Key Dates for the 2016 MLB Regular Season

On Sunday, April 3 the 2016 MLB regular season kicks off with a rematch of the 2015 World Series between the New York Mets and the Kansas City Royals. Most everyone else is in action on April 4 as the 2016 season kicks off and here are a few more key dates for you for this upcoming season. Keep this bookmarked in case you need it.

April 18^th, a Monday in case you were wondering, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs renew their rivalry for the new season with former Cardinals Jason Heyward and John Lackey making their debuts against their former team.

The first Yankees vs. Red Sox game is on Friday, April 29 in Fenway Park while the first game inside Yankee Stadium comes on Friday, May 6^th.

On Friday, July 15 Zack Greinke and the Arizona Diamondbacks face off with his former team the Los Angeles Dodgers for the first time after leaving this winter in free agency. The Dodgers are many people’s pick to win the division but the Diamondbacks are not going to go down without a fight.

Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza take their place amongst the greatest in MLB history when the 2016 Hall of Fame induction ceremony goes down on July 24, 2016. That’s a Sunday by the way.

August 1^st, not July 31^st, is the trade deadline this season. Why? Because July 31^st is on a Sunday. #LOGIC

Tuesday, September 27^th will mark the final time David Ortiz steps into Yankee Stadium during the regular season. How will he be honored and will he get his standing ovation? Stay tuned. 

TGP Prospects Night Open Thread featuring Mariano Rivera

We are almost done with Prospects Month 2016, thank the calendar Gods for Leap Year and the extra day, and we have to go out with a bang. What bigger bang was there in his day than Mariano Rivera, the Sandman? Mariano broke onto the scene as a starting pitcher in 1995 and found his true niche in the Yankees bullpen in front of John Wetteland. 

In this video Rivera throws 3.1 inning of scoreless baseball against the Seattle Mariners in the ALDS. Rivera struck out five and continued to put his name on the map for not only the Yankees but for the league as well. My Baseball Reference won't load right now but from what I remember he did pretty well after this 1995 season and playoff trip, no? If anything he was solid. 

IBWAA Hall of Fame Vote, Edgar Martinez and the Yankees

Quick! Someone tell former Yankees closer Mariano Rivera that if he’s reading to look away, this isn’t going to be pretty. The Baseball Writers Association of America elected Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza into the Hall of Fame while the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, or the IBWAA which I am a lifetime member of, elected Griffey Jr. and Edgar Martinez. In year’s past the IBWAA elected Piazza leaving the gate open for Griffey’s teammate and former DH. We’ve checked in and seen just what Griffey Jr. and Piazza has done against the Yankees so now it would only be right to see the damage that Edgar did to the Yankees during his playing career, especially against the Yankees closer Rivera who he had an extraordinary amount of success against.

I	Split	G	PA	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
	New York Yankees	138	594	95	158	44	22	103	6	88	86	.317	.423	.542	.965

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

By the way Edgar finished his career with a .579/.652/.1.053 triple slash against Mariano. As you can see Edgar was one of the few players to actually have the number of Mariano Rivera in his career. Some players went their entire careers without even making contact against the greatest closer of all-time and much of the contact that was made resulted in a new baseball bat but not Martinez. He owned the Yankees and he owned Rivera specifically. He’s now a Hall of Fame player for the IBWAA, will he ever make it in the BBWAA? Who knows?

Looking Ahead to a Potential 2017 Hall of Fame Ballot

The 2016 Hall of Fame ballot and vote is officially in the books with Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza making their walk into Cooperstown on the BBWAA side of things. As far as the IBWAA goes we elected Piazza in 2015 allowing the Internet Baseball Writers Association of American to elect Ken Griffey Jr. and his former teammate Edgar Martinez into the hall. The 2016 vote is over but it's never too early to look towards 2017.

