Griffey and Piazza to the Hall

The results are now in and Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza will be the Class of 2016 for the Baseball Hall of Fame. A few quick thoughts:

• Griffey's vote percentage of 99.3% is the highest ever. I suspect he reached that level because he was the anti-Bonds. He's probably one of the top 20 players of all time, so it was a no-brainer.
• Piazza made it after three previous attempts. He's certainly the greatest offensive catcher in history. Some people question whether he was on the juice, but there is no evidence of that. A deserving choice.
• Jeff Bagwell and Tim Raines fell just short of induction. I think both will go in next year, as there aren't any obvious new candidates coming on to the ballot for the 2017 class; the two best players in the next group are Ivan Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez, who are both implicated in using PEDs; the only other new candidate who might have a chance is Vladimir Guerrero, but I would take Bagwell or Raines over him.
• Trevor Hoffman started out well and is likely to gain induction within the next two years. Curt Schilling and Mike Mussina are both likely to make it soon as well. I like all of these players.
• I've taken up the cause of Alan Trammell many times, so I won't revisit it. I think he deserves to be in the HOF, as does his double-play partner Lou Whitaker, who barely got a sniff. Those Detroit Tigers teams of the 1980s were excellent and the Trammell-Whitaker combination is arguably the best ever, when you factor in quality and longevity. The Veterans' Committee has some work to do.