1) Cal Ripken - the kind of season that comes around once a decade
2) Barry Bonds - Solid all-around contribution
3) Ryne Sandberg
4) Roger Clemens - best pitcher again
5) Barry Larkin
6) Tom Glavine - postseason credit
7) Mickey Tettleton - good bat, catcher bonus
8) Ozzie Smith
9) Tom Candiotti
10) Terry Pendleton - postseason bump, good glove
11) Ken Griffey Jr
12) Lou Whitaker
13) Frank Thomas - best hitter

14-15) Jose Canseco, Chris Sabo
16-20) Rafael Palmeiro, Jim Abbott, Kevin Tapani, Will Clark, Mark Langston
21-25) Jose Rijo, Matt Williams, Pete Harnisch, Ruben Sierra, Craig Biggio

1991 Ballot

1. Cal Ripken Jr, SS, Baltimore Orioles: an all-time great season, 162 OPS+ and +22 fielding
2. Frank Thomas, 1B, Chicago White Sox: leads AL in OPS+ and RC
3. Roger Clemens, P, Boston Red Sox: laps the field with 165 ERA+ and 271 IP
4. Barry Bonds, LF, Pittsburgh Pirates: leads NL in OPS+ and RC, adds +19 with the glove
5. Ken Griffey Jr, CF, Seattle Mariners: top five in AL OPS+ with +7 fielding in CF
6. Ryne Sandberg, 2B, Chicago Cubs: tied for 2nd in NL with 114 RC while adding +6 from the keystone
7. Julio Franco, 2B, Texas Rangers: 146 OPS+ from 2B though only -6 fielding
8. Barry Larkin, SS, Cincinnati Reds: 143 OPS+ and +3 fielding as a shortstop
9. Rafael Palmeiro, 1B, Texas Rangers: 155 OPS+
10. Lou Whitaker, 2B, Detroit Tigers: cracks the top ten in OPS+ while adding +11 fielding
11. Paul Molitor, 1B, Milwaukee Brewers
12. Tom Glavine, P, Atlanta Braves: tied for 1st in NL ERA+ with 246 IP for 2nd in the NL
13. Wade Boggs, 3B, Boston Red Sox: doesn't lead in any category but does everything well

14. Tom Candiotti, P, Cleveland/Toronto: 2nd in AL ERA+
15. Terry Pendleton, 3B, Atlanta Braves: not a great MVP choice but top ten in OPS+ and RC is at least decent
16. Mickey Tettleton, C/DH, Detroit Tigers: DH penalty keeps him off ballot
17. Will Clark, 1B, San Francisco Giants: another quietly impressive season
18. Dennis Martinez, P, Montreal Expos: tied for 1st in NL ERA+ while top ten in IP with 222
19. Kevin Tapani, P, Minnesota Twins
20. Jim Abbott, P, California Angels

1. Cal Ripken - one of the greatest modern seasons period
2. Barry Bonds - top 10 in offense, baserunning and OF defense
3. Ken Griffey, Jr. - best CF in the game
4. Frank Thomas - his 2nd best (non-strikeshortened) offensive season
5. Roger Clemens - league-leading 271 IP of league-leading 165 ERA+ (2nd most IP of the 90's)
6. Tom Glavine - led NL in ERA+, 2nd in IP (+ for post-season)
7. Terry Pendleton - solid across board; best 3B in the game (+ for WS)
8. Ryne Sandberg - best 2B in the game
9. Lou Whitaker - his best season overall; .279/.391/.489
10. Devon White - stellar OF defense along with above-average offense and baserunning
11. Barry Larkin - 143 OPS+ and well-above average with glove and on basepaths
12. Julio Franco - incredible offensive season (146 OPS+, league-leading .341 BA) combined with great baserunning (and mediocre IF defense)
13. Mickey Tettleon - best offensive and overall catcher in baseball (not even close)

Here's the RPA top players, based upon runs produced over average performer:

1. Frank Thomas 60.34 runs
2. Barry Bonds 42.40 runs
3. Cal Ripken 41.41 runs
4. Jose Canseco 41.05 runs
5. Roger Clemens 40.90 runs
6. Will Clark 38.09 runs
7. Danny Tartabull 37.29 runs
8. Rafael Palmeiro 36.74 runs
9. Bobby Bonilla 33.66 runs
10. & 11. (tie) Ken Griffey, jr & Tom Glavine 31.13 runs
12. Julio Franco 31.05 runs
13. Fred McGriff 30.13 runs
14. Ivan Calderon 29.87 runs
15. Jose Rijo 29.47 runs
16. Rickey Henderson 29.31 runs
17. Tom Candiotti 28.43 runs
18. Ryne Sandberg 28.31 runs

I'm going to break the tie in the order you placed them.

