Mike Piazza is currently at 79 percent for the Hall of Fame

Former Mets catcher Mike Piazza, who is on the Hall of Fame ballot for the third time, has seen an uptick in support.

With 81 full ballots counted, which is 14.2 percent of the total vote based on last year, Piazza’s name has been checked off on 79 percent of them.

During last year’s election, Piazza wound up with 62.2 percent of the vote, up from the 58 percent he received in 2012 (his first year on the ballot).

Joining Piazza on the ballot this year are Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, and John Smoltz, all of whom are expected to gain entry with relative ease.

Full voting results will be announced live on the MLB Network on January 6, with the induction scheduled to take place on July 25 in Cooperstown, New York.

Thoughts:

While Piazza is viewed as the greatest hitting catcher in the history of baseball, there have been a large enough minority of voters who have kept him out of the Hall of Fame thus far due to baseless allegations of illegal performance enhancing drug use.

Piazza never failed a drug test during his career, was never named on a report of users, never had his name connected to PED use by any legitimate source, and has denied using illegal PED’s in both interviews and in his autobiography.

When analyzing the percentage of ballots Piazza has appeared on so far this year, it’s important to realize that it’s almost certain that his final percentage will be lower.

Why?

Historically, the voters who have released their ballots via twitter and/or through columns tend to be more progressive than the older voters who either don’t utilize social media and/or refuse to make their ballots public.

For example, Piazza’s name was checked off on 66.56 percent of all public ballots received last year while his final percentage came in at 62.20 percent.

If you take last year’s negative voting difference (4.36 percent) and apply it to where Piazza is right now, he would come in at 74.64 percent, falling agonizingly short of election.

However, these things aren’t scientific, and a few positive votes for Piazza in the next day or so would put him above the 75 percent mark.

Piazza has stated that he wants to go into the Hall of Fame as a Met, and there’s a strong chance that hope will become a reality just months from now. Still, Piazza’s Hall of Fame fate for this ballot remains very much up in the air.