2014 Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot Released

The National Baseball Hall of Fame has released its ballot for 2014, one that includes 19 new candidates, according to its official website. 

This year's ballot is highlighted by pitchers Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine. Maddux won four consecutive National League Cy Young Awards from 1992-95 with the Atlanta Braves and Chicago Cubs and earned eight All-Star nods over the course of his impressive 23-year MLB career.

His former teammate Glavine was a 10-time All-Star and won two National League Cy Young Awards during his 22 professional seasons.

Player	First-Timers
Moises Alou	*
Jeff Bagwell
Armando Benitez	*
Craig Biggio
Barry Bonds
Sean Casey	*
Roger Clemens
Ray Durham	*
Eric Gagne	*
Tom Glavine	*
Luis Gonzalez	*
Jacque Jones	*
Todd Jones	*
Jeff Kent	*
Paul Lo Duca	*
Greg Maddux	*
Edgar Martinez
Don Mattingly
Fred McGriff
Mark McGwire
Jack Morris
Mike Mussina	*
Hideo Nomo	*
Rafael Palmeiro
Mike Piazza
Tim Raines
Kenny Rogers	*
Curt Schilling
Richie Sexson	*
Lee Smith
J.T. Snow	*
Sammy Sosa
Frank Thomas	*
Mike Timlin	*
Alan Trammell
Larry Walker

The majority opinion is that Maddux and Glavine have the best shot on the ballot to earn the 75 percent required to be enshrined into the Hall of Fame. In addition to their aforementioned accomplishments, both won more than 300 games over the course of their major league careers, which places them in the top 25 of all time in that category.

Barry M. Bloom of MLB.com provided this quote from Glavine, who spoke on his chances of reaching the Hall of Fame:

"

I'm confident at some point in time it's going to happen. Whether it's on the first ballot, I don't know. We'll see. There are a lot of good players eligible. Would I love to have it happen on the first ballot? Sure. If it doesn't, I'd be disappointed. But we'll gear up for the following year and hopefully it will happen the following year.

"

Last year's ballot failed to turn in a winning candidate for the first time since 1996 as not a single player was able to win over at least three-fourths of the 600 voters from the Baseball Writers' Association of America. 

Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds are two players that many will have an eye on, as their association with performance-enhancing drugs has been a huge talking point regarding their potential enshrinement.

David Cameron of Fangraphs.com provides an interesting fact about players on this year's ballot:

Voters have until Dec. 31 to mail in their ballot and results will be announced on Jan. 8.  

As far as potential inductees who made a name for themselves at the plate, two-time American League MVP Frank Thomas (1993-94) and 2000 National League MVP Jeff Kent stand out as first-timers on the 2014 ballot.

With a pair of 300-plus-win pitchers on the ballot this year, it'll be interesting to see how the voters decide. 

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