Election results of the National Baseball Hall of Fame's Modern Baseball Era ballot will be announced live on MLB Network and MLB.com at 6 p.m. ET tonight. There are 16 voting members on the Hall of Fame board-appointed electorate for the Modern Baseball Era ballot. Each of the 16 voters can choose up to four nominees, and a finalist must receive at least 75 percent of the vote to be elected and earn induction into the Hall on July 29 in Cooperstown.
The 10 Modern Baseball Era finalists include nine former players and one former executive: Steve Garvey, Tommy John, Don Mattingly, Marvin Miller, Jack Morris, Dale Murphy, Dave Parker, Ted Simmons, Luis Tiant and Alan Trammell.
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The suspense helps kick off Major League Baseball's Winter Meetings in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Any living finalists who are elected will appear at a news conference on Monday at the Winter Meetings.
Each finalist was selected by the Historical Overview Committee, appointed by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, from all eligible candidates among managers, umpires, executives and retired players whose most significant career impact was realized from 1970-87.
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Here is a look at each finalist's individual case, ranking players by their highest percentage of votes received during their prior eligibility on the annual BBWAA ballot.
Morris: Pitched 18 seasons for Tigers, Twins, Blue Jays and Indians, winning 254 games and earning five All-Star Game selections. Morris made 14 Opening Day starts and pitched for four World Series winners, clinching the 1991 Fall Classic with 10 unforgettable shutout innings in Game 7. He topped 200-inning mark 11 times and threw 175 complete games. Morris reached 67.7 percent in the BBWAA ballot before his eligibility expired.
Garvey: Third time on a Veterans Committee ballot. Garvey holds the record for consecutive games played in the National League (1,207) while playing for the Dodgers and Padres. He hit .338 with 11 homers and 31 RBIs in 11 postseason series, and was named the 1978 and '84 NLCS MVP. Garvey also won the 1974 NL MVP Award and four Gold Glove Awards.
Trammell: The Tigers shortstop from 1977-96, Trammell has a JAWS rating (Jay Jaffe's WAR scoring system) of 57.5 percent, which puts him 11th all-time among shortstops, one spot ahead of Derek Jeter. All iof the shortstops in the top 10 are in Cooperstown except Alex Rodriguez and Bill Dahlen. WAR flip-flops Trammell and Jeter in those same rankings. Trammell's .976 fielding percentage is comparable to Hall of Fame shortstop contemporaries Ozzie Smith and Barry Larkin.
John: Synonymous with the groundbreaking arm surgery he had to get 14 more years out of a 26-year pitching career, John finished with a record of 288-231 and a 3.34 ERA. He ranks just 83rd all-time in JAWS among starting pitchers, but his 700 career starts rank eighth on the all-time list and his 4,710.1 innings are 20th.
Tiant: His highest BBWAA vote percentage (30.9) was in 1988, his first of 15 years on the ballot. The Cuban right-hander with the fu manchu mustache and quirky delivery -- pausing to glance toward center field -- won 229 games in 19 seasons and recorded a 3.30 ERA, mostly for the Indians, Red Sox and Yankees. He won at least 20 games in four seasons.
Mattingly: No. 23 is in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium, after a 14-year career in which the beloved first baseman hit .307 and compiled 222 homers, 2,153 hits and nine Gold Glove Awards. The six-time All-Star won the 1984 AL batting title and was named 1985 AL MVP. He tied Dale Long's record in '87 by homering in eight consecutive games.
Parker: Nicknamed "Cobra," Parker batted .290 over 19 seasons with six teams, including 11 years in Pittsburgh and four in Cincinnati, and amassed 339 homers, 1,439 RBIs and two batting titles (1977-78). The 1978 NL MVP was a seven-time All-Star and five-tool player who led the NL in total bases three times and was part of World Series champions in Pittsburgh (1979) and Oakland ('89).
Murphy: Murphy won consecutive NL MVP Awards in 1982-83 during his 18-year career with Braves, Phillies and Rockies. A bright spot on generally bad Atlanta teams for most of his career, the seven-time All-Star finished with 398 homers, 1,266 RBIs and five Gold Gloves. He appeared in 160 or more games in five consecutive seasons and joined the 30-homer/30-steal club in 1983.
Simmons: "Simba" ranks 10th all-time among catchers with a 42.4 JAWS rating, and is 11th in WAR (50.1). On both of those lists, the only catcher ahead of him not in the Hall of Fame is Joe Mauer. Simmons played 21 seasons, totaling a .285 batting average, 2,472 hits, 483 doubles, 248 homers and 1,389 RBIs for the Cardinals, Brewers and Braves.
Miller: Miller is the only non-player and the only deceased finalist among this group. Elected chief of the MLB Players Association union in 1966, he secured free agency for players via the arbitration process, and by his retirement in 1982, the average player salary was about 10 times what it was when he started. Miller passed away in 2012.
Eligible candidates for the Modern Baseball Era ballot include players who played in at least 10 Major League seasons, managers, umpires and executives with 10 or more years in baseball.
This year's panel includes six Hall of Fame players -- George Brett, Rod Carew, Dennis Eckersley, Don Sutton, Dave Winfield and Robin Yount -- in addition to Hall of Fame manager Bobby Cox and Hall of Fame executive John Schuerholz, both of the Braves.
Mets general manager Sandy Alderson, former Blue Jays president Paul Beeston, Reds president Bob Castellini, Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt, Royals chairman David Glass, veteran BBWAA members Bob Elliott and Jayson Stark, and historian Steve Hirdt of the Elias Sport Bureau make up the remainder of the group.
The Historical Overview Committee, which determined the Modern Baseball Era ballot this fall, is comprised of 11 veteran historians.