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Hall of Merit — A Look at Baseball's All-Time Best Monday, October 08, 2012Most Meritorious Player: 1977 Discussion1977 is an expansion year as the American League welcomes the Blue Jays and Mariners. The Yankees defeated the Royals in the ALCS. The Dodgers prevailed over the Phillies in the NLCS. The Yankees won the World Series in six games. In other news Dave Kingman becomes the only player to play in all four divisions in one season. MMP voting will end on November 8 2012. Player SH WS BBR WAR Carew, Rodney 37.7 9.5 Morgan, Joe 30.0 5.6 Schmidt, Mike 32.8 8.7 Parker, Dave 32.6 7.2 Foster, George 31.5 8.2 Fisk, Carlton 31.6 6.7 Smith, Reggie 29.3 5.9 Brett, George 29.1 7.4 Tenace, Gene 26.2 4.5 Carter, Gary 24.1 5.2 Singleton, Ken 35.8 5.4 Page, Mitchell 29.4 5.8 Lopes, Davey 24.2 4.5 Bostock, Lyman 26.9 5.6 Hendrick, George 28.0 5.6 Nettles, Graig 24.8 5.1 Luzinski, Greg 29.7 4.0 Simmons, Ted 28.4 5.0 Yastrzemski, Carl 23.6 4.9 Lemon, Chet 23.0 5.5 Harrah, Toby 24.5 5.3 Hargrove, Mike 24.7 5.1 Cowens, Al 26.7 5.0 Jackson, Reggie 27.3 4.2 Templeton, Garry 23.4 3.4 Rose, Pete 22.9 2.8 Rice, Jim 26.0 4.9 Bench, Johnny 22.9 4.8 Winfield, Dave 23.5 5.1 Concepcion, Dave 18.9 2.6 Hisle, Larry 23.7 4.9 Pitcher SH WS BBR WAR Reuschel, Rick 25.3 9.4 Tanana, Frank 20.5 8.0 Seaver, Tom 24.1 8.2 Ryan, Nolan 22.1 7.5 Carlton, Steve 25.3 6.6 Palmer, Jim 29.1 7.0 Candelaria, John 24.7 7.7 Leonard, Dennis 23.5 5.2 Blyleven, Bert 20.7 5.5 Halicki, Ed 18.5 5.4 Richard, JR 19.8 5.3 Niekro, Phil 19.5 8.1 Sutter, Bruce 26.0 6.5 Gossage, Goose 25.2 6.0 Campbell, Bill 23.1 4.6 Lyle, Sparky 20.3 3.5
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1. DL from MN Posted: October 08, 2012 at 11:28 AM (#4259056)1) Rod Carew
2) Rick Reuschel
3) Frank Tanana
4) Joe Morgan
5) Tom Seaver
6) Mike Schmidt
7) Dave Parker
8) George Foster
9) Carlton Fisk
10) Reggie Smith
11) John Candelaria
12) Nolan Ryan
13) George Brett
14-18) Gene Tenace, Steve Carlton, Gary Carter, Jim Palmer, Davey Lopes
I haven't run the relievers yet or done any postseason credit
It didn't appear to, for some of the reasons DL mentions in #4.
One thing that expansion does appear to have accelerated (although not necessarily kicking it off) was the specialization of the bullpen that culminated 15 years later in the current usage model. It's not a complete exaggeration to say that Mike Marshall's 1974/1975 campaigns (and possibly Bill Campbell's 1976-1978 as well) served as a warning shot across the bow to managers that they needed to move away from the pure fireman model toward a more restrictive usage of the closer, and you start to see both a reduction in closer innings and concentration of those innings into games in which the team was leading almost immediately. Innings per relief appearance started shooting down, and number of relievers used per game started shooting up, at almost precisely this moment.
-- MWE
1) Rod Carew
2) Bruce Sutter
3) Ken Singleton
4) Mike Schmidt
5) Mitchell Page
6) George Foster
7) Rich Gossage
8) Tom Seaver
9) Ted Simmons
10) Carlton Fisk
11) Reggie Smith
12) Joe Morgan
13) John Candelaria
Sutter's usage was a big part of that story, wasn't it? I remember there being a lot of concern about Sutter himself being affected by overwork.
