The results are in: four players were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame and will represent the Class of 2018. Chipper Jones and Jim Thome got in on their first try, while Vladimir Guerrero (second) and Trevor Hoffman (third) also got in.
From players who made it to those who didn’t, as well as how the controversial figures fared in 2018, we have 10 interesting takeaways from the 2018 Hall of Fame voting.
1) Chipper Jones received a historic amount of votes in his first year on the ballot. He received 410 of 422 votes (97.2 percent). That percentage ties him with his former teammate, Greg Maddux, for 10th-highest percent all-time (Ken Griffey Jr. had the highest percentage at 99.32 percent).
2) Barry Bonds is not much closer to making it than he was last year. He received 238 votes, which is the same amount as he did last year. That actually represents a higher percent than he had last year (56.4 percent to 53.8 percent). That completes his sixth year on the ballot. He has four more years of eligibility on the ballot.
3) Roger Clemens is inching up. He received three more votes than last year (242 to 239). His percentage is up from 54.1 to 57.3. Just like Bonds, he completed his sixth year on the ballot and has four more years of eligibility.
4) One voter left an entirely blank ballot.
5) Curt Schilling is trending upwards and rebounded from a down 2017. In 2016, Schilling had 52.3 percent of votes, but he dropped to 45 percent last year. This year, Schilling received 216 votes (51.2 percent), representing a 6.1 percent increase. Why the increase? Perhaps his time out of the spotlight — he made very few headlines last year compared to his controversial 2016 where he made numerous political remarks and was fired by ESPN — contributed to voters only thinking about his baseball and less about his views. Perhaps Schilling was right about this.
6) Six players did not receive a single vote. Orlando Hudson, Aubrey Huff, Jason Isringhausen, Brad Lidge, Kevin Millwood and Carlos Zambrano will not appear on the ballot next year after getting shut out.
7) Vladimir Guerrero got in a year later than he should have. The 2004 AL MVP received 92.9 percent of votes on the ballot this year (his second year on the ballot), second only to Chipper Jones. A career .318 hitter and 9-time All-Star, Guerrero becomes the third Dominican Republic-born player to be elected to the Hall (Juan Marichal and Pedro Martinez are the others). At 42, he is also the youngest member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. He plans to become the fourth player to enter the Hall as a Montreal Expo.
8) 14 players have been removed from future Hall of Fame consideration for failing to receive five percent of the votes. Those players include: Jamie Moyer, Johan Santana, Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, Chris Carpenter, Kerry Wood, Livan Hernandez, Carlos Lee, Orlando Hudson, Aubrey Huff, Jason Isringhausen, Brad Lidge, Kevin Millwood and Carlos Zambrano. The latter six did not receive a single vote. All the other players received at least one.
9) Jim Thome made it in on his first year on the ballot. He received 379 of 422 votes (89.8 percent). He is the fifth of nine members of the 600 home run club to make it (Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa have failed to be elected, while Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols are not yet eligible). Thome is the first former Cleveland Indian to be elected to the Hall since Bob Lemon in 1976.
10) Next year could be the year for Edgar Martinez and Mike Mussina. Martinez received 297 votes (70.4 percent) in his ninth year on the ballot. He is close to finally making it in what would be his last year of eligibility. Mussina climbed from 51.8 percent last year to 63.5 percent this year. He could make it next year in what would be his sixth year on the ballot. Here are four players we think will make it next year.
