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Hall of Merit
— A Look at Baseball's All-Time Best

Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Most Meritorious Player: 1966 Results

In our second-closest election since we began the project earlier this year, Frank Robinson’s four-point advantage over Sandy Koufax wins him the title ‘Most Meritorious Player’ for 1966.

pts	ballots	1sts	Player
186	13	8	Frank Robinson
182	13	2	Sandy Koufax
166	13	2	Juan Marichal
150	13	1	Willie Mays
131	12	0	Dick Allen
123	12	0	Ron Santo
110	11	0	Jim Bunning
74	10	0	Roberto Clemente
73	9	0	Joe Torre
36	5	0	Willie McCovey
35	5	0	Harmon Killebrew
22	3	0	Henry Aaron
19	3	0	Bob Gibson
14	2	0	Al Kaline
14	2	0	Jim Maloney
10	1	0	Brooks Robinson
8	1	0	Dick McAuliffe
6	1	0	Felipe Alou
6	1	0	Tommie Agee

Total ballots: 13

National League players dominate the ballot, with Sandy Koufax as the Most Meritorious Pitcher.

Mr Dashwood Posted: November 02, 2011 at 05:31 PM | 10 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
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   1. Al Peterson Posted: November 04, 2011 at 02:50 PM (#3986412)
No one posted on the MMP results so I'll throw a comment out. My top 10 players matched the group's top 10. Only difference is Allen and Santo were switched in order. Guess I'm not much for originality.
   2. Qufini Posted: November 04, 2011 at 04:34 PM (#3986481)
I missed matching the top ten by 1 point as I had Killebrew instead of McCovey.
   3. Alex King Posted: November 04, 2011 at 07:54 PM (#3986652)
Including Rick A's ballot doesn't make a huge difference in the final results. Torre and Clemente switching spots is the only change in the top 10:

Player Pts
Frank Robinson 200
Sandy Koufax 197
Juan Marichal 178
Willie Mays 163
Dick Allen 142
Ron Santo 130
Jim Bunning 120
Joe Torre 82
Roberto Clemente 74
Willie McCovey 44
Harmon Killebrew 35
Hank Aaron 22
Al Kaline 20
Bob Gibson 19
Jim Maloney 14
Brooks Robinson 10
Dick McAuliffe 8
Felipe Alou 6
Tommie Agee 6
   4. Alex King Posted: November 04, 2011 at 08:55 PM (#3986694)
MMP Shares for 1966:


Name MMP Shares
Frank Robinson 0.95
Sandy Koufax 0.93
Juan Marichal 0.85
Willie Mays 0.77
Dick Allen 0.67
Ron Santo 0.63
Jim Bunning 0.56
Roberto Clemente 0.38
Joe Torre 0.37
Willie McCovey 0.18
Harmon Killebrew 0.18
Hank Aaron 0.11
Bob Gibson 0.10
Al Kaline 0.07
Jim Maloney 0.07
Brooks Robinson 0.05
Dick McAuliffe 0.04
Felipe Alou 0.03
Tommie Agee 0.03

Cumulative MMP Shares:
Mays 5.49
Aaron 3.62
Robinson 3.21
Koufax 2.96
Mantle 2.23

Given Koufax's underwhelming record from 1955-1960, his cumulative total of 2.96 MMP shares will most likely be his final career total. Though we only have seven years of data to deal with (and thus a lack of context as well as some selection bias), I took a look at Koufax's career to see how MMP voters have rated Koufax's prime. Koufax's MMP shares were all accumulated during his peak of 1963-1966, when Koufax was second in baseball only to Mays (3.96), with a large lead over #3 (Juan Marichal, 2.14). Koufax's 4-year run is also the third best of any we've seen so far, behind Mays 1962-1965 at 3.90 and Aaron 1961-1964 at 3.00. Considering only a player's best three years, Koufax's peak is again second to Mays's (2.99 to 2.90). It will be interesting to see how Koufax's peak MMP shares stack up against other historically great peaks as the MMP project continues.
   5. Rob_Wood Posted: November 05, 2011 at 12:34 AM (#3986832)
Here might not be the best place for this, but here goes. On my first view, the MMP shares looked a little strange to me. It took me awhile for me to figure out why.

I thought we agreed to have a "first place bonus" in our MMP point system. It looks like the points just decline 1 point per place (15 for 1st, 14 for 2nd, 13 for 3rd, etc.). I thought we wanted a significant bonus for receiving a voter's first place vote. Something like 18 for 1st, 14 for 2nd, 13 for 3rd, etc. In this way the very best players each season will receive boosted (relative) share points.

I looked for the original MMP project thread that might have had our discussion but I cannot find it. It is no longer on Hot Topics and I cannot retrieve other threads.

If anyone has any recollection of "bonus" points, or if anyone can make the original MMP project discussion thread appear on Hot Topics, I'd be grateful.

Thanks much.
   6. lieiam Posted: November 05, 2011 at 02:52 AM (#3986873)
My memory (re: Rob Wood's question above) is that a "first place bonus" was brought up but not implemented. I haven't looked for it in any discussion threads but that's simply what I'm remembering (rightly or wrongly).
   7. Best Dressed Chicken in Town Posted: November 05, 2011 at 05:51 AM (#3986917)
I took a look at Koufax's career to see how MMP voters have rated Koufax's prime. ....

If so many voters weren't ignoring the most important games, Koufax might look even better.
   8. DL from MN Posted: November 08, 2011 at 03:48 PM (#3988528)
We actually voted on the scoring system and haven't changed it since the first election.

Sorry about the mix-up on the end of the election. It's a combination of my not being able to edit pages and inadequate communication between myself and fra paulo. Won't happen again. The next election should be about 2 weeks after the 2012 HoM election, don't want to interfere with that. Also - are we planning on doing the mock-HoF ballot and mock-VC ballot this year?
   9. Qufini Posted: November 08, 2011 at 04:42 PM (#3988572)
Also - are we planning on doing the mock-HoF ballot and mock-VC ballot this year?


I hope so.
   10. DL from MN Posted: November 08, 2011 at 06:36 PM (#3988669)
First time we've seen 4 players get a 1st place vote. Despite the consensus on the top 10 this may be our most fractured voting on #1.

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