Rk Player WAR ERA+ SV WPA WHIP GF GS IP Age Tm Lg G W L ERA BA OPS+
1 Bruce Sutter 6.5 328 31 5.149 0.857 48 0 107.1 24 CHC NL 62 7 3 1.34 .183 31
2 Rich Gossage 5.9 244 26 5.895 0.955 55 0 133.0 25 PIT NL 72 11 9 1.62 .170 38
3 Bill Campbell 4.6 153 31 4.938 1.229 60 0 140.0 28 BOS AL 69 13 9 2.96 .224 70
4 Lerrin LaGrow 4.1 168 25 4.560 1.176 49 0 98.2 28 CHW AL 66 7 3 2.46 .230 75
5 Gary Lavelle 3.9 191 20 1.654 1.208 49 0 118.1 28 SFG NL 73 7 7 2.05 .239 69
6 Dave Campbell 3.6 147 13 1.400 1.252 31 0 88.2 25 ATL NL 65 0 6 3.05 .239 70
7 Sparky Lyle 3.5 183 26 4.029 1.197 60 0 137.0 32 NYY AL 72 13 5 2.17 .257 76
8 Enrique Romo 3.1 146 16 0.870 1.155 39 3 114.1 29 SEA AL 58 8 10 2.83 .227 76
9 Willie Hernandez 3.1 145 4 1.541 1.109 23 1 110.0 22 CHC NL 67 8 7 3.03 .234 71
10 Pete Vuckovich 2.7 121 8 -0.524 1.365 35 8 148.0 24 TOR AL 53 7 7 3.47 .257 91
11 Bob Lacey 2.5 132 7 1.344 1.175 29 0 121.2 23 OAK AL 64 6 8 3.03 .234 82
12 Gene Garber 2.4 172 19 0.643 1.016 44 0 103.1 29 PHI NL 64 8 6 2.35 .220 58
13 Tom Johnson 2.3 128 15 2.505 1.357 54 0 146.2 26 MIN AL 71 16 7 3.13 .271 98
14 Bob McClure 2.1 162 6 -0.850 1.374 31 0 71.1 25 MIL AL 68 2 1 2.52 .248 76
15 Dick Tidrow 2.1 125 5 0.979 1.219 26 7 151.0 30 NYY AL 49 11 4 3.16 .250 91
16 Rollie Fingers 2.1 119 35 0.648 1.202 69 0 132.1 30 SDP NL 78 8 9 2.99 .248 92
17 Pedro Borbon 1.9 123 18 1.224 1.220 54 0 127.0 30 CIN NL 73 10 5 3.19 .268 86
18 Ron Reed 1.9 147 15 3.037 1.110 35 3 124.1 34 PHI NL 60 7 5 2.75 .224 66
A very peculiar set of mega-stats this year....
1. Rod Carew appears to be an easy choice
2. George Foster--OK, now it gets tricky. #5 WS, #3 WAR, #6 and 8 on the above ballots. How come so low?
3. Mike Schmidt
4. Carlton Fisk
5. Greg Luzinski--what exactly has the Baby Bull ever done to WAR that WAR hates him so bad?
6. Ken Singleton--while I have him #6 I have to ask how the hell he is #2 on WS?
7. Reggie Smith
8. Steve Carlton--283 IP vs. 252 for Reuschel, 241 for Tanana....
9. Dave Parker
10. Rick Reuschel
11. Jim Rice
12. Jim Palmer--319 IP
13. Al Cowens
14. Graig Nettles
15. John Candaleria
Also under consideration--Reggie Jackson, George Brett
Play terrible defense.
Regarding Foster - the pitchers sneak in ahead of him but among position players he's essentially tied with Dave Parker behind Carew, Morgan and Schmidt.
Win Shares ties to team wins, and the Orioles outplayed their Pythag by 9 games in 1977. Win Shares also has a narrower spread on its fielding component (because it's truncated at 0), so Singleton's negative fielding doesn't hurt him as much as in WAR (BB-Ref has his fielding at -12).
I'd guess that's helping Palmer too. Maybe they should credit those extra wins to Weaver.
