The fact remains that until people who are actually intelligent and understand baseball choose Hall of Famers, the hall will continue to spiral downward in quality.
Well I think some, if not most, of these guys are intelligent and understand baseball, but as Goldmine alluded to, they're trying to use their ballots to make a statement. And that shit just shouldn't fly. BoobsAreAwesome brought up some good points too- make the votes publicly available and take away votes from anyone who turns in a blank ballot.
Preaching to the choir. However, I think it's been pretty well shown throughout the years that most of the HoF voters don't have a good grasp on the actual statistical analysis that is needed to determine relative player worth. Some do; the vocal minority who write the blogs. But it's important to remember that for every young Bill James acolyte, there are ten old-time sportswriters who don't really know what they're doing.
The problem is they still see it as something to buy into. That is, that Sabermetrics and the old-school way of judging baseball players are two competing viewpoints. If you'll allow me to get dramatic, it's a bit like evolution and creationism. Who's your team?
I follow the Cards pretty closely as well. Lived there for a few years, close proximity, need an NL team, etc. I'm excited we got Price and it looks like David Glass is actually willing to shell out some dough, so maybe a few things to look forward to.