I don't see a slam dunk winner this year. Should be an interesting election.

My 1998 post-season memo. First, the NL 25-man roster, starting with the batting order.

1. Craig Biggio, 2B
2. John Olerud, 1B
3. Mark McGwire, DH
4. Sammy Sosa, RF
5. Barry Bonds, LF
6. Chipper Jones, 3B
7. Ray Lankford, CF
8. Mike Piazza, C
9. Barry Larkin, SS
Resrv. Jason Kendall, C
Resrv. Fernando Vina, IF
Resrv. Jeff Kent, IF
Resrv. Andruw Jones, CF
Resrv. Greg Vaughn, OF
Resrv. Larry Walker, OF
#1 P. Tom Glavine, SP
#2 P. Greg Maddux, SP
#3 P. Kevin Brown, SP
#4 P. Curt Schilling, SP
#5 P. Randy Johnson, SP
Closer. Trevor Hoffman, RP
Resrv. Ugueth Urbina, RP
Resrv. Robb Nen, RP
Resrv. Al Leiter, P
Resrv. Kerry Wood, P

My NL CYA vote:

1. Glavine
2. Martinez
3. Brown
4. Schilling
5. Johnson

[Comment: “In a fairer world, Brown would already have won a Cy Young (in 1996).”]

My NL MVP vote:

1. McGwire
2. Sosa
3. Larkin
4. Bonds
5. Piazza
6. Biggio

“You could see this as a replay of the 1961 AL MVP vote, with McGwire in place of Mantle and Sosa in place of Maris. They gave that one to Maris, and giving this one to Sosa would at least be consistent with that precedent.”

Next, the AL. I was always willing to shift players from the position they actually played to some other position I thought they could play - and that reached its extreme with this team, which had three shortstops in the starting lineup, since I liked them better than anyone who actually played 2B or 3B. Again, start with a batting order.

1. Derek Jeter, 3B (!)
2. Bernie Williams, LF (!)
3. Mo Vaughn, 1B
4. Albert Belle, DH
5. Juan Gonzalez, RF
6. Ken Griffey, CF
7. Alex Rodriguez, SS
8. Nomar Garciaparra, 2B (!)
9. Ivan Rodriguez, C
Resrv. Jorge Posada, C
Resrv. Jose Offerman, IF
Resrv. Edgar Martinez, PH
Resrv. Rafael Palmiero, 1B
Resrv. Manny Ramirez, OF
Resrv. Tim Salmon, OF
#1 P. Roger Clemens, SP
#2 P. Pedro Martinez, SP
#3 P. Kenny Rogers, SP
#4 P. David Wells, SP
#5 P. Jamie Moyer, SP
Closer. Mariano Rivera, RP
Resrv. Tom Gordon, RP
Resrv. John Wetteland, RP
Resrv. Chuck Finley, P
Resrv. David Cone, P

AL CYA:

1. Clemens
2. Martinez
3. Rogers
4. Wells
5. Moyer

AL MVP:

1. Belle
2. Vaughn
3. Ivan Rodriguez
4. Alex Rodriguez
5. Griffey
6. Garciaparra
7. Juan Gonzalez

I did talk about how much I wanted not to put Belle on top - to find anyone else, anyone else at all. In the end, I couldn’t avoid him.

Crystal ball in semi-reasonable working order quote:

“Home runs haven’t changed much at all from last year, but remain as a very high level. I expect that in the next decade or two, for an individual to hit 60 home runs in a year will be about as common as 50 home runs was during the 60’s, 70’s, or 80’s: not an every year sort of thing, but the occasional George Foster or Cecil Fielder does come along. McGwire did push the record out some distance, but that record will not be safe.”

Well, maybe in not that great working order:

“The single individual best positioned to challenge it would be Griffey.”

Crystal ball kind of on the fritz:

“What about Sosa? For him to hit 66 home runs was not a stone crazy fluke like Brady Anderson hitting 50 or Davy Johnson hitting 40. It may not even be a semi-fluke like Roger Maris hitting 61. But I think it is a way-out-of-line performance like Cecil Fielder hitting 50 or Wade Boggs hitting 24. He won’t keep it up. I expect him to go back to hitting 35 to 45 home runs a year.”

A longer quote from me, said in 1998, arguing against the forces and attitudes that I thought needed to be confronted. I don’t think I would have recognized the acronym TTO, and “take and rake” wasn’t part of my vocabulary - but that doesn’t mean the concepts didn’t exist.

Now for the main event - arguing about the NL MVP. There is absolutely no question that Mark McGwire was the best offensive player in the league. It is also fairly clear that the actual award will go to Sammy Sosa, and I disagree with that. I heard a television announcer say that “to give the award to a player on a losing team, it has to be a slam dunk.” To this I have two replies: (1) the Cardinals were 83-79 (compared to the Cubs at 90-73), so “loser” isn’t really a fair characterization, and (2) the case for McGwire is a slam dunk. Yes, it is true that Sosa has a considerable defensive advantage over McGwire - a strong-armed right fielder versus an ordinary first baseman - but that advantage is nowhere near enough to outweigh the enormous difference in offense. The key point here - the crushing key point - is the walks. McGwire not only set the major league record for home runs in a season, he set the National League record for walks in a season with 162. Only Babe Ruth, with 170, ever drew more, and only Ted Williams ever drew as many. Don’t forget that the basic unit of time in baseball is not the at bat and not the plate appearance - it is the out. Sammy Sosa made about 454 outs in 1998. Mark McGwire made about 357 outs in 1998. That’s a difference of nearly 100 outs, or almost 4 entire games in which something like 18 runs could have scored with ordinary batters. There’s a very cheap scan available for players good enough to be considered for the MVP on offensive grounds: just look at the leader lists in OBA and SA to see if anyone is on both. In the AL this year that will make the situation quite murky because the lists are essentially disjoint. In the NL, the situation couldn’t be clearer: McGwire leads the league in SA by a shocking .105 (with Sosa second) and McGwire leads the league in OBA by .024 over Olerud (with Sosa not in the top 20). That’s a prima facie case for McGwire to win the MVP - the burden of proof is on anyone who wants to argue anything different - and I see no arguments worth considering.

