Using MVP/Cy Young Voting (1 Viewer)

[David Yudkin]

Since there has been a lot of heated debate the last few weeks, I'm wondering if looking at Top 5 seasons in MVP or Cy Young voting would be a decent indicator as to how good a player actually was. Since we are considering players for the greatest honor in baseball, one would think that those players would have been considered on of the best in several seasons. Looking at the lists, 5 years years or more in the Top 5 appears to be a lot tougher than many people would think . . .

Years voted in the Top 5 for MVP/Cy Young:

Recent HOF candidates:

6 times: Rice

5 times: Morris, Parker

4 times: Cone

3 times: Henderson, Dawson, Blyleven, LSmith, McGwire, John, Mattingly

2 times: Murphy

1 time: Raines, Trammell

Other guys up soon:

12 times: Bonds

9 times: Maddux

6 times: Mussina

4 times: Piazza, JGonzalez, Schilling

3 times: Bagwell

2 times: Alomar, Biggio, Walker, Sosa

1 time: McGriff, Larkin, Palmiero, EMartinez

None: Galarraga

Other guys inducted from the last 30 or so years:

8 times: Seaver, Palmer, Aaron

6 times: Carlton, Ryan, Murray

5 times: Schmidt, Sutton, RJackson, Jenkins

4 times: Bench, Stargell, Hunter, Perry, Eckersley, Gossage, Sutter, Morgan, Brett

3 times: Puckett, Ripken, Sandberg, Niekro, Winfield, Carew

2 times: Carter, Fisk, Yaz, BWilliams, Cepeda, McCovey, Molitor, Fingers

1 time: Brock, Boggs, Perez, OSmith, Gwynn

Still active:

9 times: Big Unit

7 times: Pujols, Pedro

6 times: A-Rod, Glavine, Thomas

5 times: Ortiz, Santana, Rivera, Griffey

4 times: Pettitte, Berkman, Guerrero, Manny, Halladay

3 times: Sheffield, Smoltz, Hoffman, Webb, Giambi, Howard

2 times: Tejada, Jeter, Chipper, Sabathia

1 time: Kent, Helton, Ichiro, I-Rod, Thome

None: Teixiera

 

[oso diablo]

that's not a bad measure as ONE of the items considered in a player's resume. You could also look at Award Shares. I believe this calculation gives you a 1 for winning the award, plus fractions for % of the vote totals when you don't win it. So, in essence, it's a sliding scale of points based on where on the balloting you finished. It's a cumulative stat. Not one of my favorites, perhaps more fine-tuned than taking an arbitrary Top 5 cutoff, but also affording too much weight to those who won once and did little else.

 

[dparker713]

My problem with the MVP award is that its really a slugger's award. Its rare that a player makes the top 5 without being a HR leader, or for that matter a corner IN or an OF. There's alot more to the game than just hitting HRs.

I think its a decent thing to look at, but we ##### and moan about these selections most years so I wouldnt use them as an end all be all. It helps to figure out just how good a player's peak was, but it doesnt reveal if their remaining years were good enough for long enough.