Here are some notable first time and holdover players that will grace the 2017 ballot:

Mike Cameron
J.D. Drew
Vladimir Guerrero
Derek Lee
Magglio Ordonez
Jorge Posada
Manny Ramirez
Edgar Renteria
Ivan Rodriguez
Jason Varitek
Tim Wakefield

I don't see any slam dunks on this list personally. I believe Vlad will get in and Posada will garner more votes than expected but that's about it. This could potentially open the flood gates of votes for Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and others.

Steroid Era Players, Welcome to the Hall of Fame!

The flood gates are open ladies and gentleman as the first player from the steroid era to either be linked to or suspected of steroid use has made his way into Cooperstown, New York. Congratulations goes out to former New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Mike Piazza on his Hall of Fame candidacy, it’s been a long time coming. It’s also a sign that the times are changing around Major League Baseball, especially in the Hall of Fame voting process. Jon Heyman already went out and defended the fact that he put Barry Bonds on his HOF ballot and you can see now that the numbers for Bonds and Clemens are continuing to rise every year giving hope to anyone and everyone from the steroid era. With Piazza’s induction I can see more and more players from that era getting in, eventually.

Piazza shared the same stage as Ken Griffey Jr. on Wednesday and will share that same stage when they are officially inducted into the Hall later this year. How can you keep out Clemens and Bonds when the sole reason that Piazza was left off was his suspicion of steroid use? You can’t and the doors are about to be ripped from their hinges.

Piazza was a 12-time All-Star and hit 427 home runs in his career with a .922 OPS which both set the tone for the offensive catcher that we see in today’s game. Piazza was a trend setter and he changed the game, suspicion for steroids or not. And that’s the thing, he’s suspected of it. He was never linked to steroids during his career, he wasn’t on the Mitchell Report, and he wasn’t linked to BALCO or Biogenesis or whatever the craze was back then. Nothing. He hit home runs in an era that was tainted by many that hit home runs. That’s all. A wrong has been righted and I can’t say I have ever been prouder of the BBWAA right now. Congrats Mike and congrats to Junior Griffey!

Isn’t it ironic that the man that Roger Clemens threw a splintered bat at during the 2000 World Series between the New York Yankees and the New York Mets may be the same man that gets him into the Hall of Fame? Should Clemens send a thank you card? How does one react in these situations? I for sure don’t know… 

IBWAA SELECTS KEN GRIFFEY, JR. AND EDGAR MARTINEZ IN 2016 HALL OF FAME VOTE

Los Angeles – In its seventh annual Hall of Fame election, the IBWAA selected Ken Griffey, Jr. unanimously (230 votes) and Edgar Martinez, with 75.22% of the vote (173 votes). A 75% threshold is required for election.

 

Trevor Hoffman finished in third place with 70.87%, followed by Mike Mussina (68.26%), Roger Clemens (66.09%, after receiving 64.76% in 2015) and Barry Bonds (65.65%; 63.44% last year). There are 423 members in the IBWAA; 230 voted in this election.

 

The 2016 IBWAA Hall of Fame ballot compared identically to the BBWAA ballot, with the following exceptions:

 

1. Mike Piazza’s name did not appear on the IBWAA ballot because he was elected by the group in 2013.

 

2. Jeff Bagwell’s name does not appear on the IBWAA ballot because he was elected by the group in 2015.

 

3. Tim Raines’ name does not appear on the IBWAA ballot because he was elected by the group in 2015.

 

Per a group decision in January, 2014, the IBWAA allows members to vote for up to 15 players, instead of the previous 10, beginning with the 2015 election. In the 2016 election, 99 members voted for 10 or more candidates. Twenty-one members voted for 15 candidates. The average vote per member was 8.74.

