<
>
EXCLUSIVE CONTENT
Get ESPN+

Predicting the next five Hall of Fame classes

From close calls such as Chase Utley, left, to no-doubters such as Albert Pujols, right, here's who should be preparing their Cooperstown speeches over each of the next five years. Richard Schultz/WireImage

The Baseball Hall of Fame grew by three members on Tuesday, with Ichiro Suzuki and CC Sabathia both getting in as first-ballot selections while Billy Wagner reached the 75% threshold in his 10th and final year of eligibility.

Coming close: Carlos Beltran (70.3%) and Andruw Jones (66.2%), both of whom fell shy of the threshold. With no slam-dunk first-timers on next year's ballot -- new names include Cole Hamels and Ryan Braun -- the buzz around the next election cycle will center around Jones and Beltran.

Will Beltran and Jones get in? Does anyone else have a chance? If not next year, then when?

While they say you can't predict the future, you can assign probabilities to it.

With that in mind, let's peek ahead at what the next five years of the Baseball Writers' Association of America's Hall of Fame voting might look like. We'll keep our focus on the players that I'm projecting will get in through the BBWAA balloting process (not through the Era Committees), listed in order of probable year of selection.