This list consists of the top 25 1961 seasons in bb-ref WAR, the top 25 in Win Shares, and the top 20 position players in DanR's WARP (WARP2 in the table).

1961 RA+ Pythpat records for the pitchers I have worked up, with one-year equivalent Fibonacci Win Points for the year in question:

Ford 19-13 (18)
Spahn 18-11 (17)
Bunning 17-12 (15)
Gibson 14-9 (14)
Koufax 16-13 (12)
Drysdale 15-12 (12)
Pappas 12-8 (12)
Pierce 7-9 (12)
Larry Jackson 14-10 (11)
Curt Simmons 13-9 (11)
Stu Miller 9-5 (11)
Wilhelm 8-4 (10)
Earl Wilson 12-9 (9)
Osteen 10-7 (9)
Wynn 7-5 (7)
Marichal 11-10 (6)
Friend 13-13 (6)
Broglio 10-10 (5)
Jim Perry 10-15 (0)
Roberts 4-9 (-3)

(I've left off some guys for whom it was the first or last year of their career with an equivalent record of something like 1-1.)

This was all acquired with an eye to HoM votes, so there's a bias in favor of substantial or interesting careers, hence it misses some of those who were good for that particular year. From Alex's list I seem to be missing Cardwell, Kralick, Pascual, Pizarro, Larry, and Arroyo. In any case, it doesn't look like a year for a pitcher as an MMP.

Biggest question comparing my list to the WS/WAR/WARP list: what is the correct ranking for Whitey Ford?

The big difference between the two lists is adjustment for defense--WAR penalizes Ford for the Yankees' fielding, which it rates as 14 runs above average, pro-rated to Ford's innings pitched. If I remember correctly, Win Shares adjusts the split between defense and pitching based on the team's DER; since the Yankees were second in the league in DER, WS should also adjust Ford's rating downwards, based on the quality of his defense.

This list consists of the top 25 1961 seasons in bb-ref WAR, the top 25 in Win Shares

Three questions:

1 - To make this equitable, don't you need to adjust NL players unpward for the shorter schedule they played?
2 - Are there any league quality adjustments made to account for the NL being the stronger league?
3 - Doesn't the expansion in the AL increase the standard deviation of performance?

Since Drysdale and Koufax had the same defense behind them, I'm guessing that the biggest difference between them is their own hitting. RA+ Pythpat and WS has them essentially tied, but WAR has Drysdale ahead by .6.

Drysdale .193/.244/.386, OPS+ 59 in 95 PA, oWAR +.5. Pretty good ISO and bases per hit there.
Koufax .065/.163/.065, OPS+ OPS+ -38 in 94 PA, oWAR -.5

This was the time of a single Cy Young and they gave that to Ford. bb-ref also lists a TSN Pitcher of the year, and that was Spahn - which looks like a pretty good choice.

Alex: is it correct that Bunning completely misses your list?

1 - To make this equitable, don't you need to adjust NL players unpward for the shorter schedule they played?

Yes, I completely forgot that the NL wasn't yet on the 162-game schedule. I'll fix that and create a revised list as soon as I can.

2 - Are there any league quality adjustments made to account for the NL being the stronger league?

WAR is league adjusted, DanR's WARP and Win Shares are not.

3 - Doesn't the expansion in the AL increase the standard deviation of performance?

Only DanR's WARP accounts for standard deviation of performance; the other metrics could be adjusted for standard deviations.

OCF: Bunning was credited with 19 Win Shares and 2.8 WAR that season, neither of which makes the top 25.

Revised 1961 eligibles list:

Hey guys, I just gave this a quick skim. I've been pretty much off line the last two weeks, as my mother-in-law died, unexpectedly (only 61) and I've been dealing with family things.

Who is going to be the Grandma Johnny of the MMP? I assume we should get that person some admin privileges so they can create threads, etc., right?

