Circle of Greats: 1946 Part 1 Balloting

This post is for voting and discussion in the twenty-seventh round of balloting for the Circle of Greats.  This round begins to add those players born in 1946.  Rules and lists are after the jump.

Players born in 1946 will be brought on to the COG eligible list over two rounds — the top half of the alphabet this round and the bottom half of the alphabet next round.  The new group joins the holdovers from previous rounds to comprise the full group eligible to receive your votes this round.  The new group of 1946-born players, in order to join the eligible list, must have played at least 10 seasons in the major leagues or generated at least 20 Wins Above Replacement (“WAR”, as calculated by baseball-reference.com, and for this purpose meaning 20 total WAR for everyday players and 20 pitching WAR for pitchers).

Each submitted ballot, if it is to be counted, must include three and only three eligible players.  The one player who appears on the most ballots cast in the round is inducted into the Circle of Greats.  Players who fail to win induction but appear on half or more of the ballots that are cast win four added future rounds of ballot eligibility.  Players who appear on 25% or more of the ballots cast, but less than 50%, earn two added future rounds of ballot eligibility.  Any other player in the top 9 (including ties) in ballot appearances, or who appears on at least 10% of the ballots, wins one additional round of ballot eligibility.

All voting for this round closes at 11:00 PM EDT on Friday, August 30, while changes to previously cast ballots are allowed until 11:00 PM EDT Wednesday, August 28.

If you’d like to follow the vote tally, and/or check to make sure I’ve recorded your vote correctly, you can see my ballot-counting spreadsheet for this round here: COG 1946 Round 1 Vote Tally.  I’ll be updating the spreadsheet periodically with the latest votes.  Initially, there is a row in the spreadsheet for every voter who has cast a ballot in any of the past rounds, but new voters are entirely welcome — new voters will be added to the spreadsheet as their ballots are submitted.  Also initially, there is a column for each of the holdover players; additional player columns from the new born-in-1946 group will be added to the spreadsheet as votes are cast for them.

Choose your three players from the lists below of eligible players.  The 11 current holdovers are listed in order of the number of future rounds (including this one) through which they are assured eligibility, and alphabetically when the future eligibility number is the same.  The new group of 1946 birth-year guys are listed below in order of the number of seasons each played in the majors, and alphabetically among players with the same number of seasons played.  In total there were 38 players born in 1946 who met the “10 seasons played or 20 WAR” minimum requirement. 19 of those are being added to the eligible list this round (alphabetically from Bobby Bonds through Art Howe).  The 19 players further down in the alphabet (including guys such as Reggie Jackson and Catfish Hunter) will be added next round.

Holdovers:
Lou Whitaker (eligibility guaranteed for 10 rounds)
John Smoltz (eligibility guaranteed for 8 rounds)
Bobby Grich (eligibility guaranteed for 3 rounds)
Edgar Martinez (eligibility guaranteed for 3 rounds)
Roberto Alomar (eligibility guaranteed for 2 rounds)
Craig Biggio (eligibility guaranteed for 2 rounds)
Carlton Fisk (eligibility guaranteed for 2 rounds)
Nolan Ryan (eligibility guaranteed for 2 rounds)
Kenny Lofton (eligibility guaranteed for this round only)
Eddie Murray (eligibility guaranteed for this round only)
Ryne Sandberg (eligibility guaranteed for this round only)

Everyday Players (born in 1946, ten or more seasons played in the major leagues or at least 20 WAR):
Ken Henderson
Bobby Bonds
Willie Crawford
Joe Ferguson
Ken Boswell
Ed Herrmann
Art Howe
Gene Clines
Nate Colbert
Frank Duffy
Tom Egan

Pitchers (born in 1946, ten or more seasons played in the major leagues or at least 20 WAR):
Rollie Fingers
Ken Forsch
Larry Dierker
Pedro Borbon
Jim Colborn
Al Fitzmorris
Alan Foster
Danny Frisella

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mo
mo
11 years ago

whitaker, grich, biggio

Jeff Harris
Jeff Harris
11 years ago

Whitaker, Smoltz, Biggio

Ed
Ed
11 years ago

Too bad Reggie can’t be on this ballot. Then we’d have the all time strikeout king among pitchers (Ryan) going up against the all time strikeout king among batters. BTW, Ryan and Reggie went head to head 81 times, and nearly half of those battles (40) ended in a walk or a strikeout.

