My best player to miss the ballot was Dave Winfield. Best pitcher was Jim Beattie.

Mike Schmidt is now the leader for years on an MMP ballot with 11. Gary Carter has made 7 ballots which is tops for catchers (Bench made 5 and Simmons 6). 5th time for Rickey and Yount. Every 5-timer is HoM except Dave Concepcion.

Dale Murphy is top non-HoM. Rick Rhoden and Dwight Gooden share "top NL pitcher" with one vote.

We've had 25 MMP elections now, including 2012.

13 times the MMP was not an MVP (though 2x that person was CYA)

One MVP failed to make a single MMP ballot (Ken Boyer)

The CYA winner has several times failed to make an MMP ballot including Rick Sutcliffe this year.

1974 is probably the year that was most screwed up in MVP and CYA voting. The highest award winner that year (Catfish Hunter) finished 13th in MMP balloting.

A few fun facts:

Cal Ripken Jr is the first back-to-back winner since Joe Morgan ('75 and '76). Mays ('64/'65), Morgan and Ripken are the only players with consecutive MMPs to date. Cal also makes it three straight years that a shortstop has won the MMP following Yount's win in 1982 and seven out of eight years that the award has gone to someone in the American League.

Dave Stieb is another back-to-back winner, taking the overall pitching MMP for the second year in a row and the AL award for the third straight season. He's the first back-to-back winner for the overall award since Bob Gibson won three straight from '68 to '70 and for the AL award since Denny McLain in '68 and '69. Stieb joins Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver and Steve Carlton as multiple winners of the overall award. Stieb is also the first to win three AL pitching MMPs, breaking a tie with Sam McDowell, Denny McLain, Gaylord Perry and Jim Palmer. That goes a long way to explaining why we elected him to the Hall of Merit a few years ago.

Ryne Sandberg is the first second baseman to win the NL award since Joe Morgan in 1976 and the first Cub since Ron Santo in 1967. Sandberg also continues a tradition of NL MMP winners who are also HoMers. The only exceptions are the still active Buster Posey (2012) and the Cobra, Dave Parker (1978).

This is a good time to test out a tie-breaking procedure. Currently, Gooden and Rhoden are tied for the NL pitching MMP with one vote each. If you still have your charts handy, please submit a run-off ballot to this thread with your top three NL pitchers.

Here's mine:

1. Bruce Sutter
2. Rick Rhoden
3. Dwight Gooden

If you still have your charts handy, please submit a run-off ballot to this thread with your top three NL pitchers.

1. Gooden
2. Rhoden
3. Sutcliffe

I have a pretty big gap between Gooden (who was just off-ballot for me) and Rhoden. And part of Sutcliffe's value was in the AL (albeit not much: he wasn't particularly good with the Indians).

Here's mine

1. Rhoden
2. Gooden
3. Mahler

1. Gooden
2. Rhoden
3. Sutter

Thanks for spearheading the MMP votes, DL. You've struck a pessimistic note occasionally of late, but I really enjoy the discussions, and I think the results are valuable, especially given how much work so many people (smarter people than me) put into them.

I didn't cast a ballot, but if you ask my opinion, I would say:

1. Rhoden (his hitting matters)
2. Gooden
3. Sutter

1- Rick Rhoden 6103 21st
2- Dwight Gooden 6041 23rd
3- Rich Mahler 4960 36th


for best without any votes, I've got Dave Winfield (overall) and for pitchers I've got Frank Viola

Rhoden, Alejandro Pena, Sutter (then Gooden) for me.

Sorry if my cynicism has bled through. I enjoy this, I like this year's level of participation. 15 ballots is a good number and we had 14 this time around.

1. Sutter
2. Rhoden
3. Gooden

Sorry if my cynicism has bled through. I enjoy this, I like this year's level of participation. 15 ballots is a good number and we had 14 this time around.

It's okay. I think we were all frustrated with the dwindling participation. It's nice to see so many new and returning voters for this season. Hopefully, we can build some momentum.

My Top 3 NL Pitchers:

1. Gooden
2. Soto
3. DeLeon

Soto's value looks to be hidden by the park.

My highest-value players not to get a vote is a multiple-tie embracing Frank Viola, Dave Winfield, Bob Brenly and Tony Pena. I guess I could go to another decimal place to break it, but that seems a bit of false precision.

since Denny McLain in '68 and '69

Speaking of Denny McLain, I am currently visiting my mother and brother in Michigan, who are having a bit of a clear-out. A box emerged from the attic, and inside was my autographed Denny McLain baseball. "To Paul, from Denny McLain." I had completely forgotten about it.

I also found the foul ball I got at Tiger Stadium, when the Royals were visiting once, hit to me by Gail Hopkins, a former 1b/DH type. I'd given that up for lost.

The box also included some other old items that my father saved, including an unmarked 1943 scorecard involving the Cubs and what I assume is a team drawn from men in the service — Chicago Cubs vs Camp Shanks.

inside was my autographed Denny McLain baseball

Sounds like the HoM has some actual artifacts after all! That beats my find of a Tony Oliva autographed ball at the thrift store for 50 cents.

We haven't received a new runoff ballot in about 24 hours so I'm going to call it. It's still close (what else would you expect?) but Rhoden has the lead.

Rhoden: 4 1sts, 4 2nds
Gooden: 3 1sts, 3 2nds, 2 3rds
Sutter: 2 1sts, 3 3rds

Pena: 1 2nd
Soto: 1 2nd
Mahler: 2 3rds
DeLeon: 1 3rd
Sutcliffe: 1 3rd

That's 32-26-13 Rhoden-Gooden-Sutcliffe with a 5-3-1 point scheme, or 20-17-9 with a 3-2-1.

What do you think? Should we go ahead with some of the past tie-breakers?

You mean Sutter, not Sutcliffe.

Yes, Sutter. Mis-typed the last sentence.