Because both Win Shares and WAR have problems and shouldn't be adhered to slavishly? ;-)
As I understand it the 1977 Cubs were a horrible defensive team. Any system that adjusts Reuschel's value for defensive support is going to help him out.
The 1977 Cubs actually out-performed their Pythag (by 5 games; they were outscored by 47 runs, but finished right at .500). I'm not really sure how to explain that difference, although the WAR number looks flukier to me than the WS. Reuschel definitely had one of the best seasons of any pitcher in 1977, but it's hard for me to see that he had clearly and unambiguously the best season of any pitcher.
AL
1. Jim Palmer 5.5
2. Frank Tanana 4.1
3. Dennis Leonard 3.6
4. Nolan Ryan 3.5
5. Bert Blyleven 3.3
6. Ron Guidry 3.2
7. Dennis Eckersley 2.5
8. Gaylord Perry 2.4
9. Doyle Alexander 2.4
10. Dave Rozema 2.3
NL
1. John Candelaria 6.4
2. Rick Reuschel 5.7
3. Tom Seaver 5.1
4. Steve Carlton 4.4
5. Tommy John 3.3
6. JR Richard 3.3
7. Bob Forsch 2.9
8. Don Sutton 2.5
9. Burt Hooton 2.3
10. Steve Rogers 2.2
I thought that "Baby Bull" was specifically Orlando Cepeda. And Orlando Cepeda was the "Baby Bull" because Pedro "Perucho" Cepeda was the Bull.
Greg Luzinski was also the Bull, but I think you can leave out "Baby."
Run scoring jumped quite sharply from 1976. The AL went from 4.00 to 4.56, the NL from 3.99 to 4.40. So while Foster's 50 HR year was still a relative rarity, the increased offensive levels at least gives it some context.
The top NL pitchers hit unusually well. I worked up 8 NL starters, and the second worst hitter of the 8 was Bob Forsch. Which goes to show that a year's hitting for a pitcher is still a small sample. (And Forsch didn't pitch well enough to be worth including below.) Some OPS+: Carlton 78, Richard 64, Candelaria 53, Seaver 46, Reuschel 34.
This was very near the top of the arc for having value delivered by relief pitchers in the fireman model. Just a wealth of great relief performances. As for inherited runners: the AL relief pitchers inherited many more runners then the NL pitchers. And that makes sense: the need for the NL fireman to enter the game was often created by pinch hitting for the previous pitcher, while the AL firemen were more likely to be called on in the middle of an inning.
Now as a reminder: the rankings below are based only on RA+ and innings pitched. They're not adjusted for offense (although I comment on the offense) and most importantly, they're not adjusted for defensive support. So you can assume that Palmer is overrated and Reuschel is underrated.
AL pitchers:
Palmer 23-12
Tanana 19-8
Ryan 21-13
Blyleven 17-9
Leonard 20-13
Guidry 15-8
Campbell 11-4; 16-6 with inherited runner adjustment (Campbell was the best of these against inherited runners)
LaGrow 8-3; 13-6 with inherited runner adjustment
Lyle 11-4; 15-9 with inherited runner adjustment (Lyle wasn't so good against inherited runners)
NL pitchers:
Reuschel 20-8, decent hitter
Candelaria 19-7, very good hitter
Seaver 20-9, good hitter
Carlton 21-11, excellent hitter
Richard 18-12, very good hitter
John 15-10
Niekro 20-17, weak hitter
Gossage 12-3, 15-5 with inherited runner adjustment. OK hitter
Sutter 10-2, 13-3 with inherited runner adjustment
Lavelle 9-4, 13-5 with inherited runner adjustment. Oh-fer hitter
I think these two items are related.
Candelaria and Reuschel both had limited innings pitched compared to some of the other starters. They also had shutdown relievers ready to take over.
36 starts for Carlton, 37 for Reuschel, 31 for Tanana. Tanana's IP/start is pretty strong and he threw 7 shutouts.
These days, with how far his BBQ apron sticks out, he might be referred to as "Bull and his Baby".
