IBWAA Selects Vladimir Guerrero, Ivan Rodriguez in 2017 HOF Vote

The individual ballots weren’t subject to quite the same public excoriation as those of our BBWAA brethren and these results hold no sway over the gates of Cooperstown, but the IBWAA Hall of Fame voting is a fun exercise nonetheless. I think it may also serve a bellwether of sorts when it comes to how the “actual” baseball writers’ vote will trend in the near future. As attrition and addition continue to change the makeup of that voting body, we may see more progressive views take hold.

Or maybe we won’t, who knows. Anyway, the results of the IBWAA vote are below, preceded by the press release that explains a little bit about the process and why you don’t see a couple other names in the headline.

Los Angeles – In its eighth annual Hall of Fame election, the IBWAA selected Vladimir Guerrero and Ivan Rodriguez, both with 84.54% of the vote (175 votes). A 75% threshold is required for election.

Mike Mussina came up one vote short, finishing in third place with 74.88%, followed by Trevor Hoffman (73.91%), Barry Bonds (73.43%) and Roger Clemens (71.50%). There are 470 members in the IBWAA; 208 voted in this election.

Jeff Bagwell (2015), Edgar Martinez (2016) and Tim Raines (2015) did not appear on the 2017 IBWAA Hall of Fame ballot because they have already been honored in previous IBWAA elections. 

With those exceptions, the IBWAA ballot was identical to the one used by the BBWAA. All voting is done electronically.

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 2017 election, 92 members voted for 10 or more candidates. Seventeen members voted for 15 candidates. The average vote per member was 8.94.

Complete voting results are as follows: