Hall of Fame voting

Today the BBWAA will announce their selections for the 2010 Hall of Fame class. It is widely expected that Andre Dawson will be elected and considered likely that some combination of Bert Blyleven, Roberto Alomar and Barry Larkin will join him with Tim Raines, Mark McGwire, Edgar Martinez and Jack Morris all having outside chances.
[note:since I started this post, the announcement came out that Dawson got in alone]

If I had a vote, this is what my ballot would look like:
Raines
McGwire
Alomar
Larkin
Martinez
Alan Trammell

I wold almost vote for Morris, Blyleven, Dawson, and Dave Parker, but each of them have enough negatives that I'd rather not weaken my candidate's chances just because I want to fill out a complete ballot.

My decisions in HoF voting are primarily based on three things: Black Ink Test, Hall of Fame Standards Test and the Keltner Test. Of the candidates that meet those requirements I ask another short series of questions that I think help distinguish the very good from the great and helps identify individuals whose candidacy is best looked at through a particular lense.
That list is this:
1. Was the player the best defensive player at his position of all time? of his time?
2. Was the player the best ever at a particular skill or skill set? top 5? (batting leadoff for example)
3. Was the player one of the 5,10, 0r 15 best ever at his position?
4. Does the player's reputation suffer by comparison to a direct contemporary? (Duke Snider for example)
5. If there were only a limited number of spots int he HoF is there a specific player I would replace with him?

After looking at those 4 tests, I directly compare candidates that are close.
In this case, Alomar is by far the best second baseman not in the Hall of Fame. He should be in the Hall and had people not wasted votes on Don Mattingly, Lee Smith or Harold Baines he would be. (Of course so would be Bert Blyleven who also doesn't deserve it.
Trammell and Larkin are two great players that suffer from comparison to other great player. If I were building a team I would take either of them over Ozzie Smith. While neither put up numbers like A-Rod and didn't field as well as Ozzie, they were both MVP caliber players at Shortstop when there was a distinct lack of great shortstops.
Edgar Martinez gets in for being the greatest DH ever. He was the best pure hitter of his era.
McGwire gets in overMcGriff. McGwire deserved the MVP in 1998 over Sosa and he deseves to be in the Hall. (I'll deal with PEDs in a later baseball post.)
That leaves Raines vs. Dawson. Raines is the second greatest leadoff hitter in history. He deserved the MVP in 1987 over Dawson and he should be remembered as the greater player. Raines had more WinShares for his career and a higher peak. Dawson shouldn't even really be in competition with Raines. Dawson belongs best in a group with Dwight Evans, Jim Rice, and Dave Parker. Raines is closer to Rickey Henderson and Robin Yount.