Player G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS SB CS
Ron Cey 4 13 4 4 1 0 1 4 2 4 .308 .400 .615 1.015 1 0
Steve Garvey 4 13 2 4 0 0 0 0 2 1 .308 .400 .308 .708 1 0
Davey Lopes 4 17 2 4 0 0 0 3 2 0 .235 .316 .235 .551 0 1
Reggie Smith 4 16 2 3 0 1 0 1 2 5 .188 .278 .313 .590 1 0
Steve Carlton 2 4 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 2 .500 .600 .500 1.100 0 0
Greg Luzinski 4 14 2 4 1 0 1 2 3 3 .286 .444 .571 1.016 1 0
Garry Maddox 2 7 1 3 0 0 0 2 0 1 .429 .500 .429 .929 0 0
Mike Schmidt 4 16 2 1 0 0 0 1 2 3 .063 .167 .063 .229 0 0
Pitcher G GS ERA W L SV CG IP H ER BB SO WHIP
Steve Carlton 2 2 6.94 0 1 0 0 11.2 13 9 8 6 1.800
Player G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS SB CS
Reggie Jackson 5 16 1 2 0 0 0 1 2 2 .125 .222 .125 .347 1 0
Graig Nettles 5 20 1 3 0 0 0 1 0 3 .150 .150 .150 .300 0 0
George Brett 5 20 2 6 0 2 0 2 1 0 .300 .333 .500 .833 0 1
Al Cowens 5 19 2 5 0 0 1 5 1 3 .263 .300 .421 .721 0 1
Pitcher G GS ERA W L SV CG IP H ER BB SO WHIP
Sparky Lyle 4 0 0.96 2 0 0 0 9.1 7 1 0 3 0.750
Dennis Leonard 2 1 3.00 1 1 0 1 9.0 5 3 2 4 0.778
Player G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS SB CS
Reggie Jackson 6 20 10 9 1 0 5 8 3 4 .450 .542 1.250 1.792 0 0
Graig Nettles 6 21 1 4 1 0 0 2 2 3 .190 .261 .238 .499 0 0
Ron Cey 6 21 2 4 1 0 1 3 3 5 .190 .280 .381 .661 0 0
Steve Garvey 6 24 5 9 1 1 1 3 1 4 .375 .400 .625 1.025 0 1
Davey Lopes 6 24 3 4 0 1 1 2 4 3 .167 .286 .375 .661 2 1
Reggie Smith 6 22 7 6 1 0 3 5 4 3 .273 .385 .727 1.112 0 1
Pitcher G GS ERA W L SV CG IP H ER BB SO WHIP
Sparky Lyle 2 0 1.93 1 0 0 0 4.2 2 1 0 2 0.429
I expanded my pool of players in consideration to try and not leave anyone off of my off-ballot list who would otherwise be there.
Note the ballot has increased to 13 this year with the addition of the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays.
1 carew, rod 9844
2 schmidt, mike 8753
3 foster, george 8404
4 fisk, carlton 8059
5 reuschel, rick 8008
6 parker, dave 7690
7 singleton, ken 7558
8 brett, george 7406
9 palmer, jim 7350
10 smith, reggie 7290
11 seaver, tom 7047
12 page, mitchell 6842
13 carlton, steve 6820
14 candelaria, john 6768
15 sutter, bruce 6758
16 simmons, ted 6706
17 tanana, frank 6666
18 leonard, dennis 6628
19 morgan, joe 6627
20 ryan, nolan 6597
21 gossage, goose 6259
22 bostock, lyman 6223
23 carter, gary 6103
24 niekro, phil 6098
25 tenace, gene 6067
26 hendrick, george 5893
WAR framework, with a higher baseline replacement level than "normal", resulting in a reduction in replacement wins (Wins Above Reduced Replacement)
1. Rick Reuschel 8.6 WARR raw numbers achieved in an extreme hitter's park in front of less than average defense.
2. Mike Schmidt 8.25 WARR superior fielding, sets him above other position players.
3.Tom Seaver 7.6 WARR
4. George Foster 7.5 WARR best offensive numbers in NL, good fielder, but a position adjustment foe being a corner outfielder lowers rating.
