FOURSOME ELECTED IN 2018
Chipper Jones, Jim Thome, Vladimir Guerrero and Trevor Hoffman have been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Designated hitter Edgar Martinez came close after a grassroots campaign to boost him. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, both tainted by the steroids scandal, edged up but again fell far short.
NEW YORK» Over 600 home runs. More than 600 saves. A .300 career average.
In the age of baseball analytics, there’s still room in the Hall of Fame for big, round numbers you can count on.
Chipper Jones, Jim Thome, Vladimir Guerrero and Trevor Hoffman were rewarded Wednesday, easily elected in the newest class headed for Cooperstown.
“I don’t know how you tabulate or calculate WAR,” Jones said, referring to a sabermetric stat that didn’t exist for much of his career.
“Yes, you can dig deeper,” he said. But he added: “What I want to see is batting average, on-base percentage, runs produced.”
Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, both tainted by the steroids scandal, edged up but again fell far short.
A switch-hitter who batted .303 with 468 home runs, Jones was an eighttime all-star third baseman for the Atlanta Braves.
Of the four new members, Jones was the only one to win a World Series. He joined Ken Griffey Jr. as the lone overall No. 1 draft picks to reach the Hall.
Jones and Thome made it 54 players elected in their first year of eligibility by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Jones drew 97.2 percent (410 of 422) of the vote and Thome was at 89.8 percent — 75 percent is needed for election.
“It was waterworks,” Jones said after receiving the call.
Thome hit 612 home runs, ranking him eighth on the career list, and launched a record 13 walk-off homers. The five-time all-star played mostly for Cleveland.
Guerrero was elected in his second try, getting 92.9 percent. The nine-time allstar played half his career with the Montreal Expos.
The outfielder batted .318 with 449 homers and 1,496 RBIs.
Hoffman was chosen in his third year, getting 79.9 percent after missing by just five votes last time. The former Padres closer used an outstanding changeup to post 601 saves, second to Mariano Rivera’s 652.
Designated hitter Edgar Martinez came close, making a big move up to 70.4 percent and fell 20 votes short in his next-to-last year on the ballot. Mike Mussina climbed to 63.5 percent.
Hall of Fame voting
422 votes cast, 317 needed (x-first year on ballot) x-Chipper Jones 410 (97.2) Vladimir Guerrero 392 (92.9) x-Jim Thome 379 (89.8) Trevor Hoffman 337 (79.9) Edgar Martinez 297 (70.4) Mike Mussina 268 (63.5) Roger Clemens 242 (57.3) Barry Bonds 238 (56.4) Curt Schilling 216 (51.2) x-Omar Vizque l 156 (37.0) Larry Walker 144 (34.1) Fred McGriff 98 (23.2) Manny Ramirez 93 (22.0) Jeff Kent 61 (14.5) Gary Sheffield 47 (11.1) Billy Wagner 47 (11.1) x-Scott Rolen 43 (10.2) Sammy Sosa 33 (7.8) x-Andruw Jones 31 (7.3) By receiving fewer than 22 votes (less than 5 percent), the following players are no longer eligible for election: x-Jamie Moyer 10 (2.4) x-Johan Santana 10 (2.4) x-Johnny Damon 8 (1.9) x-Hideki Matsui 4 (0.9) x-Chris Carpenter 2 (0.5) x-Kerry Wood 2 (0.5) x-Livan Hernandez 1 (0.2) x-Carlos Lee 1 (0.2) x-Orlando Hudson 0 x-Aubrey Huff 0 x-Jason Isringhausen 0 x-Brad Lidge 0 x-Kevin Millwood 0 x-Carlos Zambrano 0