This Circle of Greats (COG) vote is not to induct anyone into the Circle, but only to select two players who will be restored back on to the main ballot after having been previously been dropped from eligibility. This seventh “redemption round” (we’ve been holding such redemption votes interspersed among the regular voting rounds every tenth voting round or so) gives voters a chance to reconsider past candidates who have previously fallen off the regular induction ballots.
In this round you may include on your three-man ballot any major league baseball player who was born between 1946 and 1969 and has neither been elected to the Circle of Greats nor is currently on the 1907 COG ballot (there will be another redemption round next week for players born between 1908 and 1945). As usual, you must vote for three and only three players to cast a qualifying ballot. The two players who appear on the most ballots will be restored to eligibility for the next regular, induction round of COG voting. If your personal favorite doesn’t come in the top two this time, do not despair — he will have other chances in future redemption rounds to be held from time to time.
There are many players who are eligible for your votes in this redemption round. As an optional aid to your selection process, I’ve put together two spreadsheets, one for pitchers and one for everyday players, that include some stats for a substantial selection of relevant players: Redemption Round 7 Optional Hitter List and Redemption Round 7 Optional Pitcher List. The spreadsheet with everyday players includes the 150 everyday players born between 1946 and 1969 who accumulated at least 25 Wins Above Replacement (baseball-reference version). The list is in order of career regular season plate appearances, from high to low. The pitcher list includes 76 pitchers born between 1946 and 1969 who accumulated at least 25 pitching Wins Above Replacement. That list is ordered based on a formula of career regular season IP+(5*SV), intended to represent a quantity measure of pitching but one that does not banish relief pitchers to the bottom of the list. Again, these spreadsheets represent entirely discretionary lists — your full options are as stated: all major leaguers born between 1946 and 1969 who have not been inducted into the COG and are not on the 1907 ballot that is also the subject of a vote this week.
The deadline to cast your ballots in this redemption round is Monday night, December 29 at 11:59PM EDT. You can change your votes until 11:59PM EDT on Saturday night, December 27. You can keep track of the vote tally in this redemption round here: COG Redemption Round 7 Vote Tally.
As mentioned above, we will have another redemption vote next week that will cover players born between 1908 and 1945.