5. Rod Carew 7.2 WARR best offensive season for position players, but gets adjusted down as a firstbaseman
6. Frank Tanana 7.2 WARR
7. John Candelaria 7.2 WARR
8. Phil Niekro 7.05 WARR rather pedestrian raw numbers look much better when the numbers are adjusted for park (extreme hitter's park) and the fact that he played in front of the poorest defense in the majors)
9. Dave Parker 6.85 WARR
10. Steve Carlton 6.75 WARR
11. Nolan Ryan 6.65 WARR
12. Jim Palmer 6.55 WARR
13. George Brett 6.45 WARR
The hitting adjustment for pitchers in the NL helped everyone's rating (Carlton the most) with the exception of Niekro.
The rest of the top 20
Bruce Sutter
Mitchell Page
Carlton Fisk
Goose Gossage
Reggie Smith
Ken Singleton
Bert Blyleven
That might be a little high for this season. Foster had a very good year in the field and spent 20% of his games in center. I have Parker ahead of Foster defensively by about 1/2 a win for 1977.
That's going to show up in their positional replacement value but it will probably ding Foster's defense wrt position. Not sure if that helps or hurts Foster but I think I'm going to flip them on the ballot.
1. Rod Carew, 1B, Minnesota Twins: leads AL in OPS+ and RC by large margins, plus defender at 1B
2. George Foster, RF/CF, Cincinnati Reds: Foster had a career year defensively (+17) as well as with the bat (a league leading 167 OPS+)
3. Mike Schmidt, 3B, Philadelphia Phillies: the third base bonus isn't quite enough to catch Foster
4. Carlton Fisk, C, Boston Red Sox: a great defensive season (+12 fielding runs) and a catcher's bonus bump Fisk into the top four
5. Bruce Sutter, RP, Chicago Cubs: one of the greatest relief seasons of all-time- a 1.34 ERA in over 100 innnings
6. Dave Parker, RF, Pittsburgh Pirates: an excellent arm in right field and the great range of youth nets Parker +25 fielding runs
7. Reggie Smith, RF, Los Angeles Dodgers: 167 OPS+ leads the National League
8. Ted Simmons, C, St. Louis Cardinals: not as good defensively as Fisk but a 144 OPS+ and 100 runs created are pretty impressive for a catcher (it also helps that Simmons gets the full catcher bonus for playing all but one game behind the plate)
9. Steve Carlton, P, Philadelphia Phillies: the best starting pitcher in the NL
10. Goose Gossage, RP, Pittsburgh Pirates: my initial results had Sutter 3 and Gossage 7 which seemed too high; after adjusting their ERAs according to their fewer innings, they ended up at 5 and 10 which seemed more appropriate
11. Jim Palmer, SP, Baltimore Orioles: once again, I end up higher on Palmer than the crowd; his combination of innings (319) and ERA+ (132) make him the best pitcher in the AL this year
12. Nolan Ryan, SP, California Angels: another great combination of innings and rate
13. George Brett, 3B, Kansas City Royals: Brett gets the first lucky 13 ballot spot.
------
14. Gary Carter, C, Montreal Expos: a good year for catchers but Carter just misses the ballot due to a down year defensively
15. John Candelaria, P, Pittsburgh Pirates
16. Rick Reuschel, P, Chicago Cubs: they're essentially tied in my system but Candy breaks the tie with better peripherals (whip and k/bb rate)
17. Jim Rice, LF, Boston Red Sox: I don't share the general loathing for Rice and this is where a good-hitting corner outfielder with little defensive value ends up
18. Tom Seaver, P, New York Mets/Cincinnati Reds: I'm sure Mets fans won't regret this trade at all
19. Joe Morgan, 2B, Cincinnati Reds: It's a steep drop compared to his recent MVP seasons but a 138 OPS+ and 121 runs created at second base are still good enough for the top 20
20. Dennis Leonard, P, Kansas City Royals: I didn't expect this one but Leonard's 50 IP advantage over Tanana made the difference
1977 was the first season of major-league baseball that I followed really closely at the time. My all-time favorite player won a badly undeserved Rookie of the Year award, but I was 9 years old, so what did I care that Mitchell Page was robbed.
