Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1994 Ballot

For 1994, each voter should rank the top 14 players from all leagues combined.

Balloting is scheduled to close at 4pm EDT on 6 July 2016.

Anyone can vote, even if you do not normally participate in Hall of Merit discussions. If have never participated in an MMP election, just post a preliminary ballot in the discussion thread by 5 July 2016.

For detailed rules see one of our previous ballots.

Gonfalon Cubs: Slumping and Busting

Last week the Cubs went 1-6, and saw both the pitching and the hitting drop.  They gave up 5.29 runs per game but only scored 3 runs per game.  It can be hard to win when nearly everyone slumps at the same time.  As a indicator of how good they had been, they went 1-6 and are still up 9 games.

Random musings:

The depth has continued to be excellent.  While Almora has hit poorly recently, Baez, Szczur, and Ross have all hit well.  Coghlan has hit decently since he was acquired, and Contreras ...

Sox Therapy: The Return of The Duke

Watching the Sox lose their second very winnable game in three days last night I was struck by something.  This team reminds me greatly of the late-era Dan Duquette clubs.  This is not to rip on the Duke who generally got a raw deal (note to Karl: he’s still not better than Theo) but the late Dan Duquette era was marked by a “stars and scrubs” format that the current Red Sox have very similarly followed.  This is not a bad thing on its own.  Like those teams with Pedro, Manny and NOMAAAAAAAH ...

Gonfalon Cubs: Finally, part 2

Patrick Mooney ‏@CSNMooney 15s15 seconds ago
#Cubs put Clayton Richard (blister) on DL and option Adam Warren to Iowa with intent to stretch him out to make start before All-Star break.

Gordon Wittenmyer ‏@GDubCub 3m3 minutes ago
RHP Spencer Patton recalled. LHP Gerardo Concepcion also called up for big-league debut.

The bullpen is all of a sudden very young and inexperienced.  Here’s hoping at least one of these guys (this includes Edwards) really stands out and can stay on the ...

Sox Therapy: Trading Partners

It has been a bit less than two months since my triumphant/disappointing/flatulent return to Sox Therapy where I proclaimed we didn’t know nothin’.  I am not entirely convinced we know a heck of a lot more today but one thing I think we can feel pretty good about is that the Sox should plan on being competitive.  At 37-28 even a .500 performance by the Sox the rest of the way would put them at 85-77 and the difference between that and a Wild Card spot or even a division title is pretty minimal. ...Read More...

Gonfalon Cubs: Finally

The Cubs have finally made one of the more obvious and inevitable moves with their roster this season.  No, not that one, the other one.  Tim Federowicz isn’t on the team anymore.  He’s been replaced as the third catcher by Willson Contreras, arguably the Cubs best prospect.  Contreras had absolutely dominated AAA this year, hitting .350/.439/.591, with only 32Ks in 239PAs.  His bat appears the be the real deal.  The only thing that was holding him back was the Cubs’ belief that he needed more ...

Sox Therapy: The Dombrowski Method

When I watch baseball I always like to think about why teams do something.  I would rather figure out why Jonny Gomes starts over Daniel Nava than complain that the manager is a moron or why Josh Reddick gets traded for Andrew Bailey than whine about the GM.  That’s not to say that I never voice those complaints but I always like to have a handle on what teams are doing.

In the case of the Red Sox I think Dave Dombrowski’s tenure is quickly coming into focus.  For many years we had Theo ...

Gonfalon Cubs: Off Day Musings

Just a quick post about a couple of things on my mind lately.

Addison Russell

On May 14th, Addison Russell was hitting .263/.375/.447 and was looking like he was on his way to a legit breakout season.  He was in the middle of an amazing hot streak, going .323/.447/.597 over his previous 17 games.  However, since that game, he’s hit .184/.225/.211 with 30Ks in 76PAs.  His season K% is now only down slightly to 30% after 31.3% last year.  It’s not so much the slump that concerns me, but the ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1994 Discussion

The World Series and much of the season was cancelled. Vote for 14 this year.

Player			SH WS		BBR WAR
Jeff Bagwell		32.3		8.2
Kenny Lofton		23.2		7.2
Barry Bonds		25.5		6.2
Frank Thomas		27.6		6.3
Albert Belle		25.8		5.7
Ken Griffey Jr		21.7		6.9
Paul O'Neill		21.2		4.3
Moises Alou		21.8		5.1
Tony Gwynn		18.5		4.2
Barry Larkin		18.2		3.9
Matt Williams		19.1		4.7
Kevin Mitchell		19.0		3.7
Larry Walker		20.1		4.7
Craig Biggio		25.6		4.6
John Valentin		15.0		4.3
Fred McGriff		22.6		4.5
Cal ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1993 Results

Congratulations to Barry Bonds on being named the 1993 MMP unanimously. This makes back-to-back awards for Bonds.

Player Name	pts	ballots	1sts
Barry Bonds	135	9	9
John Olerud	117	9	0
Ken Griffey Jr	96	9	0
Mike Piazza	82	8	0
Kevin Appier	78	9	0
Jose Rijo	77	8	0
Chris Hoiles	67	9	0
Frank Thomas	66	9	0
Greg Maddux	64	8	0
Len Dykstra	62	9	0
Rick Wilkins	51	7	0
Rafael Palmeiro	43	6	0
Juan Gonzalez	43	6	0
Roberto Alomar	29	6	0
Darren Daulton	19	4	0
Jay Bell	11	2	0
Ry! Henderson	10	1	0
Albert ...