive player—not just shortstop—in the game’s history.” He didn’t specify what statistics make that claim. Total Zone is used at FanGraphs and Baseball-Reference because it’s calculated through play-by-play data for any player in baseball history. By this metric, Vizquel is not in the top 25 among all fielders in baseball history.
Regarding his vote for Moyer, Sherwin wrote,
“…he’s a guy who won 269 games with a fastball that couldn’t leave a bruise. He was an artist, unappreciated in this power game and someone whose career should be examined as he rolls through.”
Baseball Hall of Fame: Jaime Moyer and the Fountain of Youth.
Moyer was the oldest pitcher to win an MLB game and the oldest to pitch a shutout, which he did as a 47-year-old with the Phillies in 2010 (breaking a record held by Satchel Paige).
Moyer was an interesting pitcher to watch. In the second half of his career, his fastball hovered just a bit above 80 mph, and his curveball floated in at just below 70 mph. He was the proverbial “guts and guile” pitcher who was still slinging it in the big leagues as a 49-year-old in 2012. In fact, most of his success came after he turned 30. He was 34-54, with a 4.56 ERA before his age-30 season, then went 235-155, with a 4.19 ERA after.
He shined during his 11 years with the Seattle Mariners (145-87, 3.97 ERA), which came in the heart of the high-offense era at the turn of the century. When the Mariners won 116 games in 2001, the 38-year-old Moyer was 20-6, with a 3.43 ERA. Two years later, at the age of 40, he was 21-7, with a 3.27 ERA. He also had a 16-7, 3.71 ERA season as a 45-year-old with the 2008 Philadelphia Phillies.
Moyer may not be Baseball Hall of Fame worthy, but he had a long and impressive career. Sherwin gave him a vote. I wouldn’t have because there are so many good players on the ballot and you can only vote for 10 guys, but there have been plenty of one-vote guys who were less deserving.
