Baseball Hall of Fame could welcome a huge class for 2015

Was it just two years ago that no one was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame?

Today, a new class of players will be announced for the hall, and it may be among the biggest ever. The announcement will be made at 1 p.m. on the MLB Network.

Voters can pick 10 players on a ballot (write-in votes are not permitted), and a candidate receiving 75 percent of the vote of all the ballots cast is elected.

This year, voters talked about the difficulty of choosing just 10 players.

“I can’t comprehend why the Hall of Fame allows me — and all of us — to vote only for no more than 10 players,” ESPN’s Jayson Stark wrote. “What a ridiculous rule. What an illogical concept. What an arbitrary number.”

Players who are on the ballot again are Craig Biggio (74.8 percent of the vote a year ago), Mike Piazza (62.2), Jeff Bagwell (54.3), Tim Raines (46.1), Roger Clemens (35.4), Barry Bonds (34.7), Lee Smith (29.9), Curt Schilling (29.2), Edgar Martinez (25.2), Alan Trammell (20.8), Mike Mussina (20.3), Jeff Kent (15.2), Fred McGriff (11.7), Mark McGwire (11.0), Larry Walker (10.2), Don Mattingly (8.2) and Sammy Sosa (7.2).

Among the 17 new players on the ballot are Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz (along with former Royals Tom Gordon and Jermaine Dye). The other 12: Rich Aurilia, Aaron Boone, Tony Clark, Carlos Delgado, Darin Erstad, Cliff Floyd, Nomar Garciaparra, Brian Giles, Eddie Guardado, Troy Percival, Jason Schmidt and Gary Sheffield.

Members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America may vote for Hall of Fame by spending 10 consecutive years on a baseball beat.

This story was originally published January 5, 2015 at 9:57 PM with the headline "Baseball Hall of Fame could welcome a huge class for 2015."