Here's my preliminary ballot (numbers shown here are pWins - pLosses, pWOPA, pWORL):
1. Joe Morgan, 21.7 - 14.3, 4.1, 5.8 - he came back to the pack this year relative to his last 4 or 5 seasons, but he's still a narrow #1 for me.
2. Tom Seaver, 19.1 - 12.3, 4.1, 5.7 - very close to Morgan, easily the best pitcher in MLB
3. George Foster, 27.3 - 19.9, 2.9, 5.1 - great season, led MLB in pWins
4. Carlton Fisk, 18.2 - 12.2, 3.0, 4.5 - catcher bonus gets him this high
5. Mike Schmidt, 21.5 - 15.3, 2.7, 4.4 - best 3B in the majors
6. Rod Carew, 19.5 - 13.8, 2.4, 3.9 - better in eWins than pWins
7. Rick Reuschel, 18.1 - 13.4, 3.1, 4.7 - the next 5 slots are starting pitchers who are somewhat interchangeable in terms of ballot position; it just kind of worked out that way
8. Jim Palmer, 19.1 - 13.5, 3.0, 4.7 - I'm even a bit higher on Palmer than #33
9. Steve Carlton, 21.9 - 16.6, 3.6, 5.5 - a good bit worse in eWins (for the 2nd season in a row)
10. J.R. Richard, 18.2 - 15.6, 2.1, 3.8 - one of my favorite pitchers as a kid and one of the great tragedies of my youth; #4 in eWOPA
11. Dennis Leonard, 18.8 - 13.2, 3.0, 4.6
12. Bruce Sutter, 10.2 - 5.0, 2.5, 3.5 - relief pitchers almost never show up in my leader lists; I'm giving Sutter a bit of a boost to get him on the ballot
13. Mitchell Page, 20.1 - 18.3, 0.6, 2.4 - much better in eWins (#10 in eWOPA) than pWins; I have a soft spot for him because Murray stole his Rookie of the Year award.
Foster came up as a CF, but when he moved to the Reds, they already had Cesar Geronimo. Foster, it seems, would play CF when Cesar was out, or in late innings when they had pinch-hit for Cesar. 1977 is Foster's career year in general, so he may have been near his defensive peak then, although defense is generally a young man's game. Foster developed a reputation for lackluster defense, because he developed a reputation for lackluster play in all areas. I don't know if the rep was true or not; George was a laid-back guy as a person, so he looked like he wasn't paying much attention to the game, at least to me when I saw him.
Dave Parker had all the tools, especially a cannon arm. He was, essentially, a career RF; the Bucs had people like Omar Moreno to play center. Dave could have developed an unusual amount of value in 1977 by throwing out a lot of runners. That would be my best guess as to why he would outrank Foster with the glove. Foster did not have a great arm, probably not even a good one. Parker won a Gold Glove in 1977, although I think that was during the period when the voters wanted to give separate GGs to LF, CF, and RF, so the voting in that era was skewed towards corner OF. In general, of course, the three best OF in a league are all CFs. - Brock Hanke
I'm probably forgetting some, but my faves of 1977:
1- WIRE- Pink Flag
2- SEX PISTOLS- Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
3- STRANGLERS- No More Heroes
4- DAMNED- Damned, Damned, Damned
5- SAINTS- I'm Stranded
6- TELEVISION- Marquee Moon
7- STRANGLERS- Rattus Norvegicus
8- JAM- This Is The Modern World
9- CLASH- The Clash
10-JAM- In The City
Knowing me I'll probably come up with more and update this later in the thread.
I don't know where those albums might go... I don't think they would crack my top six but they could certainly crack my top 10 (which, even w/out what I forgot would probably be different if I were to do it again... Although Pink Flag is comfortably my favorite album of 1977.
Kraftwerk - Trans-Europe Express
David Bowie - Low, Heroes
Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True
Buzzcocks - Spiral Scratch
Cheap Trick - s/t, In Color
Iggy Pop - The Idiot, Lust for Live
Talking Heads - 77
Modern Lovers - s/t
Richard Hell and Voidoids - Blank Generation
Tom Waits - Foreign Affairs
Queen - News of the World
Throbbing Gristle - Second Annual Report
Brian Eno - Before and After Science
Suicide - s/t
Fela Kuti - Zombie
guilty pleasures
Runaways - Queens of Noise
Kiss - Love Gun, Alive II
Ted Nugent - Cat Scratch Fever
Meat Loaf - Bat out of Hell
Saturday Night Fever soundtrack
and in Dinosaur Rock
Pink Floyd - Animals
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
Rush - A Farewell to Kings
Neil Young - American Stars and Bars
Wasn't the Modern Lovers album 1976? If not I need to amend my 1976 favorite album (as that is what I have declared).