Ed
Ed
11 years ago
Reply to  birtelcom

Thanks Birtelcom! Looks like the “log5” was right on the mark.

Nick Pain
Nick Pain
11 years ago

Ryan, Whitaker, Fisk

wx
wx
11 years ago

Edgar Martinez, Lou Whitaker, Nolan Ryan

Voomo Zanzibar
Voomo Zanzibar
11 years ago

up the middle…

Kenny Lofton
Carlton Fisk
Nolan Ryan
_____________

Mike
Mike
11 years ago

Biggio
Fisk
Ryan

mosc
mosc
11 years ago

Ryan, Fisk, Sandberg

CursedClevelander
CursedClevelander
11 years ago

Wonder if any of the newbies will get support. Bobby Bonds had a nice career, but nothing CoG-worthy. Rollie Fingers seems likely to get some token support to keep him on the ballot, but is a longshot to ever merit induction.

MJ
MJ
11 years ago

Bobby Grich, Lou Whitaker, Edgar Martinez

Chris C
Chris C
11 years ago

Fisk, Biggio, Edgar Martinez

Artie Z.
Artie Z.
11 years ago

Fisk, Alomar, and Murray

Phil
11 years ago

Alomar, Ryan, Fisk.

latefortheparty
latefortheparty
11 years ago

Lou Whitaker
Bobby Grich
Carlton Fisk

Dr. Doom
Dr. Doom
11 years ago

Bobby Grich
Ryne Sandberg
Edgar Martinez

Really wishing (for like the millionth time) that I could throw Kenny Lofton a vote, but he’s JUST on the outside of this group, and I think all three of these guys are fringe-vote-getters, anyway. So I feel like they all need my support. This is getting tough for these guys on the backlog. I know we’ve been saying that forever, but it’s true.

Mike HBC
Mike HBC
11 years ago

Ryan, Fisk, Grich

bcholm
bcholm
11 years ago

Whitaker, Fisk, Sandberg

paget
paget
11 years ago

David, Mark, Winfield.

(Just kidding..)

Smoltz, Murray, Ryan.

Doug
Editor
11 years ago

Fingers, Lofton, Alomar

Andy
Andy
11 years ago

Fisk
Lofton
Nolan Ryan

ATarwerdi96
11 years ago

Edgar Martinez, Bobby Grich, Lou Whitaker

Bix
Bix
11 years ago

Grich, Martinez, Lofton

e pluribus munu
e pluribus munu
11 years ago

Whitaker, Smoltz, Fisk

I can still hear the sound of Trammell’s voice when he gave his CoG induction speech, his voice faltering in the wind as he pleaded with the voters who had made him wait so long to speed Lou in quickly after. Tears surely misted the sight of the ghosts in Baseball Valhalla as the words rose to them in the warm summer air, but the dry-eyed WAR-mongers of HHS turned a deaf ear . . .

And while we’re at it, whatever happened to Baseball Valhalla, anyway?

Arsen
Arsen
11 years ago

Whitaker, Fisk, Alomar
I’ve been voting for Alomar pretty much every year. Now I just feel desperate to get a second baseman in so I’m adding Whitaker. Maybe if we can break the logjam at second by getting one guy in a few more will follow since the votes won’t be split so many ways.

David Horwich
David Horwich
11 years ago
Reply to  Arsen

I’ve been voting for Alomar, too, although I expect it’ll be a long time, if ever, that he gets in…the ‘problem’, of course, is that the group of second baseman currently on the ballot are too tightly clustered together in value for any one of them to stand out above the rest. Whitaker has received the most consistent support, as evidenced by his accumulated rounds of eligibility, but he’s never finished higher than 3rd; which is about where I’d guess he’ll end up this time around. But fear not: Joe Morgan arrives on the ballot in 1943, & I would… Read more »

T-Bone
T-Bone
11 years ago

Sandberg
Grich
Lofton

koma
koma
11 years ago

John Smoltz, Craig Biggio, Nolan Ryan

David Horwich
David Horwich
11 years ago

Alomar, Fisk, Edgar Martinez

I “went strategic” last round – looks like it was my vote that kept Sandberg on the ballot – so I won’t be surprised if I do so again this time around, especially if Ryno again ends up in danger of falling off. But for now I’ll take the 3 listed above. I’ll be surprised if any of the class of 1946/Pt 1 draws enough support to make it to Pt 2.

