I voted in the IBWAA Hall Of Fame election for 2013, in which Mike Piazza was the only player elected this time around.

In its 2013 Hall of Fame election the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) selected Mike Piazza, with 79.10% of the vote. While no other player managed the required 75% threshold, Craig Biggio was closest with 64.18%.

Roger Clemens finished in third place, with 52.24%. Jeff Bagwell and Barry Bonds tied for fourth at 50.75%. Complete results below.

The IBWAA selected Bert Blyleven in 2010 and Roberto Alomar in 2011. No player tallied 75% in 2012. Though he was elected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) in 2012, Barry Larkin remains on the IBWAA ballot.

Beginning with this election, the IBWAA added voting for “special consideration” candidates, those normally associated with the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Veterans and Era Committees. This year’s candidates were Buzzie Bavasi, Gil Hodges, Tom Kelly, Marvin Miller, Danny Murtaugh and Vada Pinson.

My ballot can be found in the lead picture, where a yellow highlight means a vote for the individual and a ‘YES’ next to a name means I would have voted for them if I had room.

These are the overall percentages for the players who got votes:

Discuss?

When the list of Hall Of Fame catchers in Los Angeles Dodgers history is taken into consideration – Roy Campanella & Mike Piazza (not to mention the good showings of Russell Martin & Paul LoDuca) – the recent state of the backstop position in Los Angeles becomes even more depressing.

The future in Carlos Santana gets shipped out, a declining but still solid Martin is let go in favor of veteran retreads like Rod Barajas and Dioner Navarro, and the one guy who can actually benefit the team with his bat (A.J. Ellis) will likely get dumped at the bottom of the lineup. Remember Ned Colletti, the object of the game is to score more runs than the other team.

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Heading into the 2012 campaign, the Dodgers will hand the reigns over to Ellis and his solid defense and excellent on-base skills. Though lacking in the power department, the soon-to-be 31-year-old has a career slash line of .262/.360/.330/.690 with a .314 wOBA (including a career best .346 last season). That pretty much sums his offensive skills up perfectly: decent average, doesn’t hit for power, but gets on-base at a very high level for a catcher. A.J. has appeared in just 87 games at the big league level and his career BB% is 11.5%, though it has trended upwards (10.9%/13.6%).

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It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that A.J. draws walks and gets on, whereas neither Dee Gordon nor Mark Ellis do (recently, at least). So logic would dictate that the guy who gets on-base should bat higher in the lineup, particularly if you want Matt Kemp‘s “Beast Mode” to produce more than solo homers.

Oh, and Matt Treanor was signed to a guaranteed one-year deal with a club option for a second year. His wife is professional beach volleyball player/bikini wearer Misty May, so perhaps she’ll make an appearance or two at the ballpark. That’s about the only plus I can think of regarding him.