Most Meritorious Player: 1964 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 in the top Negro Leagues or 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 ...

1963: Most Meritorious Player: Results

There’s only one result closer than this:

                1    2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   Pts
Sandy Koufax   10    1   5   1                             241
Hank Aaron      5    9   3                                 240
Willie Mays     2    7   7   1                             231
Dick Ellsworth          2   11  3       1                 200
Eddie Mathews               1   7   4   1   1   1   1     159
Dick Groat                  1   2   4       2   3   1     117
Juan Marichal ...

1964 Most Meritorious Player: Discussion

In one of the most exciting seasons in recent years, the pennant races in both leagues went down to the last few days.  The American League race featured a three-way tie for first as late as 17 September, with the Yankees, White Sox and Baltimore with a ten-game lead over the rest of the pack. The Yankees took sole control of first place on 19 September, and managed to hang on for the rest of the season. Meanwhile, in the National League, the Phillies had a five-game lead over the Cardinals, ...

Most Meritorious Player: 1963 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 in the top Negro Leagues or independent teams. Voters should consider the player’s on-field contribution to 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 ...

Most Meritorious Player: 1962 Result

Congratulations to Willie Mays, by unanimous vote the Most Meritorious Player in 1962. During the tally, Tommy Davis’ scored highly early on, but later voters swung fourth place to Mickey Mantle, in what was the most exciting element in this year’s race. While there was substantial consensus about the first seven places, votes began to scatter quite widely for places 8, 9 and 10.

                Pts       1     2         3         4       5       6       7     ...

Most Meritorious Player 1963 discussion

After the dramatic changes of 1961 and 1962, with expansion in both leagues, in 1963 the Major Leagues went through a rather dull patch.

The baseball season opened on 8 April 1963. Earlier events of note in the year included the release of The Beatles’ first album Please Please Me, the premiere of the manga-based cartoon Astro Boy on Japanese television and Charles De Gaulle’s veto of the United Kingdom’s application to join the “Common Market” (now the European Union). During the season, ...

Most Meritorious Player 1962 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 in the top Negro Leagues or independent teams. Voters should consider the player’s on-field contribution to 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 ...

Most Meritorious Player: 1962 Discussion

In 1962, the National League followed the American League’s 1961 lead and expanded by two teams. They put the Metropolitans in New York, and the Colt .45s in Houston. The National League also gained one of the great stadiums of baseball in the shape of Dodger Stadium, bringing the Dodgers out of the rather inappropriately shaped Coliseum into a purpose-built ballpark.

The baseball season opened on 9 April 1962. By then, Gary Powers had been exchanged for a capture Soviet spy, the first K-mart ...

Most Meritorious Player: 1961 Results

Here are the results of the 1961 Most Meritorious Player ballot:

RK   Player          PTS      Bal    1   2   3   4    5   6    7   8   9  10  

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 1    Mickey Mantle   240     16    16                                          
 2    Norm Cash       215     16         11   2   2   1                              
 3    Hank Aaron ...

Most Meritorious Player: 1961 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 in the top Negro Leagues or independent teams. Voters should consider the player’s on-field contribution to 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 ...

Most Meritorious Player: 1961 Discussion

1961 was the first year of the Expansion Era, as the American League added two teams. The old Nationals/Senators moved to Minnesota. One of the new teams was an AL competitor to the NL’s monopoly of the Los Angeles’ market, while the other took over the vacated Washington market.

When the season opened on 10 April 1961, John F. Kennedy had just been inaugurated president in January, in March South Africa declared it would withdraw from the Commonwealth of Nations, and the Marcels had the ...

Most Meritorious Player: Rules for Ballot

OK, let’s try this again.

Last week on Hall of Merit… I attempted to post this thread and it ended up in the Newsblog. This time it should appear in the right place.

Two key questions are —

How many players do we vote for?
What is each place on the ballot worth?

You can find a detailed proposal of a voting method in DanG’s post here

Although I promised to post a 1961 discussion thread today, I’ll delay that for a couple of days to see if this thread draws any attention. The last one did ...

Edgardo Alfonzo

eligible 2012

Ruben Sierra

eligible 2012

Brad Radke

Brad Radke

Javy Lopez

Javy Lopez

Tim Salmon

eligible 2012

Bernie Williams

Eligible 2012

2012 Hall of Merit Ballot Discussion

2012 (November 28, 2011)—elect 3
WS W3 Rookie Name-Pos
311 57.3 1991 Bernie Williams-CF
232 44.2 1993 Tim Salmon-RF
194 39.5 1994 Javy Lopez-C
211 31.3 1995 Edgardo Alfonzo-3B/2B
157 45.4 1995 Brad Radke-P
222 14.5 1986 Ruben Sierra-RF
166 23.0 1992 Brian Jordan-RF
170 13.0 1993 J.T. Snow-1B*
166 14.4 1993 Jeromy Burnitz-RF
162 17.1 1992 Eric Young-2B
126 30.5 1991 Jeff Fassero-P
120 30.8 1990 Scott Erickson-P
140 23.2 1996 Bill Mueller-3B
143 20.5 1995 Phil Nevin-3B/1B
153 11.9 1993 Vinny ...

