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Hall of Merit
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Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Most Meritorious Player: 1898 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 highest level major league, not relative to a minor league. A season may include playoff or World Series games but does not include spring training or exhibition games. No credit will be given for games not played due to injury, wartime service or contract holdouts.

Ballot Length: For 1898, each voter should rank 10 players.

Voter eligibility: All voters who did not vote in the previous year’s election must post a preliminary ballot in the ballot discussion thread. All voters must fill out a complete ballot. Voters must briefly explain their ballot choices. One person, one vote; anyone determined to have voted with multiple accounts will be banned and their votes will be disallowed. The MMP ballot committee has authority to exclude any ballot that does not meet these requirements.

Scoring: Points will be given in descending order with the highest-ranked player receiving 15 points, the second highest 14 points, and so on until the last player on the ballot receives 1 point. The player with the highest point total will be named the Most Meritorious Player. In case of a tie, the tiebreaker will be number of first place votes. If the tiebreaker does not determine a winner the players will share the title of Most Meritorious Player.

Balloting will close at 4pm EST on 4 May 2022.

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 3 May 2022.

DL from MN Posted: April 26, 2022 at 01:30 PM | 8 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
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Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.

   1. kcgard2 Posted: April 26, 2022 at 04:50 PM (#6073845)
1) Kid Nichols - 4th or 5th time I've had Nichols at the top
2) Clark Griffith - close race with Nichols
3) Hughie Jennings - best position player
4) John McGraw - great combination of hitting and fielding, barely below Jennings
5) Doc McJames - pitcher heavy ballot
6) Cy Young - another showing for Young
7) Jimmy Collins - third base + defense rank just ahead of Delahanty's better hitting
8) Ed Delahanty
9) Bill Dahlen
10) Jesse Tannehill - round out with a newcomer pitcher

11-16) Dan McGann, Gene deMontreville, Billy Hamilton, Elmer Flick, Willie Keeler, Bert Cunningham
   2. DL from MN Posted: April 27, 2022 at 10:41 AM (#6073992)
1898 Ballot

1) Hughie Jennings - 3rd season in a row at the top of my ballot
2) John McGraw - McGraw's bat tops Collins' glove
3) Jimmy Collins
4) Clark Griffith - top two pitchers are very close
5) Kid Nichols
6) Bill Dahlen
7) Billy Hamilton - best CF
8) Gene DeMontreville - very heavy on infielders this year
9) Frank Grant - using my averaged contribution for his career
10) Cy Young

11-15) Ed Delahanty, Willie Keeler, Bobby Wallace, Napoleon LaJoie, Dan McGann
16-18) Jesse Tannehill, Elmer Flick, Al Maul
   3. Harmon Ripkowski Posted: May 02, 2022 at 01:15 AM (#6074751)
Submitted the same day as my prelim, but the prelim was done two weeks ago and left sitting on my desktop. Oh well. Here's my ballot.

1 - Kid Nichols
2 - Hughie Jennings
3 - John McGraw
4 - Clark Griffith
5 - Jimmy Collins

6 - Ed Delahanty
7 - Doc McJames
8 - Gene DeMontreville
9 - Dan McGann
10 - Bill Dahlen


Really hard to call at the bottom of the list, but I really like the top four. Number one was easy.
   4. bjhanke Posted: May 02, 2022 at 07:58 PM (#6074880)
This is Brock Hanke's ballot for 1898, as usual, a list of Win Shares. I note that my ballot does not closely resemble DL's. I'm not completely sure why. My personal opinion of 1898 is that the pitchers were still too dominant for the best three players to be position players. That's my opinion; DL obviously does not agree. That's fine; we're different people with different analytical systems. We OUGHT to not agree every so often.

One fun note about 1898 that I foreshadowed lsat "year." In 1897, there were only 6 players in the game who posted up 30 or more Win Shares (in the Win Shares method, 30 WS is a nominating level for the MVP). Here in 1898, there were 12, exactly twice the 1897 number. Why? The schedule expanded. In 1897, baseball was working with a schedule length of 132 games. In 1898, that got raised to 154. In neither season did all, or even most, of the teams play the whole schedule, but the highest number of games in 1897 is in fact 132 (Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and Washington played the full schedule). In 1898, the highest number of games played was 152, by Cincy and Washington. That's interesting to me because I am trying to figure out whether or not modern baseball, with 30 teams and 162 games, suppresses individual great players to the extent that they seldom turn in great years (30+ WS), or whether the schedule forces more 30+ guys because there is more opportunity. If someone here has done this research already, or knows of someone who has done it, I'd appreciate a comment here leading me to that person.

