As 2016 winds down, Hall of Fame season is still in full swing. Ballots must be postmarked by Dec. 31. The 2017 Hall of Fame class will be announced Jan. 18.

There are 34 players on this year's ballot, including 15 holdovers from last year. Players must received 75 percent of the vote for induction into Cooperstown and at least 5 percent of the vote to remain on the ballot another year. After 10 years, the player is dropped off the ballot.

The ballot is currently overloaded with players who, at worst, deserve serious Hall of Fame consideration. Players from the so-called Steroid Era, such as Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, remain on the ballot (despite slam dunk Hall of Fame credentials) because of performance-enhancing drug suspicion.

Thanks to the magic of the internet, we know several of those players -- including Bonds and Clemens -- are gaining support this year. Internet celebrity Ryan Thibodaux (@NotMrTibbs on Twitter) tracks all ballots made public by voters prior to the Hall of Fame announcement and makes the data available online.

As of this writing, here are the four biggest vote gainers according to Thibodaux's tracker:

2016 Voting

Votes Gained Votes Lost Barry Bonds

44.3%

7 1 Roger Clemens

45.2%

8 1 Edgar Martinez

43.4%

10 1 Tim Raines 69.8%

10

0



Just to be clear, these are votes gained and lost from voters who submitted ballots last year. So if a voter didn't vote for Bonds last year but did this year, that's a vote gained. A vote lost is when a voter drops the player off his ballot after voting for him last year.

Bonds, Clemens and Martinez all still have a long way to go before reaching the 75 percent threshold. More than 400 ballots will be cast this year and a net gain of seven or eight votes is a drop in the bucket. It's still a good sign that they're gaining votes right now, and it could help them get over the hump down in the line.

Tim Raines has gained nine Hall of Fame votes this year. USATSI

Raines, on the other hand, is on the ballot for the 10th and final time, so this is his last chance for induction through the BBWAA vote. Our colleague Jonah Keri has everything you need to know about why he feels Raines deserves to be in the Hall. He fell a mere 23 votes short of induction last year, and, historically, when a player gets as close to 75 percent as Raines did last year, they get in the following year. That's not a guarantee he'll get in.

According to the tracker, Raines has already gained 10 votes this year while not losing any, so he's inching closer to that 75 percent threshold. Only 62 ballots out of 400-plus are public at the moment, and gaining that many votes out of so few public ballots is encouraging. Raines needs more help, but he doesn't need a Hail Mary, either.