Is there anything else that needs my attention? I don't have a ton of time to read through everything right now, but I can do what's needed if there are some tasks that need to be handled.

Joe - Sorry to hear about your situation. This time of year is stressful enough already.

There are 2 open tasks - 1 is easy:
set up the Hall of Fame voting thread for the BBTF community
decide on whether you support instant runoff for next year

I agree, other people need admin rights. I'm content to let someone else step up but I'll do it if nobody else will.

Joe, I'm also sorry to hear about your loss.

I'd also add 3. Establish an MMP Rules discussion thread, with DanG's proposal in post 145 (?) as the starting point.

New tasks -

Get the MMP project 1961 election discussion thread up
Get the MMP rules thread up
Get the 2012 HoM election thread up

Diversion, for pitchers who many seem to think are underserved in the HOM
eager to be informed of any errors!

HOM Ps, by year, through 2011 election. Must have pitched 1 IP per G or 35 G, or MLE equivalent, and mainly this position to be listed:

1868-76 (1) - Spalding
1877
1878 (1) - Ward
1879 (2) - Ward Galvin
1880 (3) - Ward Galvin Keefe
1881-83 (4) - Ward Galvin Keefe Radbourn
1884 (4) - Galvin Keefe Radbourn Clarkson
1885-88 (5) - Galvin Keefe Radbourn Clarkson Caruthers
1889 (6) - Galvin Keefe Radbourn Clarkson Caruthers Rusie
1890 (8) - Galvin Keefe Radbourn Clarkson Caruthers Rusie Young Nichols
1891 (9) - Galvin Keefe Radbourn Clarkson Caruthers Rusie Young Nichols Griffith
1892 (6) - Galvin Keefe Clarkson Rusie Young Nichols
1893 (5) - Keefe Clarkson Rusie Young Nichols
1894 (5) - Clarkson Rusie Young Nichols Griffith
1895 (5) - Rusie Young Nichols Griffith Wallace
1896 (4) - Young Nichols Griffith Wallace
1897-98 (4) - Rusie Young Nichols Griffith
1899 (4) - Young Nichols Griffith McGinnity
1900 (5) - Young Nichols Griffith McGinnity Waddell
1901 (7) - Young Nichols Griffith McGinnity Waddell Plank Mathewson
1902 (7) - Young Griffith McGinnity Waddell Plank Mathewson RFoster
1903 (8) - Young Griffith McGinnity Waddell Plank Mathewson RFoster TF Brown
1904-05 (8) - Young Nichols McGinnity Waddell Plank Mathewson RFoster TF Brown
1906-07 (8) - Young McGinnity Waddell Plank Mathewson RFoster TF Brown Walsh
1908 (10) - Young McGinnity Waddell Plank Mathewson RFoster TF Brown Walsh WJohnson Mendez
1909 (9) - Young Waddell Plank Mathewson RFoster TF Brown Walsh WJohnson Mendez
1910 (9) - Young Plank Mathewson RFoster TF Brown Walsh WJohnson Mendez Williams
1911 (9) - Plank Mathewson RFoster Brown Walsh WJohnson Mendez Williams Alexander
1912 (10) - Plank Mathewson RFoster Brown Walsh WJohnson Mendez Williams Alexander Rixey
1913 (8) - Plank Mathewson RFoster TF Brown WJohnson Williams Alexander Rixey
1914 (9) - Plank Mathewson RFoster TF Brown WJohnson Mendez Williams Alexander Faber
1915 (10) - Plank Mathewson RFoster TF Brown WJohnson Williams Alexander Rixey Faber Ruth
1916 (9) - Plank Foster WJohnson Williams Alexander Rixey Faber Ruth Covaleski
1917 (7) - WJohnson Williams Alexander Rixey Faber Ruth Covaleski
1918 (3) - WJohnson Williams Covaleski
1919 (6) - WJohnson Williams Alexander Rixey Faber Covaleski
1920 (5) - Williams Alexander Rixey Faber Covaleski
1921 (7) - WJohnson Williams Alexander Rixey Faber Covaleski Rogan
1922-23 (8) - WJohnson Williams Alexander Rixey Faber Covaleski Rogan Vance
1924 (9) - WJohnson Williams Alexander Rixey Faber Covaleski Rogan Vance Lyons
1925 (11) - WJohnson Williams Alexander Rixey Faber Covaleski Rogan Vance Lyons Grove Ruffing
1926 (12) - WJohnson Williams Alexander Rixey Faber Covaleski Rogan Vance Lyons Grove Ruffing BFoster
1927 (11) - WJohnson Williams Alexander Rixey Rogan Vance Lyons Grove Ruffing BFoster Paige
1928 (11) - Williams Alexander Rixey Faber Rogan Vance Lyons Grove Ruffing BFoster Paige
