What Happens in Oxford Stays in Oxford

I'm off to visit Oxford (i.e., my old place) for a few days. It's always nice to come back and visit!

Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones Elected to Major League Baseball Hall of Fame

Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones have been elected to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. They join Jeff Kent (who was elected in December by an Era Committee) in the Hall's 2026 class.

Given the very weak candidate slate this year, many returning candidates gained a lot of votes. Chase Utley, Andy Pettitte, Félix Hernández, Bobby Abreu, and others made huge gains in votes. Félix's Hernández's one-year gain is the largest such gain since the Hall of Fame returned to annual voting in 1967. The baseball writers clearly are rethinking how to evaluate Hall of Fame pitchers in the modern era. Hopefully, pitchers like Kevin Brown and Johan Santana (who got almost no support from the baseball writers when they were on the ballot) will be considered at some point by an Era Committee.

Chase Utley got almost 60% of the vote, so he may even be elected in 2027, which is faster than I was thinking. I now think that a 2028 election for Utley is most likely, whereas previously I was thinking that it would take longer. Utley has the highest voe percentage among all candidates who will be on the ballot again next year. Cole Hamels, with just more than 23% of the vote, is the only new candidate who got the requisite minimum 5% to remain on the ballot next year.

See this website and especially this website for the annual Hall of Fame vote tracker, which I use to follow writers' ballots as they make them public. The sites have been very flaky this year, but they're really great when one is able to access them.

Update: Some ESPN pundits have discussed some implications from the results of this year's Hall of Fame voting.

Update: Here's a nice recap of the voting results by Jay Jaffe.

Update (1/22/26): Jay Jaffe has written his candidate-by-candidate breakdown for the results of this year's Hall of Fame cycle.

Update (1/26/26): Jay Jaffe has written his 5-year prognostication for upcoming Hall of Fame ballots.

Dodgers Sign Kyle Tucker to 4-Year Deal!

The Dodgers have struck again! We have signed top free agent Kyle Tucker to a 4-year deal. The Dodgers are the Evil Empire, and I love it!

It's important that this is a shorter-term contract, as Tucker is a bit too fragile to go beyond 4 years.

RIP Erik Bollt (1967–2025)

My collaborator Erik Bollt died suddenly and unexpectedly last Sunday (the 7th). Erik is a well-known applied mathematician, and he was especially in the applied dynamical-systems community. Erik and I wrote two papers together, including our paper on mathematically modeling cow synchronization.

You can read about Erik's research on his web page and his Google Scholar page.

There will be a memorial article at some point.

Jeff Kent Elected to Baseball Hall of Fame!

Second baseman Jeff Kent has been elected to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame by the Era Committee (which is the current version of the Veterans Committee. I am pleased that Kent is finally in the Hall.

Carlos Delgado did surprisingly well in the voting, so it sounds like he'll eventually make the Hall of Fame. Notably, Dale Murphy and Don Mattingly did not get enough votes (despite the fact that the Powers That Be seem to want them to be selected), and I agree that they should not be elected. Finally, I hope that Gary Sheffield, Barry Bonds, and Roger Clemens eventually make the Hall of Fame, but I won't be holding my breath (especially for the latter two).

"Clustering-Induced Localization of Quantum Walks on Networks"

One of my papers came out in published form today. Here are some details.

Title: Clustering-Induced Localization of Quantum Walks on Networks

Authors: Lucas Böttcher and Mason A. Porter

"Bounded-Confidence Models of Opinion Dynamics with Neighborhood Effects"

One of my papers just came out in final form. Here are some details.