Not sure any of the 3 candidates for the Hall are a huge surprise. As part of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance (BBA), I voted for all 3 of them myself. But getting to the required 75% is a huge deal; just ask Tim Raines, who didn’t get there until his final year on the ballot, garners 86.0% of the vote, a big jump from his 69.8% last year. Jeff Bagwell, in his 7th year on the ballot, and how narrowly missed last year with 71.6%, had the highest vote count this year at 86.2%. Rounding out the 2017 class is Ivan Rodriquez in his 1st year on the ballot, with 76%.
January 20th, 2017: Raines, Bagwell and Rodriguez make the Hall…
