Hall Balloting

The Hall of Fame Class of 2011 will be announced on January 5th.
I have to believe that Roberto Alomar and, finally, Bert Blyleven will get the nod. Alomar received 73.7 percent of the vote last year, his first of eligibility while Blyleven garnered 74.2 percent in his 13th year of eligibility. 75% of the vote is needed to enter Cooperstown.
Those on the ballot for the first time, in alphabetical order: Carlos Baerga, Jeff Bagwell, Brett Boone, Kevin Brown, John Franco, Juan Gonzalez, Marquis Grissom, Lenny Harris, Bobby Higginson, Charles Johnson, Al Leiter, Tino Martinez, Raul Mondesi, John Olerud, Rafael Palmeiro, Kirk Rueter, Benito Santiago, B.J. Surhoff and Larry Walker.
Those players who don't get 5% of the vote will be eliminated from the ballot for good. So, say goodbye to Baerga, Boone, Brown, Grissom, Harris, Higginson, Johnson, Martinez, Mondesi, Rueter, Santiago and Surhoff.
The others I think will get at least 5%.
Of the first timers on the ballot, I think eventually Jeff Bagwell will get in. He belted 449 homers, more than 15 hundred RBI's and more than 2,300 hits. He also finished with an impressive .297 lifetime batting average.
Larry Walker had Hall of Fame talent. But too many injuries and too many inconsistent seasons leave him short. But I think he'll stay on the ballot for a while.
Obviously, the steroid stuff will kill the chances of Santiago and Palmeiro.
I'm sure a lot of people are having a laugh that guys like Lenny Harris and Kirk Rueter are on the ballot. However, I think it is a nice gesture to put guys who had serviceable big league careers on the ballot at least once. It almost verifies their achievements although they were never in the Hall of Fame player category.
If I had a vote, I would vote for, in this order, Alomar, Blyleven, Jack Morris, Barry Larkin and Jeff Bagwell.