1929 (12) - Williams Rixey Faber Rogan Vance Lyons Grove Ruffing BFoster Paige Hubbell Ferrell
1930 (11) - Williams Rixey Faber Vance Lyons Grove Ruffing BFoster Paige Hubbell Ferrell
1931 (10) - Williams Faber Vance Grove Ruffing BFoster Paige Hubbell Ferrell RBrown
1932 (11) - Williams Vance Lyons Grove Ruffing BFoster Paige Hubbell Ferrell RBrown Dihigo
1933 (9) - Lyons Grove Ruffing BFoster Paige Hubbell Ferrell RBrown Dihigo
1934 (8) - Lyons Ruffing BFoster Paige Hubbell Ferrell RBrown Dihigo
1935 (7) - Lyons Grove Ruffing BFoster Hubbell Ferrell RBrown (Dihigo)
1936 (7) - Lyons Grove Ruffing Paige Hubbell Ferrell RBrown (Dihigo)
1937 (7) - Lyons Grove Ruffing BFoster Hubbell Ferrell RBrown
1938 (7) - Lyons Grove Ruffing Hubbell Ferrell RBrown Feller
1939-40 (6) - Lyons Grove Ruffing Hubbell RBrown Feller
1941 (7) - Lyons Ruffing Paige Hubbell RBrown Feller Newhouser
1942 (7) - Lyons Ruffing Paige Hubbell RBrown Newhouser Wynn
1943-44 (4) - Paige RBrown Newhouser Wynn
1945 (3) - Paige RBrown Newhouser
1946 (3) - Paige Feller Newhouser
1947 (6) - Paige Feller Newhouser Wynn Lemon Spahn
1948 (5) - Feller Newhouser Wynn Lemon Spahn
1949-50 (7) - Feller Newhouser Wynn Lemon Spahn Roberts Pierce
1951 (6) - Feller Wynn Lemon Spahn Roberts Pierce
1952 (9) - Paige Feller Newhouser Wynn Lemon Spahn Roberts Pierce Wilhelm
1953 (8) - Paige Feller Wynn Lemon Spahn Roberts Pierce Wilhelm Ford
1954-56 (7) - Wynn Lemon Spahn Roberts Pierce Wilhelm Ford
1957 (7) - Wynn Spahn Roberts Pierce Wilhelm Drysdale Bunning
1958-60 (9) - Wynn Spahn Roberts Pierce Wilhelm Ford Drysdale Bunning Koufax
1961 (9) - Spahn Roberts Wilhelm Ford Drysdale Bunning Koufax Marichal Gibson
1962 (11) - Wynn Spahn Roberts Pierce Wilhelm Ford Drysdale Bunning Koufax Marichal Gibson
1963 (10) - Spahn Roberts Pierce Wilhelm Ford Drysdale Bunning Koufax Marichal Gibson
1964 (10) - Spahn Roberts Wilhelm Ford Drysdale Bunning Koufax Marichal Gibson GPerry
1965 (11) - Spahn Roberts Wilhelm Ford Drysdale Bunning Koufax Marichal Gibson GPerry Niekro
1966 (10) - Wilhelm Drysdale Bunning Koufax Marichal Gibson GPerry Jenkins Palmer Sutton
1967 (11) - Wilhelm Drysdale Bunning Marichal Gibson GPerry Niekro Jenkins Seaver Sutton Carlton
1968 (10) - Wilhelm Drysdale Marichal Gibson GPerry Niekro Jenkins Seaver Sutton Carlton
1969 (12) - Wilhelm Bunning Marichal Gibson GPerry Niekro Jenkins Palmer Seaver Sutton Carlton Fingers
1970 (13) - Wilhelm Bunning Marichal Gibson GPerry Niekro Jenkins Palmer Seaver Sutton Carlton Fingers Blyleven
1971 (11) - Marichal Gibson GPerry Niekro Jenkins Palmer Seaver Sutton Carlton Fingers Blyleven
1972 (13) - Marichal Gibson GPerry Niekro Jenkins Palmer Seaver Sutton Carlton Fingers Blyleven Ryan Gossage
1973 (12) - Marichal Gibson GPerry Niekro Jenkins Palmer Seaver Sutton Carlton Fingers Blyleven Ryan
1974 (12) - Gibson GPerry Niekro Jenkins Palmer Seaver Sutton Carlton Fingers Blyleven Ryan Gossage
1975-79 (12) - GPerry Niekro Jenkins Palmer Seaver Sutton Carlton Fingers Blyleven Ryan Gossage Eckersley
1980-81 (13) - GPerry Niekro Jenkins Palmer Seaver Sutton Carlton Fingers Blyleven Ryan Gossage Eckersley Stieb
1982 (11) - GPerry Niekro Jenkins Palmer Sutton Carlton Fingers Ryan Gossage Eckersley Stieb
1983 (11) - GPerry Niekro Jenkins Seaver Sutton Carlton Blyleven Ryan Gossage Eckersley Stieb
1984-85 (11) - Niekro Seaver Sutton Carlton Fingers Blyleven Ryan Gossage Eckersley Stieb Saberhagen
1986 (9) - Niekro Seaver Sutton Carlton Blyleven Ryan Gossage Eckersley Stieb
1987 (7) - Sutton Blyleven Ryan Gossage Eckersley Stieb Saberhagen
1988-89 (6) - Blyleven Ryan Gossage Eckersley Stieb Saberhagen
1990 (4) - Ryan Gossage Eckersley Stieb
1991 (4) - Ryan Gossage Eckersley Saberhagen
1992 (1) - Eckersley
1993 (2) - Gossage Eckersley
1994 (3) - Gossage Eckersley Saberhagen
1995 (2) - Eckersley Saberhagen
1996-97 (1) - Eckersley
1998 (2) - Eckersley Saberhagen