 

Complete voting results are as follows:

 

Player Name	Votes	Percentage
Ken Griffey, Jr.	230	100.00%
Edgar Martinez	173	75.22%
Trevor Hoffman	163	70.87%
Mike Mussina	157	68.26%
Roger Clemens	152	66.09%
Barry Bonds	151	65.65%
Curt Schilling	147	63.91%
Alan Trammell	135	58.70%
Larry Walker	104	45.22%
Fred McGriff	83	36.09%
Mark McGwire	83	36.09%
Jeff Kent	78	33.91%
Lee Smith	75	32.61%
Gary Sheffield	74	32.17%
Billy Wagner	71	30.87%
Sammy Sosa	57	24.78%
Jim Edmonds	50	21.74%
Nomar Garciaparra	14	6.09%
Mike Hampton	3	1.30%
Mike Lowell	2	0.87%
Troy Glaus	2	0.87%
David Eckstein	1	0.43%
Garret Anderson	1	0.43%
Jason Kendall	1	0.43%
Luis Castillo	1	0.43%
Mark Grudzielanek	1	0.43%
Mike Sweeney	1	0.43%
Brad Ausmus	0	0.00%
Randy Winn	0	0.00%

 

Ballot tabulations by Brian Wittig & Associates.

 

The IBWAA was established July 4, 2009 to organize and promote the growing online baseball media, and to serve as a digital alternative to the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA). Voting for full season awards takes place in September of each year, with selections being announced in November. The IBWAA also holds a Hall of Fame election in December of each year, with results being announced the following January.

 

In 2010, the IBWAA began voting in its own relief pitcher category, establishing the Rollie Fingers American League Relief Pitcher of the Year and the Hoyt Wilhelm National League Relief Pitcher of the Year Awards.

Among approximately 400 others, IBWAA members include Jim Bowden, Jim Caple, David Schoenfield and Mark A. Simon of ESPN.com; Tim Brown, Yahoo! Sports; Craig Calcaterra, NBC Sports Hardball Talk; Bill Chuck, GammonsDaily.com; Derrick Goold, St. Louis Post-Dispatch; Danny Knobler, Bleacher Report; Kevin Kennedy; Kostya Kennedy, Sports Illustrated; Will Leitch, Sports on Earth; Bruce Markusen, Hardball Times; Ross Newhan; Dayn Perry and Matt Snyder, CBSSports.com; Tom Hoffarth and J.P. Hoornstra Los Angeles Daily News; Pedro Moura, Orange County Register; Tracy Ringolsby, MLB.com; Ken Rosenthal, FoxSports.com; Eno Sarris, FanGraphs; Dan Schlossberg, USA Today; Jesse Spector, Sporting News and Wendy Thurm.

 

Association membership is open to any and all Internet baseball writers, with a yearly fee of $20, or $35 lifetime. Discounts for groups and scholarships are available. Members must be 18 years of age to apply.

For more information please visit www.ibwaa.com.

Contact:

 

Howard Cole
Founding Director, IBWAAbaseballsavvy@aol.com

Ken Griffey, the Hall of Fame & the New York Yankees

Ken Griffey Jr. is in the Hall of Fame, waiting on the announcement is merely a formality at this point. Just elect the guy, he played in the steroid era but never had any allegations against him and he was the best player in the league for quite a few number of years. As a Yankees fan I was quite happy to see Griffey head to the National League and the Cincinnati Reds later on in his career and I was more happy to see him retire. Griffey killed the Yankees as most of the Seattle Mariners did at that time so I thought I would bring up that painful reminder of what he did against the Yankees in his career and what he did inside Yankee Stadium as a way to honor the Hall of Fame center fielder.

Cringe, then enjoy. 

Griffey Jr. vs. the Yankees:

I	Split	G	PA	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
	New York Yankees	133	572	101	156	26	36	102	14	62	86	.311	.392	.595	.987

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Griffey Jr. inside Yankee Stadium:

I	Split	G	PA	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
	NYY-Yankee Stad	65	278	45	76	8	19	53	8	21	42	.300	.360	.565	.925
	NYY-Yankee Stad3	2	9	1	2	0	1	1	0	1	1	.250	.333	.625	.958

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table