Results of this year's Hall of Fame voting were revealed a little while ago, and as many of you have probably heard by now, Edgar Martinez didn't earn election. More significantly, since Edgar wasn't considered a possibility to get elected today, his voter support actually dropped a little from where it was a year ago. Edgar was named on 36.2% of ballots in 2010, but fell to 32.9% this time around.
On the one hand, that's obviously a negative trend, if two data points can ever be considered a trend. Most every Mariners fan supports Edgar's Hall of Fame candidacy, and we would've liked to see him gain a few percentage points, or at the very least remain stable.
But I think what's at the heart of this isn't that a selection of voters changed their minds; rather, I think this year's ballot was considered especially strong, forcing Edgar off a few lists on a temporary basis. Voters are limited to ten picks each year, and while I obviously think Edgar was one of the top ten candidates on the ballot, I imagine more than a few people didn't see it that way. And so, for a few voters, he was left off.
He should be able to gain back that support, and then some, next year. The 2012 ballot isn't looking so hot, with Blyleven and Alomar dropping off and Bernie Williams and Javy Lopez being the best of the first-timers. Limited and imperfect as it is, Baseball-Reference's WAR ranks Edgar's career fourth-best overall in the 2012 group, between Larry Walker and Alan Trammell, and with no sure things, Edgar will earn some consideration.
We've known this would be a long struggle from the beginning, and as Blyleven shows, it's possible for a player to earn election down the road after seeing a drop in support early on. It'll be interesting to see who becomes the new hot topic now that Blyleven's finally in, by the way. Tim Raines and Jeff Bagwell might be the leading candidates, but Edgar's in there as well as a guy with mind-boggling stats, so we'll see. He's still got another 13 years of ballot life, and, overall, he's still in a good position.
Good luck to Edgar. And thank God we can finally stop talking about Bert God damned Blyleven.