Cone (332 pts in 2011) would be 1988-95; 1997-99
Reuschel (235) would be 1973-81; 1985-89
Tiant (183) would be 1965-69; 1972-79
Redding (180) would be 1911-21, roughly
Newcombe (157) would be 1949-53; 1955-60
Walters (137 pts) would be 1936-45
Willis (132) would be 1898-1910
Bridges (107) would be 1931-40; 1942-43

and don't forget that Clemens, Maddux, RJohnson, Pedro, Glavine, Smoltz etc will help fill in the latter era even before we get to the tougher ones

Where's Kevin Brown?

Things to do in the middle of January ...

Well before there was a Hall of Merit, I was a guy who wrote baseball-themed memos to a small circle of friends. One thing I did for several years was name year-end All-Star teams for each league. My tools: for hitters, Runs Created (computed myself using open-source formulas from my collection of Abstracts); for pitchers RA-Pythag equivalent records. I occasionally looked at raw fielding stats but wasn't very systematic. I knew that park effects existed, but didn't have a way to quantify them for everyone. My teams always had not just a starting lineup but also a full 25-man roster. The reserves weren't always the next best players - they had to have a reason for being on the roster (including that C, SS, and CF all had to be covered on the bench). I frequently moved players out of position when some position had overflow talent compared to another; you'll see a particularly glaring case of that in the all-90's team below.