OK, enough of my obsessions. Here's the list, with the Win Shares number for the player in parentheses after the name:

1. Kid Nichols (44 WS)
2. Jimmy Collins (34)
3. Cy Young (34)
4. Jesse Tannehill (34)
5. Sliding Billy Hamilton (33)
6. Big Ed Delahanty (33)
7. Hughie Jennings (32)
8. Clark Griffith (32)
9. Ted Lewis (31)
10. John McGraw (31)

Doc McJames and Bert Cunningham each had 30 WS.
   5. John (You Can Call Me Grandma) Murphy Posted: May 03, 2022 at 05:52 PM (#6075008)
Official MMP Ballot:

1) Kid Nichols: Best ML player and pitcher - comfortably at the top.
2) Clark Griffith
3) Billy Hamilton: Best ML center fielder.
4) Cy Young
5) Hughie Jennings: Best ML shortstop.
6) Jesse Tannehill
7) Ted Lewis
8) John McGraw: Best ML third baseman.
9) Ed Delahanty: Best ML left fielder.
10) Jimmy Collins
   6. Tubbs is Bobby Grich when he flys off the handle Posted: May 03, 2022 at 07:44 PM (#6075025)
1898 Final ballot

1. Kid Nichols
2. Clark Griffith
3. Hughie Jennings
4. Jimmy Collins
5. John McGraw
6. Ed Delahanty
7. Doc McJames
8. Dan McGann
9. Al Maul
10.Bill Dahlen
   7. DL from MN Posted: May 05, 2022 at 10:07 AM (#6075325)
HAWK Posted: April 11, 2022 at 09:09 PM (#6071214)
1) Jimmy Collins – 6.9 WAR, 140 OPS+, 15 HR, 111 RBI, Best non-outfield hitter, excellent fielder, Regular Season Champion
2) Kid Nichols – 11.2 WAR, 31 Wins, 174 ERA+, 3.06 FIP, Regular Season Champion
3) Clark Griffith – 10.5 WAR, 24 Wins, 192 ERA+, 2.99 FIP
4) Hughie Jennings – 7.5 WAR, 149 OPS+
5) Nap Lajoie – 3.7 WAR, 137 OPS+, 127 RBI, excellent fielder
6) Doc McJames – 7.5 WAR, 27 Wins, 153 ERA+, 2.99 FIP
7) Billy Hamilton – 4.6 WAR, 162 OPS+, Regular Season Champion
8) Ed Delahanty – 6.2 WAR, 156 OPS+, excellent fielder
9) John McGraw – 7.1 WAR, 148 OPS+
10) Cy Young – 7.3 WAR, 25 Wins, 136 ERA+, 2.84 FIP, excellent fielding pitcher

11) Bill Dahlen – 5.7 WAR, 123 OPS+, excellent fielder
12) Lave Cross – 4.5 WAR, Best fielding 3rd Baseman, 114 OPS+
13) Honus Wagner – 3.5 WAR, 115 OPS+, 105 RBI
14) George Davis – 3.9 WAR, Best fielding shortstop, 112 OPS+
15) Bobby Wallace – 4.7 WAR, 108 OPS+, 99 RBI, excellent fielder
16) Al Maul – 7.8 WAR, 20 Wins, 172 ERA+, 3.33 FIP
17) Jesse Tannehill – 7.4 WAR, 25 Wins, 121 ERA+, 2.97 FIP
18) Elmer Flick – 4.9 WAR, 156 OPS+
19) Jimmy Ryan – 4.3 WAR, 143 OPS+
20) Willie Keeler – 4.5 WAR, 136 OPS+, 216 hits
   8. DL from MN Posted: May 05, 2022 at 10:07 AM (#6075326)
That's the only prelim I got before the deadline. Election is over, results soon.

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