Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 2018 Results

Congratulations to our 2018 Most Meritorious Player - Mookie Betts!

Player Name	pts	ballots	1sts
Mookie Betts	117	8	5
Mike Trout	110	8	2
Jacob deGrom	79	6	1
Alex Bregman	79	8	0
Chrs Yelich	74	8	0
Jose Ramirez	67	7	0
Frn Lindor	65	7	0
Matt Chapman	55	8	0
Max Scherzer	51	7	0
Aaron Nola	50	7	0
J.D. Martinez	48	7	0
Blake Snell	36	7	0
Kyle Freeland	22	3	0
Manny Machado	19	4	0
Chris Sale	15	3	0
Mitch Haniger	11	2	0
Matt Carpenter	11	2	0
Javier Baez	10	3	0
Trevor Bauer	9	3	0
J.T. ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1949 Discussion

The Yankees took the pennant from the Red Sox and beat the Dodgers in the World Series.

Vote for 10.

Player			SH WS		BBR WAR
Stan Musial		40.7		9.2
Ted Williams		39.8		9.1
Jackie Robinson		37.2		9.6
Eddie Joost		35.3		6.9
Ralph Kiner		36.6		8.1
Vern Stephens		31.9		6.9
Pee Wee Reese		32.4		7.0
Enos Slaughter		30.1		6.2
Bob Elliott		23.4		5.2
Bobby Thomson		25.6		6.2
Bobby Doerr		24.9		5.4
Cass Michaels		22.5		5.3
Roy Campanella		23.2		4.4
George Kell		24.6		4.8
Andy ...

Sox Therapy: Sox Therapy Looks at the Hall of Fame Ballot

With the recent announcement of the official 2019 Hall of Fame ballot I am reminded of just how devalued I personally find the Hall of Fame and related discussions.  All too often it comes down to people shouting past each other about WAR calculations or what “Fame” means in the context of the Hall and that is not even getting into the varying viewpoints on PEDs and other questionable behaviors.  At this point it is more fun for me to see the names popping up on the list and remembering some of ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 2018 Ballot

Here are the specific rules for this election:

Candidate Eligibility: Any North American professional baseball player is eligible for the Most Meritorious Player (MMP) award including players on independent teams. Voters should consider the player’s on-field contribution to Major League Baseball (MLB) team(s) in that season only. If part of the season was spent outside MLB, that value may be considered as well. However, the player’s on-field contribution should be judged in relation to the ...

Sox Therapy: Let’s Get Off-Seasoning!

So it’s been a couple of weeks since the Boston Red Sox WON THE 2018 WORLD SERIES…let’s take a moment…OK and now it is time to look ahead to 2019.  Apologies for the delay but I am on a bit of a vacation in Florida but sadly the weather here is awful, only 72 degrees and clear skies.  I can’t imagine anywhere else in the US is having worse weather.

Anyhoot…I think there is not a lot to talk about for the Red Sox for the coming winter months.  Unlike last year when there was a lot to do ...

Hall of Merit: Mock 2019 Today’s Game Hall of Fame Election Results

BBTF does not recommend anyone for election for the 2019 Today’s Game committee election. Orel Hershiser received the most votes but fell well short of 75% needed for election.

Candidate		Percent	TOTALS
Orel Hershiser		30%	14
Will Clark		22%	10
Davey Johnson		22%	10
George Steinbrenner		22%	10
Lou Piniella		17%	8
Lee Smith		9%	4
Albert Belle		7%	3
Harold Baines		2%	1
Joe Carter		2%	1
Charlie Manuel		0%	0
Number of Voters			46

Hall of Merit: Mock 2019 Today’s Game Hall of Fame Ballot

Candidates

Harold Baines
Albert Belle
Joe Carter
Will Clark
Orel Hershiser
Davey Johnson
Charlie Manuel
Lou Piniella
Lee Smith
George Steinbrenner

See full descriptions here

Vote for zero to four candidates

Voting will end Friday 11/16/2017 at 1pm EST

Sox Therapy: The Greatest Red Sox Team…EVER!!!!

With all due respect to the speech by Curtis Montague Schilling (R-RI) after the 2004 World Series title this truly is the greatest Red Sox team ever.  They laid waste to the American League during the regular season winning a team record 108 games, then blitzed the 100 win second place Yankees in four games, ran through the defending World Series champion 103 win Astros in five games then put the smack down on the two time National League champion Dodgers in five to close it out.

And the ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1948 Ballot

For 1948 each voter should rank the top 10 players from all leagues combined.

Balloting is scheduled to close at 4pm EDT on 7 November 2018.

Anyone can vote, even if you do not normally participate in Hall of Merit discussions. If you have never participated in an MMP election, just post a preliminary ballot in the discussion thread by 6 Nov 2018.

For detailed rules see one of our previous ballots.

Sox Therapy: Let’s Get World Serious!

So here we go.  The rematch 102 years in the making as the Dodgers look to get revenge for the pain inflicted by Babe Ruth (imagine waiting a century to overcome some kind of pain inflicted by Babe Ruth, losers).  This should be a humdinger of a series with the two best teams in their respective leagues in my opinion doing battle.  There are plenty of questions worth considering;

1. Will Mookie Betts play second base?

This is going to get a fair amount of attention but I suspect it is not ...