In 1999 I went ahead and named an all-decade team for the 1990's. Yeah, I know, arbitrary endpoints, round-number fetishes, and all that. I recently decided to return to the form and and name an all-decade team for the 2000's - using some of the additional tools I now know about. Just to put it somewhere, I'll go ahead and post these two teams.

The 1990's team:

C: Mike Piazza
1B: Mark McGwire
2B: Roberto Alomar
3B: Craig Biggio
SS: Barry Larkin
LF: Barry Bonds
CF: Ken Griffey Jr.
RF: Albert Belle
DH: Frank Thomas
SP: Greg Maddux
SP: Roger Clemens
SP: Randy Johnson
SP: Pedro Martinez
SP: Tom Glavine
CL: John Wetteland
-
C: Ivan Rodriguez
1B: Jeff Bagwell
SS/IF: Cal Ripken, Jr.
OF: Rickey Henderson
OF: Tony Gwynn
P: David Cone
P: Kevin Brown
P: John Smoltz
RP: Trevor Hoffman

MVP of the decade: Barry Bonds
CY of the decade: Greg Maddux

In retrospect, knowing what I know now, I'd make a few changes. Perhaps the most obvious would be putting Larry Walker in for Albert Belle.

Looking back on it: the majority of these players are still, after all these years, not even eligible for the Hall of Merit. The only one we've definitively rejected is Belle - and if I fixed it with the Walker-for-Belle move, then not even that. And all of the not-yet-eligibles have strong HoM cases, except the relief pitchers - and we'll at least talk about Hoffman.

Now the 2000-2009 All-Decade team:

C: Joe Mauer
1B: Albert Pujols
2B: Chase Utley
3B: Scott Rolen
SS: Alex Rodriguez
LF: Barry Bonds
CF: Carlos Beltran
RF: Ichiro Suzuki
DH: Manny Ramirez
SP: Roy Halladay
SP: Randy Johnson
SP: Johan Santana
SP: Pedro Martinez
SP: Roy Oswalt
CL: Mariano Rivera
-
C: Jorge Posada
IF: Jeff Kent (you can think of Utley/Kent as platoon 2B)
SS: Derek Jeter
CF: Jim Edmonds
IF/OF: Chipper Jones
P: Mike Mussina
P/RP: John Smoltz
RP: Joe Nathan
RP: Francisco Rodriguez
LRP: Billy Wagner

MVP of the decade: Albert Pujols
CY of the decade Roy Halladay

Plenty to argue about there, of course. The best player not on the roster is Todd Helton. His problem is that there's no place for him. You can't put him at 1B and making him the DH loses his defensive value.

Are all of them future HoMers? Well, not the non-Rivera relief pitchers. Leaving them out: some, like Mauer, haven't done enough yet, but still seem like a good bet. I'd worry about Beltran and Oswalt as being a little too tailored to the arbitrary endpoints and not having enough outside the decade. And Utley may have gotten too old before he became a star to really have a whole HoM career. Did Kent have enough? We'll have that argument before too long.

A question about the post I just made - a question I have no idea how to answer myself. Are there any NPB or Cuban players who should be included in the place of any of the ML players listed there, for either team?

----

To guess at the answer to DL from MN's question, I think the bottom of Howie's post should read

1988 (6) - Blyleven Ryan Gossage Eckersley Stieb Saberhagen
1989 (7) - Brown Blyleven Ryan Gossage Eckersley Stieb Saberhagen
1990 (5) - Brown Ryan Gossage Eckersley Stieb
1991 (5) - Brown Ryan Gossage Eckersley Saberhagen
1992 (2) - Brown Eckersley
1993 (3) - Brown Gossage Eckersley
1994 (4) - Brown Gossage Eckersley Saberhagen
1995 (3) - Brown Eckersley Saberhagen
1996-97 (2) - Brown Eckersley
1998 (3) - Brown Eckersley Saberhagen

(Is Howie ordering those names in some particular way? I didn't really try to match that.)

