With this year’s festivities behind us, we asked David Schoenfield, Sam Miller and Bradford Doolittle about who will be stepping to the podium to be enshrined at next year’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony. We also sought their analysis for how well some of the controversial candidates still eligible for election will do, and how slam-dunk a candidate the greatest reliever of all time might be on the ballot for the Class of 2019.
Predict the 2019 Hall of Fame class (just players who will get in on the traditional vote).
Sam Miller: Edgar Martinez and Mike Mussina, plus the newcomer Mariano Rivera.
David Schoenfield: Edgar Martinez enters his final year on the BBWAA ballot and after receiving 70.4 percent this year, he should get the final push to get over 75 percent. That’s not a guarantee — Jack Morris was close at 67.7 percent his next-to-year last year and then fell back to 61.5 percent. Morris, however, was hurt by the entry of Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine to the ballot, obviously superior pitchers. The only lock newcomer is Mariano Rivera and that’s my prediction: Martinez and Rivera. (Martinez, by the way, was 11-for-19 off Rivera with two home runs.)
Bradford Doolittle: Edgar Martinez, Mariano Rivera, Roy Halladay and Mike Mussina.
Chipper Jones was named on 97.2 percent of ballots, will Mariano Rivera beat that on the upcoming ballot?
Miller: I don’t think he will, just on account of being a relief pitcher. He’s obviously the best relief pitcher ever, he arguably had more impact on championships than any player in history, and I suspect that future generations will remember him a lot more clearly than they will Chipper Jones, maybe even Derek Jeter. But his being a reliever — being perceived as “not good enough to start” — will give a few voters a reason to say no on the first ballot.