Only two new faces will be plaqued and inducted into baseball's hall of fame this year, those two were announced today as being Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr., both received more than 97 percent of the vote.
Rich Gossage was the closest non-electee to the hall, just missing by a few percentage points. Ken Caminiti had 0.4% of the required 75%, Jose Canseco finished with 1.1% of the votes, Albert Belle 3.5%, and Mark McGwire with 23.5% of the votes: meaning not a single steroid (or corked batter / stalker / loon) will get into the hall, or this year at least.
MLB Trade Rumors, a very good MLB...rumors site spoke today of Johan Santana having a full no trade clause for 2008 if he finishes in the top three of Cy Young voting in 2007, and as far as his contract season of 2008....well I'll let you read the part that caught my eye:
Now when I said (a week ago, in the 'Perfect Storm' post) that the Rays could have the best offer for Johan I said it both mortified and confident that it could perhaps come to reality, it's more of a compliment to the Rays system.
More to come later.