As we rapidly approach January, members the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) are filling out their ballots for the 2011 inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame. With the Winter Meetings over, January’s HOF announcement is the biggest story until pitchers and catchers report in about six weeks.
For those of you who don’t know how the balloting works, here is a brief summary. All candidates that received greater than five-percent of votes in the previous year remain on the ballot. Players that have spent 15 years on the ballot without getting elected are dropped.
The holdovers from the previous season are joined new candidates selected form a pool of players that have been retired for five years (or deceased for six months) and played a minimum of 10 MLB seasons.
Voters can choose to put up to 10 players on their ballot. Any players appearing on over 75-percent of submitted ballots are inducted the following summer. With that in mind, here is my ballot.