You don’t go into this annual exercise planning to vote for a certain number of players. I’ve been a Hall of Fame voter for 15 years now, and the number of candidates who got a check mark next to their names has wildly varied in that time. I’ve voted for the maximum 10 players before (and probably would’ve voted for an 11th at least once if allowed). I’ve voted for seven players before. I’ve voted for five players before. I’ve voted for three players before.

It’s never been about the final number of check marks. It’s always been about the individual case of each player on the ballot, which some years has produced only a few yes votes and other years has produced a lot.

Suffice it to say, I didn’t enter the voting process this year planning to only select two candidates. I had a hunch the number would be relatively low, but I didn’t expect it to be this low. When I finished the process and realized I only selected two players, I didn’t feel great about it. I decided to re-examine several of my no votes and see if I could come up with a valid reason to change my mind. In the end, I did not.

This evening’s announcement, though, that three players were elected to the Hall of Fame by receiving at least 75 percent support from 394 voting members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America will cause me to do some real soul searching over the next 12 months. While I’ve admittedly held a higher Cooperstown standard than many of my colleagues for a long time now, I’ve never felt badly about that before. But I may need to reconsider that standard now.

Ichiro Suzuki, Billy Wagner and CC Sabathia all were elected to the Hall of Fame tonight, and I only voted for two of them. That’s great for them, troubling for me.

Every Hall of Fame ballot is different. Some years, they’re stacked with qualified candidates, leading at times to a forced paring down of choices to adhere to the Hall’s longstanding rule against voting for more than 10 players. Some years, they’re lacking in obvious choices, which can lead to only a handful of votes and unfortunately no new inductees.

The 2023 ballot leaned more toward the latter description than the former.

Of the 28 names up for consideration – a big drop from the 35-player ballot of 2019 – there were no absolute, slam-dunk choices, no clear first-time electees who don’t even require a moment of research before placing a checkmark next to their name.

There were 14 newcomers to this ballot, and the most notable of them (Carlos Beltran) carried with him the stigma of the 2017 Astros’ electronic sign-stealing scandal. There were 14 returning players who received at least 5 percent support last year, and the best among those were longtime hopefuls Scott Rolen, Todd Helton and Billy Wagner. There were better players than those eligible for election, but each was tainted by the stain of performance enhancing drug usage (Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, Gary Sheffield).

The end result of all that: Rolen was the only player who crossed the sacred 75 percent threshold this year. And he barely did, named on 76.3 percent of ballots. Helton came up just short, receiving 72.2 percent support, with Wagner following him at 68.1 percent.

It’s Hall of Fame election day, and while there aren’t any real significant Nationals ties this year – aside from Jayson Werth making the ballot for the first time – it’s still the biggest story around the baseball world for the next 24 hours. So, let’s take this opportunity to look ahead to what may transpire.

The official announcement is scheduled for 6 p.m. Eastern on MLB Network, but the votes have all been in since Dec. 31. There were 28 players on this year’s ballot, 14 of them holdovers who received at least 5 percent support last year, plus 14 newcomers making their ballot debuts.

We already know the Class of 2023 will include Fred McGriff, the lone player elected last month by the Contemporary Era Committee. That committee, made up of 16 Hall of Famers, baseball executives and veteran media members/historians, overwhelmingly voted not to elect Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling (among others), who all had failed to reach the required 75 percent support threshold on the Baseball Writers Association of America ballot over a 10-year period.

With those noteworthy, controversial candidates passed off to the Era Committee, this year’s BBWAA ballot felt a little less dramatic than in the past. But don’t worry, it still presented several controversial cases, including one for a brand-new reason that never had to be considered before.

I once again had the privilege of voting, and as always, I’ll publish my full ballot and reasons why I voted for or against everyone on the ballot after the official announcement this evening. Until then, here’s a primer to get you set for the festivities …

Boy, does Carlos Beltran dominate the postseason or what? Not only did Beltran go 2-for-6 in last night's National League Championship Series Game 1, driving in two of the Cardinals' three runs in a 3-2 win, including the game-winning run in the 13th inning, but he also threw out a runner at the plate in the top of the 10th, keeping the game tied at that point. What a tremendous play that was, and what a tremendous game we got to see. In his postseason career, spanning 40 games, Beltran is...