Of course we could easily wind up at things like

1996 (11) Brown Eckersley Schilling Mussina Smoltz Rivera Glavine Johnson Clemens Martinez Maddux

Great #614 post OCF.

Is DL going to be the MMP admin person? He said he'd step up if no one else would . . . had fra paolo also mentioned interest?

A WAR tidbit tangentially related to those all-decade teams.

Accumulated WAR, 1987 through 2004, by Barry Bonds: 160.6

Accumulated WAR, 1987 through 2004, by the highest-ranking NL player or pitcher not named Barry Bonds (15 different individuals over the 18 years): 160.2

Although I confess I'm a bit skeptical, particularly about his 1987-1989 value - was he really worth that much on defense?

Let me know what I would need to do.

had fra paolo also mentioned interest?

I had. And I am still willing to help.

Back on HoM business itself, for the 2012 election, can we have discussion threads for, say, Bernie Williams, Tim Salmon, Javy Lopez, and Brad Radke?

Filing issue: at what point do we create a category on the main page for "Selected 21st Century Players"? I suppose we can still plausibly call those four 20th century players, but at some point it's going to tip.

DL/fra - I just sent the request off to the powers that be to get you admin access. Sorry for the delay.

Thanks, Joe!

My order was based on seniority in terms of who had a qualifying season first....

I'm good with 1961.

Length of ballot--at least 15. Once upon a time Joe said he wanted the MMP to be able to identify the top player at every position and maybe (I don't remember) it was even the top player at every position (the all-star team) for each league, and we were talking about a ballot of 50. I was never a big supporter thereof, other than to get it off the ground.

But the big issue, and I don't mean to be a jerk about it, but I think somebody should ask the question. The big issue is Joe's role. Joe is busy and has disappeared for weeks at a time over the past couple of years. Surely that is his prerogative. But who makes decisions that allow for forward motion, e.g., size of ballot?

If DL is the Grandma on this project, and if Joe agrees, I'd suggest a Board of Directors consisting of DL, fra and 3 others who can be counted on to be here every day (or thereabouts). A 3-2 vote gets it done and the project moves forward. Maybe Joe is even on this board but if one of the 5 board members is MIA, 3 members can take action.

Howie, O and DanG have been with this project at least since 2003 and are still here now. They would be more than credible to me. What say you?

A board of directors for the MMP sounds good to me.

I'm fine with that, I would rather move forward with something imperfect and change it later than not move forward at all. I also don't have admin access as far as I can tell.

Length of ballot--at least 15.

I offered my thoughts on this recently, post #587.

a Board of Directors consisting of DL, fra and 3 others...Howie, O and DanG have been with this project at least since 2003

December 2001 for me. I will continue to offer whatever ideas I can, whether officially part of a Board or not.

Mickey Mantle AL CF 48 11.9 10.8
Norm Cash AL 1B 42 10.0 9.3
Al Kaline AL RF 29 8.3 5.8
Rocky Colavito AL LF 33 7.9 6.4
Roger Maris AL RF 36 7.2 6.3
Jim Gentile AL 1B 32 7.2 6.9
Elston Howard AL C 29 5.9 5.5
Harmon Killebrew AL 1B 27 5.5 4.8
Jack Kralick AL SP 17 5.2
John Romano AL C 25 4.7 4.2

For the AL I came up with:

1. Mantle
2. Maris
3. Cash
4. Colavito
5. Gentile
6. Killebrew
7. Romano
8. Al Smith
9. Landis
10. Kaline

Jack Kralick was not the best pitcher in the AL in 1961.

