The Snakepit Writers Association Hall of Fame

It's time of year again, when Baseball writers wax rhapsodic about their Hall of Fame vote. "Boy." they'll say, "It sure is such a terrible burden checking off ten names on a list as to who I think should be featured in a museum in a village in Central New York. Sisyphus has nothing on me!"

The BBWAA's voting for the Hall of Fame contains vague guidelines as to morality, writers throwing out accusations for fun, writers who have votes that have not covered Baseball in decades, websites buying votes, outrage over websites buying votes, people voting just to spite other people, and the aforementioned burdensome columns.

So of course we at the Snakepit want to get in on that action. We polled the writing staff of this website, and had them submit a Hall of Fame ballot using BBWAA rules (although with more high-tech methods. I have a Gmail account, thank you very much.)

A rundown of the basic BBWAA ballot rules (or at least the ones relevant to this exercise):

- A voter may vote for no more than ten players on the ballot

- Being named on 75% of the total ballots is the threshold for inclusion.

Our voting panel consisted of myself, John, blank_38, Jim, kishi, soco, and TolkienBard Obviously this is a VERY small sample size compared to the enormous voting block of the BBWAA, and it makes the threshold for inclusion at 6 out of 7 ballots, so all small sample size caveats apply.

Without further ado, your Snakepit Hall of Fame Class for 2014 is....

Frank Thomas - 1B, Chicago White Sox
Career fWAR: 72.4

Jeff Bagwell - 1B, Houston Astros
Career fWAR: 80.3

Greg Maddux - SP, Atlanta Braves
Career fWAR: 113.9

Tom Glavine - SP Atlanta Braves
Career fWAR: 64.3

(The team listed is my best guess as to which team the player would be inducted as a member of in the case that they make the actual HOF)

Maddux and Thomas received unanimous support, Bagwell and Glavine got 6 out of 7.

Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mike Piazza, and Craig Biggio fell one vote short of inclusion. Alan Trammell received 3 votes, Curt Schilling and Mike Mussina had 2. Edgar Martinez, Jack Morris, and Larry Walker each had a single vote. All other candidates (List here, use it to cheat on yesterday's sporcle) received zero votes, because Richie Sexson deserves nothing and should like it.

Overall, the panel was kinder to players in the 90s (Read: People, fairly or unfairly, suspected of PED use.) than the BBWAA has been. Bagwell surpassed the threshold, while Bonds, Clemens, and Piazza got slightly higher vote % totals than they have been. Biggio is also on the cusp of actual HOF induction. Maddux, Glavine, and Thomas seem like the overlap in the venn diagram.

Also of some interest: Both league MVP winners and one Cy Young Award Winner from the 1994 strike-shortened season were inducted. (Bagwell, Thomas, and Maddux.) The other, David Cone, fell off the BBWAA's ballot in 2009.

I've given the option for the voters to reveal or not their choices, and they should do so in the comments if they like. In the interest of transparency, here was mine:

Craig Biggio
Jeff Bagwell
Mike Piazza
Alan Trammell
Roger Clemens
Barry Bonds
Larry Walker
Greg Maddux
Frank Thomas
Tom Glavine

Who would you vote in? Let us know in the comments. The actual Hall of Fame inductees (if there are any) will be announced on Wednesday.