This post is for voting and discussion in the 46th round of balloting for the Circle of Greats (COG). This round is for voting on the group of players born in 1933. Rules and lists are after the jump.
This round’s new group joins the holdovers from previous rounds to comprise the full set of players eligible to receive your votes in this round of balloting.
As usual, this new group of 1933-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 (unless they appear on 75% or more of the ballots, in which case they win six added eligibility rounds). 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 PST Thursday, February 13th, while changes to previously cast ballots are allowed until 11:00 PM PST, Tuesday, February 11th.
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 1933 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-1933 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 13 current holdovers are listed in order of the number of future rounds (including this one) through which they are assured eligibility. The new group of 1933 birth-year players are listed below in order of the number of seasons each played in the majors. In total there are 16 players born in 1933 who met the “10 seasons played or 20 WAR” minimum requirement.
Holdovers:
Bob Gibson (eligibility guaranteed for 8 rounds)
Lou Whitaker (eligibility guaranteed for 8 rounds)
John Smoltz (eligibility guaranteed for 4 rounds)
Al Kaline (eligibility guaranteed for 3 rounds)
Sandy Koufax (eligibility guaranteed for 2 rounds)
Craig Biggio (eligibility guaranteed for this round only)
Bobby Grich (eligibility guaranteed for this round only)
Kenny Lofton (eligibility guaranteed for this round only)
Juan Marichal (eligibility guaranteed for this round only)
Edgar Martinez (eligibility guaranteed for this round only)
Willie McCovey (eligibility guaranteed for this round only)
Ryne Sandberg (eligibility guaranteed for this round only)
Ron Santo (eligibility guaranteed for this round only)
Everyday Players (born in 1933, ten or more seasons played in the major leagues or at least 20 WAR):
Tito Francona
John Roseboro
Rocky Colavito
Jim Davenport
Al Spangler
Lenny Green
Norm Siebern
Jerry Lumpe
Gene Stephens
Lee Walls
Pitchers (born in 1933, ten or more seasons played in the major leagues or at least 20 WAR):
Orlando Pena
Ted Abernathy
Ken Johnson
Billy O’Dell
Bob Shaw
Frank Baumann