Now I think I got the NL around here somewhere....

Maris over Cash how? Record or no record...

I don't mean this in a rude way... but is anything happening here? I think the plan had been to start in January and there have been postings but nothing has 'really' started. I'm interested in the project and just wanted to find out if this is going to get started or not. Thanks!

I thought Dan L and fra paolo were given access . . . please let me know if there's still an issue there . . . or if you need a tutorial on how to create threads, etc..

I finally got my password restored after a month. I do need a tutorial on how to create threads.

Fangraphs WAR 1961.

Fangraphs FIP leaders 1961 (minimum 220 IP)

We probably ought to have a 1961 discussion thread active - and a few more years besides. But as long as Dan is posting stuff like that here ...

Here is the exact same list of pitchers as in Dan's FIP list, by equivalent RA+ record. This list should be quite different, since RA+ and FIP aren't the same thing at all. Furthermore, Dan ranked them by a pure rate stat - but as you can already see on his list, the IP don't range all that widely.

If and when I do lists like this, I'm going to keep the leagues separated. League strength arguments are going to enter, and in particular, league strength is a pretty important issue in 1961.

AL:
Ford: 19-13
Kralick: 17-10
Lary: 18-13
Bunning: 18-12
Mossi: 16-10
Pascual: 16-12
McBride: 16-11
Barber: 16-12
M'boqtte: 15-11
NL:
Spahn: 18-11
O'Toole: 17-11
Purkey: 16-11
McCormick: 16-11
Koufax: 16-12
Drysdale: 16-11
Cardwell: 16-13
Williams: 14-12
J. Jay: 15-13
Friend: 13-13
Burdette: 15-16

The rank in each league is by equivalent Fibonacci Win Points, based on equivalent W-L, calculated before roundoff. Roundoff can do funny things, so in each league you see at least one 16-12 listed as better than at least one 16-11; and that is the correct order.

Any other pitchers you'd like to see this for?

A couple of notes: one, this was just not a year for outstanding pitching performances. No one really stands out from the crowd. And man, both Los Angeles teams played in terrific hitters parks that year.

Any of these relievers worth a look?

Dan -

I would say no. Not if you're trying to come up with a top ten. The best is almost certainly Hoeft, who was used in the swingman role, instead of as a pure reliever. He had 12 starts (no one else on your list has more than 2), and a few of them were very very good, which leads to the high ERA+. As a RELIEVER, he wasn't the best on the list; it's the starts that make his stat line. In 1961, MLB was still trying to figure out how to handle the fact that most starters could not pitch complete games more than half the time, and often much less. How to organize the bullpen behind those starters was a huge unresolved issue. You could get large numbers of decisions as your team's primary reliever (Miller and Arroyo), or you could be a real swingman, like Hoeft, or almost anything except what we now regard as a "closer." So you never get the closer role's leverage applied to your whole season, and you never get enough innings to compete with the top starters. That limits where you can rank, almost regardless of how well you actually pitch when you're in there. - Brock

How to organize the bullpen behind those starters was a huge unresolved issue.

Not entirely. By 1960, most teams had one ace reliever whose job it was to pitch whenever the game was close in the late innings, and that reliever is usually pretty easy to pick out. The 50s were the primary sorting-out period, and even there you could see the evolution toward designating one fireman, It's probably no accident that the primary movers toward the single-ace model were (a) the Yankees under Stengel and (b) the Rickey-influenced teams (Dodgers/Cardinals/Pirates - yes, as bad as they were in the 50s the Pirates still had a relief ace).

Stengel's pattern is interesting, in that (a) he always had a relief ace in the pen but the identity of that individual changed almost every year and (b) he never used that pattern in the World Series. In 1960, for example, he was using Arroyo consistently down the stretch as the ace - but then Arroyo barely pitched against the Pirates.

-- MWE