And although Buzzcocks are awesome, Spiral Scratch is only 4 songs (great as those songs are!).
Anyway, a great year for music (to my ears at least) and I think 1978 was even better!
And then you trotted out music. 1977 was, for me, the beginnings of a transition from disco and acoustic ballads to something like rock and roll. Much better. Here are a few of mine, although some of them might not be from this exact year, and I haven't time to go look them up.
I wasn't a big fan of Bowie in that period, but The Buzzcocks are a different question. Their first two or three albums are by far the best. Cheap Trick is just getting started, too, but Iggie and the Stooges (which I what I think the were still calling themselves) were in high (of course) form. The Talking Heads were so good so fast that they have to be on a list. Meat Loaf has the one song he's been hanging his rep on for the last 30 years. Fortunately for him, it's one of the greatest high-school kid frustration rock pieces I've ever heard. I'm not familiar with any particular album, but Kraftwerk is underrated in general. I have no business trying to analyze a Tom Waits song; they are beyond me. Brian Eno is the same. However if any of you has yet to have PRIMUS show up on their "3D" tour, man, you really MUST go. I went last Sunday. Three hours of songs. I had no desire to go get a coke. Or to go to the men's room. Not even during the breaks. I have never been able to say that about a band. They were riveting. Sex Pistols yes, Clash yes, too. Do Wall of Voodoo have anything out this early? There are a LOT of underground college radio acts and songs that I could not get on my weak-powered college radio stations, so I don't know the whens of a lot of these guys. I learned about them watching the great rock flick "Urgh! A Music War." But that came out in 1981, and I just don't know how far back any of the bands there go. Also, News of the World is the album that says, "Queen is the next big thing, guys. They are ALMOST there; same with Fleetwood Mac and Rumors. And another anachronism note: Washing U. here in STL,, has a professor in residence named Ysted Imrat Khan, who was recording well before 1977. If you have any appreciation for Indian Classical Ragas, you gotta try this.
Possibly, I was going by Wiki.
If I had to rank them by my favorites (and I only get 13)?
1) Kraftwerk - Trans-Europe Express
2) Wire - Pink Flag
3) Jam - This Is The Modern World / In the City
4) Clash - s/t
5) Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True
6) Ramones - Leave Home, Rocket to Russia
7) David Bowie - Low, Heroes
8) Iggy Pop - The Idiot, Lust for Live
9) Television - Marquee Moon
10) Buzzcocks - Spiral Scratch
11) Throbbing Gristle - Second Annual Report
12) Suicide - s/t
13) Talking Heads - 77
He's got some very high placements and some off the ballot placements... I thought that was odd... and worth mentioning.
1. Rod Carew - Clear #1.
2. Jim Palmer - At least 40 more innings than any of the other top pitchers and 70-80 more than many of them.
3. Mike Schmidt - Similar offensive value to a few other guys, but the best defender.
4. Joe Morgan - Not nearly as good as his last two years, but much more playing time than '76 closes the value gap a bit.
5. Goose Gossage - Sutter was better, but Gossage had 25% more innings.
6. George Foster - I hadn't realized he was ever this good.
7. Tom Seaver - Best pitcher compared to average.
8. Carlton Fisk - 149 starts at catcher, plus very good hitting.
9. John Candeleira - Led the majors in ERA and ERA+
10. Frank Tanana - Led the AL in ERA and ERA+
11. Bruce Sutter
12. Rick Reuschel - I thought he'd rank higher. Maybe I should bump him up because of the Cubs defense.
13. Steve Carlton - Next two guys racked up value by pitching a lot of innings
14. Nolan Ryan
15. Reggie Smith - 5th best offensive player in the league relative to position.
How does that look?
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