Mike Silva's New York Baseball Digest » Jeff Bagwell

Pete Rose Received Two Write-In Votes This Past HOF Election

Monday, January 30th, 2012

Update 10 AM: Repoz from Baseball Think Factory has informed me the other Rose supporting is perennial backer Jack McCaffery of the Daily Times in the Philly area. Original Post Last night, I was joined by Marco Maturo, a member of the BBWAA who spent 40 years covering sports for Gannett, which included 7 years on the Mets beat […]

The Hall of Fame SS That was Nearly a Met

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

The terms “Cincinnati legend” and “lifetime Cincinnati Red” were used to describe Barry Larkin yesterday after his election into the Hall of Fame. He also became the 48th member of the Hall to spend his entire career with one team. Born in Cincinnati, Larkin won the 1990 World Series, MVP in 1995, and become the first shortstop […]

NYBD Hall of Fame Results, No Doubt Selections, Predictions

Monday, January 9th, 2012

The Baseball Hall of Fame will announce its 2012 inductees later today. Over the past month I have encouraged readers and listeners to vote in our own BBWAA-style ballot. Here are the results. Jeff Bagwell 61.7% Barry Larkin 57.7% Tim Raines 55.7% Edgar Martinez 43.6% Jack Morris 40.3% Mark McGwire 29.5% Alan Trammell 27.5% Lee Smith 26.8% Rafael Palmeiro 24.8% Don Mattingly 22.8% Bernie Williams 20.1% […]

Voting for the Hall of Fame Based on “Feel”

Wednesday, January 4th, 2012

Forget any stats - advanced or otherwise- let’s do a fun exercise and vote for the Hall of Fame based on “feel.” This isn’t easy since you would have to see someone play for a majority of their career. As mentioned before, if I had a Hall of Fame Ballot it would include  Jeff Bagwell, Edgar Martinez, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Jack […]

Vote: NYBD 2012 Hall of Fame Ballot

Sunday, January 1st, 2012

We are a little over a week away from the Baseball Hall of Fame announcing its 2012 selection. Each year, I give the readers of NYBD an opportunity to cast their own BBWAA-style ballot. Last year Bert Blyleven and Roberto Alomar garnered the most fan support, but not the requisite 75% needed for induction. In December, Gil Hodges received the most […]

Pete Abe Speaks Out Against Baseball “McCarthyism”

Tuesday, December 27th, 2011

Back in the 40s and 50s the United States was facing a huge threat - communism. During this era, thousands of Americans were accused of being Communists or communist sympathizers and became the subject of aggressive investigations and questioning before government. Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy led the brigade with the “Hollywood Blacklist” and investigations by the House […]

BBWAA Will Not Induct Anyone Until 2014

Monday, December 19th, 2011

It’s been nearly 15 years since the BBWAA elected to not enshrine someone in Cooperstown. During the 1996 election, Phil Niekro received 68.3% of the vote, followed by Tony Perez (65.7%), and Don Sutton (63.8%). Ironically, all three would be enshrined by 2000.  I believe there is a good chance no one will be inducted by the […]

Joe Mauer’s Contract, Lesson of Ian Kennedy, and the Carlos Beltran Disaster

Friday, August 19th, 2011

We talk about bad contracts all the time, but watching the Yankees play Minnesota last night got me to thinking about Joe Mauer‘s deal. This is the first year of an 8 year/$184 million dollar deal ($23 million AAV) that Mauer signed last March. It’s hard to argue with the Twins giving him that money. After […]

Looking Back: What If 1994

Thursday, August 18th, 2011

This is a little old, but figured I would share it since we talked about the viability of baseball in Montreal earlier this week. What If Sports ran a sim of the complete 1994 season on the 10 year anniversary of the strike. It’s been 17 years since the players and owners walked out on […]

Pearlman Discusses HOF Vote, Bagwell, Piazza on Radio

Monday, January 10th, 2011

Last night, Jeff Pearlman of Sports Illustrated joined me to discuss his controversial comments regarding steroids and Jeff Bagwell. One of the points that Jeff made, and I agree with, is how MLB hasn’t provided direction on potential PED users in the Hall of Fame like they have with Pete Rose and the Black Sox. […]

Early Look at the 2012 HOF Candidates

Thursday, January 6th, 2011

To wrap up this 24 hours of Hall of Fame, I decided to take an early look at the 2012 ballot, and perhaps project who I would support, and maybe lay out some questions that could be answered over the next twelve months. It appears that Barry Larkin might have the best shot for induction […]

The Internet Will End Steroid Sanctimony

Wednesday, January 5th, 2011

First, congratulations are in order to Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven for their induction into the Hall of Fame. Regardless of what you think about their candidacy, only a small percentage of individuals play Major League Baseball, of that small group, an even smaller percentage are awarded the games highest honor. With that said, I […]

The Role of the “Juiced” Baseball in Offense

Wednesday, January 5th, 2011

There are a contingency of writers that have decided to judge players on the “guilty by association” when it comes to performance in the steroid era. Players who best years happened post 1990 usually fall into this category. Recently, Jeff Pearlman discussed how he holds all the players of this era accountable, regardless of evidence, […]

HOF Prediction: Alomar In, Blyleven Short, Palmeiro Goodbye

Wednesday, January 5th, 2011

Later today the BBWAA will announce the latest member(s) to join the Baseball Hall of Fame. A year ago everyone assumed Roberto Alomar would be a shoo-in his first time on the ballot. Instead, the BBWAA threw everyone a curve and only elected Andre Dawson. As a matter of fact, Alomar got a lower percentage […]

Finall NYBD HOF Ballot Tallies

Monday, January 3rd, 2011

Over the past week I created a survey so we could conduct a BBWAA style ballot for the readers of NYBD. Last year, you elected both Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven to the Hall of Fame. The BBWAA disagreed and elected only Andre Dawson. This year we had greater participation in the vote, and the […]