This is Brock Hanke’s ballot for 1991. Consensus between Win Shares and WAR has not improved. The worst case is Tom Glavine, ranked #2 in WAR and #46 in Win Shares. My method of averaging the ordinals would actually have placed Glavine 18th, or off the ballot, and tied with Edgar Martinez. But WAR has him so high that I decided to pass over Lou Whitaker, Barry Larkin, Mickey Tettleton, Wade Boggs, Will Clark, and Edgar to put Glavine on the list at the bottom. Look at who I had to pass over here. I am not shortsheeting WAR. I happen to agree with Win Shares about the rankings, because I think that WAR badly overrates modern pitchers, but I am willing to make a concession to a #2 placement. I would note that WAR has five of the top ten players being pitchers, six of the top 13 (Glavine, Clemens, Abbott, Langston, Candiotti, and Tapani), while Win Shares has Clemens as the highest pitcher, at 26th (which is probably too low, but a lot closer than WAR’s placements). There is no way you can convince me that, in 1991, half of the best players in the game were pitchers. Too few innings, and too much leverage lost to relievers.

The worst disconnect actually goes the other way. Win Shares has Ron Gant, playing full time in center field for the Braves, as the 15th best player in the game. That wouldn’t be on a 13-man list anyway, but WAR has Gant ranked the lowest of anyone on DL’s header – the 78th best player in the game, or worse. Gant wouldn’t be on the ballot even according to Win Shares, which is why this is the worst disconnect, but not the worst case. The reason WAR has Gant ranked so incredibly low is that they think he could not play the outfield at all. His RField is an eye-popping -27. I have no idea where this number came from. It’s far and away the worst of Gant’s career, at any position. I remember Gant from his year with the Cardinals where they insisted on putting him out there in LF, in spite of his having a bad leg and, that year only, running slower than Greg Luzinski (1998). His RField for that year is nowhere near as low as the 1991 number (it’s +1). I actually think there may be a typo somewhere in the WAR data, it’s so weird, but I don’t know where the typo would be.

In any case, I pretty much went with the ordinal “consensus” for my ballot, except for Glavine, and dropping Frank Thomas a couple of spots because I impose really serious penalties for DH, even though Frank did play many games at first base. So, without further comment, here’s the list.

1. Cal Ripken, Jr.
2. Barry Bonds
3. Ryne Sandberg
4. Ken Griffey, Jr.
5. Frank Thomas
6. Terry Pendelton (finally realizing Whitey Herzog’s dreams of power by moving to The Launching Pad)
7. Devon White
8. Julio Franco
9. Roger Clemens
10. Rafael Palmeiro (who played only 2 games at DH)
11. Jose Canseco
12. Paul Molitor
13. Tom Glavine

Official 1991 MMP Ballot (no postseason bonuses):

1) Ryne Sandberg: Best ML player and second baseman.
2) Barry Bonds: Best ML left fielder.
3) Cal Ripken Jr.: Best ML shortstop.
4) Will Clark: Best ML first baseman.
5) Frank Thomas: Best ML DH.
6) Barry Larkin: Best NL shortstop.
7) Ken Griffey Jr.: Best ML center fielder.
8) Paul Molitor
9) Jose Canseco: Best ML right fielder.
10) Roger Clemens: Best ML pitcher.
11) Julio Franco: Best AL second baseman.
12) Lou Whitaker
13) Mickey Tettleton: Best ML catcher.

Best NL pitcher: Tom Glavine

Balloting ends tomorrow. Only 6 votes so far

1991 (the year I graduated from high school) MMP ballot:

I. Cal Ripken Jr.
2. Roger Clemens - AL MMPitcher
3. Barry Bonds - NL MMP
4. Barry Larkin
5. Tom Glavine - NL MMPitcher
6. Ryne Sandberg
7. Frank Thomas
8. Ken Griffey Jr.
9. Terry Pendleton
10. Tom Candiotti
11. Jose Canseco
12. Jim Abbott
13. Will Clark

14-20. Kevin Tapani, Lou Whitaker, Rafael Palmeiro, Julio Franco, Jose Rijo, Devon White, Mark Langston.

No postseason credit but some small credit for playing for a Division-contender:
1. Ripken
2. Bonds
3. Glavine
4. Thomas
5. Griffey
6. Clemens
7. Pendleton
8. Sandberg
9. Abbott
10.Langston
11.Tettleton
12.Whitaker
13.J Franco

See comments 26 & 27 of the discussion thread

1. Cal Ripken
2. Barry Bonds
3. Ryne Sandberg
4. Roger Clemens
5. Terry Pendleton
6. Tom Glavine
7. Frank Thomas
8. Lou Whitaker
9. Barry Larkin
10. Mickey Tettleton
11. Jose Canseco
12. Ken Griffey, Jr.
13. Jim Abbott - I decided to give something of a nod to consensus and bump Abbott ahead of Saberhagen, whose rating in my system appears to be pretty idiosyncratic

Tubbs - assuming you mean Griffey Jr, though Sr had a decent season in 1991

No ballots yet from:

neilsen
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1991 MMP ballot. Same as prelim.

1. Cal Ripken Jr.
2. Barry Bonds
3. Mickey Tettleton
4. Roger Clemens
5. Ryne Sandberg
6. Tom Glavine
7. Ken Griffey Jr.
8. Frank Thomas
9. Will Clark
10. Jose Canseco
11. Tom Candiotti
12. Barry Larkin
13. Julio Franco

14. Abbott

Tubbs - assuming you mean Griffey Jr, though Sr had a decent season in 1991

Yep, Junior. I forgot Sr played in 91

Balloting is closed