Darien
11 years ago

Biggio, Lofton, and Ryan

Hub Kid
Hub Kid
11 years ago

Fisk, Lofton, Grich

Mike G.
Mike G.
11 years ago

Fisk, Lofton, Sandberg

Hub Kid
Hub Kid
11 years ago

Birtelcom, how did Bobby Grich get 3 rounds of eligibility?

I count 4 rounds, from receiving above 25% of the vote twice, and above 10% in the other two votes since 1949 pt. 1.

Apologies if I missed something, and, of course, if Birtelcom didn’t generously make the information available, I couldn’t be asking impertinent questions.

bells
bells
11 years ago
Reply to  Hub Kid

I think it’s that you get an extra round of eligibility for getting above 25%, and 10% just allows you to stay on the ballot for the next round. So Grich got 2 extra rounds of eligibility from receiving above 25% twice, and got 10% last time so was allowed to stay on the ballot without losing an accumulated extra round, so this time he’s got 3 rounds of eligibility. The fact that he got 10% another time is neither here nor there, that just allowed him to stay on the ballot. So if Grich gets 15% of the vote… Read more »

bells
bells
11 years ago
Reply to  birtelcom

Sorry, I should’ve just let you answer… I suffer from the common flaw of not being able to resist the alluring call of an internet message board question I think I can answer.

Hub Kid
Hub Kid
11 years ago
Reply to  Hub Kid

Thanks to Bells and Birtelcom for setting me straight. I know there is a system, but I misinterpreted it, and I may have missed an earlier explanation, too.

Kirk
Kirk
11 years ago

Fisk, Alomar & Smoltz

JEV
JEV
11 years ago

Fisk, Smoltz, Biggio

KalineCountry
KalineCountry
11 years ago

Whitaker, Grich, Fingers.

brp
brp
11 years ago

Grich
Lofton
Whitaker

subject to change

Abbott
Abbott
11 years ago

Ryan, Biggio, Grich

GrandyMan
GrandyMan
11 years ago

Whitaker, Smoltz, and the Ryan Express (who I think is now so overrated that he’s underrated)

Chad
Chad
11 years ago

Whitaker, Ryan, Smoltz

Dr. Remulak
Dr. Remulak
11 years ago

Biggio, Smoltz, Ryan

Gary Bateman
Gary Bateman
11 years ago

Alomar, Smoltz, Ryan

Hartvig
Hartvig
11 years ago

Sandberg, Whitaker, Fisk

RonG
RonG
11 years ago

Grich, Fisk, Ryan

Aidan Mattson
Aidan Mattson
11 years ago

Murray, Fisk, Smoltz

Luis Gomez
Luis Gomez
11 years ago

Alomar, Whitaker, Ryan.

Bill Johnson
Bill Johnson
11 years ago

Witaker, Smoltz and Ryan.

Joel
Joel
11 years ago

Ryan
Fisk
Biggio

Dalton Mack
Editor
11 years ago

Whitaker, Grich, Lofton

oneblankspace
oneblankspace
11 years ago

Fisk, Biggio, Rollie Fingers

Fisk retired with the most games caught. Biggio has the most right-handed doubles of all time and was a rare C/CF (although primarily a 2B). Fingers retired with the saves record.

bstar
11 years ago
Reply to  oneblankspace

Oh, cool. I tracked Biggio’s doubles total for years and never realized he was the RHB leader in that category.

Fireworks
Fireworks
11 years ago

Sweet Lou. Pudge. The Ryan Express.

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
11 years ago

Smoltz, Murray, Martinez