1899 ballot

1) John McGraw - a combination of the 2nd best bat, great glove and scarcity at 3B makes him a runaway choice
2) Ed Delahanty - best bat
3) Jimmy Williams - rookie season is clearly his best
4) Vic Willis - best pitcher
5) Chick Stahl
6) Jesse Tannehill - better bat puts him ahead of Young
7) Cy Young - becomes the pitcher who has received a vote in the most seasons
8) Jesse Burkett
9) Noodles Hahn
10) Honus Wagner

11-15) Bobby Wallace, George Davis, Joe Kelley, Grant Johnson, Jay Hughes
16-20) Willie Keeler, Napoleon Lajoie, Tom Daly, Frank Grant, Bill Dahlen

1899 ballot

1) John McGraw
2) Ed Delahanty
3) Vic Willis
4) Jimmy Williams
5) Cy Young
6) Jesse Burkett
7) Chick Stahl
8) Noodles Hahn
9) Honus Wagner
10) Joe McGinnity

11-16) Frank Kitson, Kid Nichols, Jesse Tannehill, Fred Tenney, Bobby Wallace, Roy Thomas

This is Brock Hanke’s ballot for 1899. As usual, it’s a list of Win Shares. The season itself has oddities, one of which is that only one team played the entire 154-game schedule. Eleven teams played 147-152 games. Take a minute to guess which one is the twelfth. Did you guess the Cleveland Spiders? That fiasco of a team went 20-134, which you all know about. But, moving games from Cleveland to other parks, and being so bad that they were an almost-automatic victory, the Spiders were apparently a top-end draw, so they played the entire schedule. Which does make some sense. You don’t have to travel to play them; they will come to you. And you’re going to win. Fans will be happy. Why would you want to skip a game like that? You would not, so the Spiders played 154, and no one else did.

Enough fun. Here’s my list. It has no Spiders on it. The best player on the Spiders was a pitcher with 9 Win Shares. The next best was another pitcher, who had 6:

1. Ed Delahanty (41)
2. Vic Willis (39)
3. Cy Yung (35)
4. Joe McGinnity (35)
5. John McGraw (34)
6. Jay Hughes (33) The best player on Brooklyn, who won 101 games. Managed by Ned Hanlon, with Keeler, Dahlen and Kelley on it.
7. Chick Stahl (32)
8. Jimmy Williams (32)
9. Kid Nichols (31)
10. Frank Kitson (31)

Okay, my 1899 ballot

1 - John McGraw
2 - Vic Willis
3 - Ed Delahanty
4 - Noodles Hahn
5 - Chick Stahl

6 - Jimmy Williams
7 - Jay Hughes
8 - Fred Tenney
9 - Jesse Burkett
10 - Bobby Wallace

8. Tubbs is Bobby Grich when he flys off the handle Posted: May 30, 2022 at 08:26 PM (#6079111)
Final ballot-please move it from the discussion thread into the 1899 ballot thread (it wouldn’t let me comment). Some small credit for playing for a pennant contender

1. Ed Delahanty
2. Vic Willis
3. Jimmy Williams
4. John McGraw
5. Joe McGinnity
6. Noodles Hahn
7. Jay Hughes
8. Honus Wagner
9. Jesse Burkett
10.Cy Young

Official 1899 MMP Ballot:

1) Vic Willis: Best player and pitcher, but not by a lot regarding the
former.
2) Ed Delahanty: Best position player and left fielder.
3) John McGraw: Best third baseman.
4) Joe McGinnity
5) Jay Hughes
6) Cy Young
7) Jimmy Williams
8) Frank Kitson
0) Kid Nichols: Seriously slacking this year. ;-)
10) Chick Stahl: Best right fielder.

Last call for an extension. It's a close race this year.

6. HAWK Posted: May 12, 2022 at 08:24 PM (#6076499)

1) Ed Delahanty – 8.0 WAR, 189 OPS+, .410 BA, 238 hits, 137 RBI, Best hitter, excellent fielder
2) Vic Willis – 10.0 WAR, 27 Wins, 165 ERA+, 3.75 FIP
3) Jimmy Williams – 6.9 WAR, 158 OPS+, 220 hits, 116 RBI, Best non-outfield hitter
4) John McGraw – 8.0 WAR, 168 OPS+, excellent fielder
5) Bobby Wallace – 5.5 WAR, 120 OPS+, 108 RBI, 12 HR, excellent fielder
6) Honus Wagner – 5.8 WAR, 145 OPS+, 114 RBI
7) Cy Young – 8.3 WAR, 26 Wins, 154 ERA+, 3.10 FIP, excellent fielding pitcher
8) Joe McGinnity – 8.4 WAR, 28 Wins, 148 ERA+, 3.61 FIP
9) Jay Hughes – 7.9 WAR, 28 Wins, 145 ERA+, 3.89 FIP, Regular Season Champion
10) Jesse Burkett – 5.8 WAR, 162 OPS+, 221 hits

11) Chick Stahl – 5.6 WAR, 142 OPS+
12) Willie Keeler – 4.8 WAR, 138 OPS+, 216 hits, Regular Season Champion
13) Jesse Tannehill – 8.2 WAR, 24 Wins, 135 ERA+, 3.31 FIP
14) George Davis – 4.9 WAR, Best fielding shortstop, 126 OPS+
15) Fred Tenney – 5.3 WAR, 124 OPS+, 209 hits
16) Noodles Hahn – 7.7 WAR, 145 ERA+, 2.88 FIP
17) Bill Dahlen – 4.6 WAR, 116 OPS+, excellent fielder, Regular Season Champion
18) Jimmy Collins – 3.9 WAR, 140 OPS+, excellent fielder
19) Nap Lajoie – 3.8 WAR, 169 OPS+, excellent fielder
20) Lave Cross – 3.6 WAR, Best fielding 3rd Baseman, 95 OPS+

election is over, results are posted

New Project Proposal

Excuse the interruption, gentlemen, from a long-time-ago HoM voter. I don’t know where ELSE to post this idea, so it seemed *here* was a reasonable place.

I have a proposal to begin a voting project that would have at least some similarities to the HoM.

- - - Ranking the 50 best MLB single-season performances - - -

I propose a Survivor*-like exercise, where first the 50 best single seasons are determined, and after that a (bi-?) weekly culling is made whereby some are excluded, until the list shrinks to {something like} 45, 40, 36, 33, 30, 27, 24, 22, 20, 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 9, 8, 7… 1.

Each (1 or 2) weeks, a discussion thread would ensue, at by the end, each person would vote for x player-seasons to be kicked out of the group. The player(s) with the most votes get booted, and the rest go back in for a clean vote to begin the next cycle. Ultimately we get a countdown to the Best Season Ever.

MLB only. Post-season credit is voter’s is in play, for voter’s discretion. Ditto for league strength. You think PEDs=cheaters, fine, vote Bonds 200x off, but others may disagree.

Clones allowed; we could have up to 5 Ruth years for all I know.

The Starting 50 might be one big beginning exercise where we each nominate 50 seasons, and the most votes get in the hopper. Or we could start with 60 and take the first week to cut 10 off to have a more prudently chosen 50.

Thoughts on methods, on implementation, and on best thread to discuss?

Tom Hanrahan