Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1921 Results

Congratulations to Babe Ruth on his unanimous selection as the 1921 Most Meritorious Player!

Player Name	pts	ballots	1sts
Babe Ruth	105	7	7
Rogers Hornsby	96	7	0
Red Faber	83	7	0
Bullet Rogan	67	6	0
Oscar Charleston	63	6	0
Burleigh Grimes	47	6	0
Frankie Frisch	37	4	0
Ty Cobb	36	4	0
Carl Mays	33	4	0
Dave Bancroft	32	4	0
Alejandro Oms	32	3	0
Harry Heilmann	29	3	0
Dave Brown	14	1	0
Dobie Moore	11	1	0
Urban Shocker	10	1	0
Dick Whitworth	8	1	0
Joe Williams	7	1	0
Tris Speaker	7	1	0
George ...

Sox Therapy: Musings on Rule Changes and Bullpen Construction

Starting next season there are two new rules that affect most of the season:

1. Active roster size expands from 25 to 26.

2. Any pitcher who enters the game cannot be removed until the first of these three events:
- injury
- end of the half-inning (or game)
- they have faced at least 3 batters.

As the offseason begins, what do the new rules - the second one, specifically - mean for the Red Sox bullpen?

Sox Therapy: J.D. Martinez’s Qualified Decision

We’re about a week away from JDM’s big decision. Big decisions aren’t easy.

Sox Therapy: 2020 is in Bloom

While anything official will wait for the end of the World Series multiple reports (Joel Sherman, Rob Bradford among others) are reporting that the Red Sox are hiring Chaim Bloom* as their next General Manager**.

* see what I did with the title?
** I don’t care about titles, he’s doing the job traditionally associated with GM so that’s what I’m calling him

On all of these hires we really know so very little about the people involved that it is hard to make any particularly substantive ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1921 Ballot

For 1921 each voter should rank the top 10 players from all leagues combined.

Balloting is scheduled to close at 4pm EDT on 6 November 2019.

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 5 November 2019.

For detailed rules see one of our previous ballots.

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 2019 Discussion

Vote for 15.

Player			WS	bWAR
Cody Bellinger		33.9	9.0
Alex Bregman		34.7	8.4
Mike Trout		33.5	8.3
Marcus Semien		33.2	8.1
Christian Yelich	33.0	7.1
Ketel Marte		28.2	6.9
Mookie Betts		27.0	6.8
Matt Chapman		23.9	6.7
Trevor Story		22.4	6.4
Anthony Rendon		30.4	6.3
George Springer		24.1	6.2
Josh Donaldson		25.9	6.1
DJ LeMahieu		28.9	6.0
Nolan Arenado		24.4	5.7
Max Muncy		23.2	5.7
Jorge Polanco		25.0	5.7
Ronald Acuna		27.3	5.5
Aaron Judge		17.4	5.4
Rafael Devers		23.4	5.3
Xander ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1921 Discussion

Walter Johnson set the new career strikeouts record with 2835 and Ruth broke the career HR mark of 139.

The Giants beat the Yankees 5 games to 3

Vote for 10.

Player			SH WS		BBR WAR
Babe Ruth		52.5		12.5
Rogers Hornsby		40.2		10.8
Frankie Frisch		31.6		6.9
Dave Bancroft		30.5		7.4
Ty Cobb			25.8		6.7
Joe Sewell		26.3		4.9
Tris Speaker		27.0		6.5
Harry Heilmann		28.1		6.8
George Sisler		27.3		5.7
Austin McHenry		24.7		5.0
Larry Gardner		23.2		4.6
Bobby Veach		22.6		5.4
Eddie ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1920 Results

Congratulations to Babe Ruth, our unanimous pick for 1920 Most Meritorious Player!

Player Name	pts	ballots	1sts
Babe Ruth	90	6	6
Rogers Hornsby	76	6	0
Pete Alexander	73	6	0
Tris Speaker	65	6	0
George Sisler	63	5	0
Eddie Collins	51	6	0
Stan Coveleski	39	5	0
Joe Jackson	34	4	0
Jim Bagby	31	4	0
Oscar Charleston	30	3	0
Cristobal Torriente	23	2	0
Ross Youngs	22	3	0
Burleigh Grimes	12	1	0
John Henry Lloyd	8	1	0
Sam Rice	7	1	0
Dave Bancroft	6	1	0

Gonfalon Cubs: Regrets

Even though I was one of the people saying the Cubs should move on from Maddon, now that it’s official I find myself second-guessing how strongly I thought it was the right move.  Obviously, my opinion doesn’t matter at all and this would be the reality regardless of how I felt, but now I feel much less sure that it was the right move.  Maybe I’m just being nostalgic for how great those 5 years were.  I always bristled at the general (or non-Cubs) fan who said keeping Maddon was a no-brainer ...

Sox Therapy: Let’s Get On With It

In 147 days the 2020 Boston Red Sox will open their spring slate against long time rivals Northeastern University.  By the time that happens it is likely that much will be changed from the 2019 Red Sox.  I don’t think I am being an unreasonable homer when I say I feel optimistic about the team.  Yes some things are in flux but there is a remarkable amount of talent on hand and I expect the Sox to be around the midpoint of last year’s 108 wins and this years 83/84/85 (depending on today and ...