Circle of Greats Round 31 Results: No More Waiting For Lefty |

It may not have been passionately dramatic, but this round continued the recent trend of pitchers taking the top several vote-getting spots. Steve Carlton, freed of the competition from Tom Seaver he faced in the previous round, surged to the top spot, solidly ahead of Nolan Ryan and Jim Palmer, who landed in second and third places respectively. Carlton becomes the 31st inductee into the High Heat Stats Circle of Greats (COG). More on Lefty and the voting after the jump.

Most Career Strikeouts by a Pitcher, Regular Season, in National League History:
1. Steve Carlton 4,000
2. Greg Maddux 3,371
3. Tom Seaver 3,272
4. Bob Gibson 3,117
5. John Smoltz 3,051

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— Jim Palmer and Nolan Ryan each garnered enough support to add extra eligibility to his stash.

— On the other hand, Graig Nettles, who just managed to get enough support last round to stay on the ballot after his first appearance, fell well short this time and drops off the ballot. He could return if he gets enough support in the next redemption round.

— All the other holdovers appeared on enough of your ballots to avoid losing any eligibility, but not enough to accumulate any additional rounds.

— With Carlton being inducted, Nettles dropping out, and no one from the current half of the 1943 birth-year group coming anywhere near getting enough support to survive, the holdover list falls from 13 guys this round to 11 in the next round.

As usual, you can check out the complete voting record for this past round at Google Docs. The link is here: COG 1943 Part 1 Round Vote Tally

If you would like to review the history of the COG voting, a spreadsheet summary of the voting is here: COG Vote Summary , with a summary of the raw vote totals on Sheet 1 and a summary of the percentage totals on Sheet 2.

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The Circle of Greats membership thus far (this week, in order of major league regular season games played):
Rickey Henderson, 3,081 games
Cal Ripken, Jr., 3,001 games
Barry Bonds, 2,986 games
Robin Yount, 2,856 games
Reggie Jackson, 2,820 games
George Brett, 2,707 games
Paul Molitor, 2,683 games
Ozzie Smith, 2,573 games
Tim Raines, 2,502 games
Carlton Fisk, 2,499 games
Rod Carew, 2,469 games
Wade Boggs, 2,440 games
Tony Gwynn, 2,440 games
Mike Schmidt, 2,404 games
Frank Thomas, 2,322 games
Gary Carter, 2,295 games
Alan Trammell, 2,293 games
Barry Larkin, 2,180 games
Johnny Bench, 2,158 games
Jeff Bagwell, 2,150 games
Larry Walker, 1,988 games
Mike Piazza, 1,912 games
Greg Maddux, 744 games
Steve Carlton, 741 games
Roger Clemens, 709 games
Bert Blyleven, 692 games
Tom Glavine, 692 games
Tom Seaver, 656 games
Randy Johnson, 618 games
Curt Schilling, 569 games
Mike Mussina, 537 games

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mosc

11 years ago

I was pleasantly surprised to see Palmer get >25% support. He was a proven ace in an era dominated by aces. The word gets tossed around too often, to me ace includes post season dominance. Palmer was a proven post season performer as well.

Hartvig

First, I find it a little remarkable that the support for our long term holdovers has remained so consistent for so long, There are a couple of gaps in there where it wavered for a moment for Lofton & Martinez but as soon as they were back on the ballot it returned to where it had been. If I had to bet, I would say that most if not all will eventually find their way into the Circle Of Greats. As far as Nettles goes, for me he falls in that large group of players- maybe an average of maybe… Read more »

bells

Reply to Hartvig

I would definitely bet that all of the players currently on the ballot will end up in the CoG. I know it’s been mentioned before (by me and others), but after (before?) 1930, there are a lot more spaces for holdovers to be considered, especially if we stick with the current ‘double election every 3 years’ plan. I think that by the 1910s, we’ll have space to consider the Bells, the Bandos, Reuschels, Randolphs, Nettles’, etc. The voting will be interesting for the CoG, but possibly even more so for the (hopefully more frequent?) redemption rounds. Also, while I’m commenting,… Read more »

Since Rivera’s career is now complete and thus the book is closing on 1969, could we skip the next “part 2” round and instead run a 1969 player to pick up Mo and Jr?

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birtelcom

Reply to mosc

Hang in there, mosc, I know you’ve been waiting eagerly for the the 1969 vote. My current target period for that step is the week of December 9, the first anniversary of the COG, and a point at which the post-season and awards season will be well behind us.