2011 BBTF Vets Committee Executives Results: Marvin Miller and Ted Simmons!

Former MLPBA leader Marvin Miller and star catcher Ted Simmons were the only candidates to reach 75% among BBTF voters in our mock Hall of Fame election. Miller notched 88% (he was awarded 79% in 2007 by us and also 93% in 2010), while Simmons earned 83% this year.

Pat Gillick, George Steinbrenner, Billy Martin and Tommy John were the also-rans with considerable support (especially newbie Gillick).

As for our HoM subgroup, the results were very similar, except Simmons had more support than ...

2011 BBTF HOF Results: Bagwell, Larkin, Alomar, Raines, Blyleven, Trammell and McGwire!

In his first year of eligibility, Astros first baseman Jeff Bagwell easily won election in our mock election with an almost unanimous 99% of the vote.

Keystone-sack great Roberto Alomar and legendary Cincinnati shortstop Barry Larkin once again had stellar vote percentages as they did in their first year on the ballot last year. Larkin had 99% and Alomar got 98%..

Fourth-year BBTF pick Tim Raines earned yet another impressive percentage - 98% (he had 99% in 2008, 100% in 2009 and 97% in ...

2011 Veterans Committe Ballot

The election will end on Tuesday on January 4 at 8 PM EST.

Eligible candidates: Vida Blue, Dave Concepcion, Steve Garvey, Pat Gillick, Ron Guidry, Tommy John, Billy Martin, Marvin Miller, Al Oliver, Ted Simmons, Rusty Staub and George Steinbrenner.

Rules:

9. Voting: The Committee shall consider all eligible candidates and voting shall be based upon the individual’s record, ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character and contribution to the game. Electors may vote for as few as zero (0) and ...

2011 BBTF Hall of Fame Ballot

IMPORTANT: Please read:

This election should follow BBWAA rules, not Hall of Merit rules. However, we hope to see only players that each voter feels belong on their ballots - if you don’t feel he really is a HOFer, then please refrain from posting that player’s name (examples of whom I am referring to are Mookie Wilson, Scott Broscius, Buddy Biancalana - players who were well liked or were underdogs, but have no creditable HOF resume). Leaving 1st-year candidates off your ballot is also ...

2011 Results: First-Time Candidates Bagwell, Walker and Brown Are Now in the Hall of Merit!

Slugging Astros first baseman Jeff Bagwell was considered the best of the Class of 2011 according to the electorate by securing 97% of all possible points in the latest Hall of Merit election.

Standout hitter/outfielder Larry Walker was next in line with 73.3%, while fiery pitcher Kevin Brown fell in right behind Walker with an almost identical 73.2%. 

Rounding out the top-ten were: Rafael Palmeiro (strong first showing despite some protest non-votes), David Cone, Rick Reuschel, Phil ...

2011 Hall of Merit Ballot

Sorry guys, I started a new job this week, and I thought this had been posted, my apologies for the late start.

OK, it’s time to start the voting. There is no rush . . . please read through the discussion thread to work through the candidates.

The election closes November 29 December 6 at 8 p.m. EST. We welcome newcomers, but require that you are willing to consider players from all eras. Voters also must comment on each player they vote for, a simple list is not sufficient. If you ...

John Franco

Let’s give John Franco a thread too.

John Franco

John Olerud

We didn’t create a thread for John Olerud last year either. Sorry about that John . . .

John Olerud on baseball-reference.com.

Kevin Brown

We didn’t create a thread for Kevin Brown last year. Sorry about that Kevin . . .

Kevin Brown on baseball-reference.com.

Jeff Bagwell

Eligible in 2011

2010 BBTF HOF Results: Alomar, Larkin, Raines, Blyleven, Trammell and McGwire!

In their first year of eligibility, keystone-sack great Roberto Alomar and legendary Cincinnati shortstop Barry Larkin both had stellar vote percentages for this election. Alomar had 99%, while Larkin had 97%.

Third-year BBTF pick Tim Raines earned yet another impressive percentage, though his 97% was slightly down from his unanimous ballot percentage from 2009 (he had 99% in 2008).

His fifth time on a BBTF ballot, curveball specialist Bert Blyleven had another fine outcome with 95% of ...