The case is simple. McGwire did two things - he drew walks and he hit home runs. Drawing walks and hitting home runs both cause runs to score for the team - the evidence for that is clear and direct. Scoring runs causes wins. McGwire did more to help his team win than any other player in the league. It certainly was not his fault that the Cardinals did not win the division. The Cardinals had the MVP in McGwire, another All-Star in Lankford, another good (if injury-prone) player in Brian Jordan, and some useful one-dimensional players in Ron Gant (low-average power hitter) and Delino DeShields (leadoff hitter). But they had a soft rotation and a lousy bullpen, and after a series of give-up dump trades in midseason, they had an even weaker rotation (having given up their #1 starter in Stottlemyre), no shortstop at all, an unproven 3rd baseman, hurt outfielders, and not much of a catcher. For all of that, their record improved in the second half of the season - and a very large part of that was McGwire.

1998 Prelim

1) Mark McGwire - hard to top 70 HR
2) Kevin Brown - best pitcher
3) Alex Rodriguez - good glove year
4) Mike Piazza
5) Roger Clemens
6) Greg Maddux
7) Barry Bonds - I could see any of the top seven getting first place votes
8) Tom Glavine
9) Scott Rolen - outstanding fielder
10) Jason Kendall
11) Chipper Jones
12) John Olerud - outstanding fielder
13) Ivan Rodriguez - outstanding fielder
14) Greg Vaughn - fielding 1.5 wins better than Sosa
15) Barry Larkin - forgotten among Nomar, A-Rod and Jeter

16-20) Albert Belle, Derek Jeter, Nomar Garciaparra, Pedro Martinez, Ken Griffey Jr
21-25) Curt Schilling, Craig Biggio, Kenny Rogers, Al Leiter, Bernie Williams

DL, you mentioned that Vaughn was 1.5 fielding wins better than Sosa but then didn't even include Sosa in your top 25.

That is correct. Here are the relevant components.

Player BWAA1 BRWAA1 FWAA1 Rep1 WARP1
Vaughn 5.8 0.1 0.7 -1 7.6
SaSosa 5.9 0 -0.8 -1.1 6.2

This season that means there are 15 hitters in between them.

1998 NL All Star team

The year that "brought the fans back to baseball".

C Mike Piazza The traveling man. had was what was becoming his normal year. Back up: Jason Kendall, who at 24 was becoming a very solid player.
1b Mark McGwire What more can you say. Any other year John Olerud would have had a great shot at being the all star. Jeff Bagwell had another solid year as well.
2B Jeff Kent Not as good as offensive numbers as Biggio, but much better defense. Biggio, after a great defensive season in 1997, was significantly below average this year.
3B Scott Rolen Solid offense, slightly above average defense. Best offensive 3B was Chipper Jones, but was well below average defensively. Vinnie Castilla was slightly ahead of Jones as runner up at 3B.
SS Barry Larkin and Jay Bell were essentially equal. Larkin was better offensively and Bell defensively. Neither would be a bad choice as an all star.
LF Barry Bonds Best offensive numbers for an outfielder along with well above average defense.
CF Andruw Jones A remarkable defensive year made up for the fact the Lankford was a better offensive player.
RF Sammy Sosa great offense, slightly above average defensively. The only other corner outfielder in the conversation was Greg Vaughn and he was over 2 wins below Sosa.

SP Greg Maddux
SP Tom Glavine
SP Kevin Brown
SP Al Leiter
SP Curt schilling

RP Juan Acevedo
RP Jeff Shaw
Closer Trevor Hoffman

AL 1998 All Star Team

C Ivan Rodriguez Slightly above average hitter and above average fielder. No one was even close to him. Posada was the runner up, bur was almost 2 wins below IRod
1B Carlos Delgado Competition was a battle between four 1B: Delgado, Mo Vaughn, Tino Martinez and Rafael Palmeiro. Vaughn had the best offense. Martinez the best defense, but Delgado had the best combination of the two.
2B Damion Easley Jose Offerman was the best offensive 2B, but Easley's defense was much better.
3B Scoot Brosius Solid offense, superior defense. John Valentin was the runner up, but was not close.
SS Derek Jeter competition between Jeter and ARod. Jeter was slightly better offensively and ARod slightly better defensively. An argument can be made for either as all star.
LF Albert Belle Best offensive player in the AL, with only slightly beloe average defense
CF Ken Griffey Typical Griffey year
LF Matt Lawton Lawton and Paul O'Neill had essentially the same offensive numbers, but Lawton was much better defensively. As a CF Bernie Williams was better than both of them so could be inserted here in place of Lawton
DH Edgar Martinez

SP Roger Clemens
SP Pedro Martinez
SP Kenny Rogers
SP Jamie Moyer
SP Chuck Finley

RP Tom Gordon
RP Mariano Rivera
Closer Michael Jackson

1998 Preliminary

1. Barry Bonds 8.88 WARR
2. Mark McGwire 8.06 WARR
3. Sammy Sosa 7.3 WARR
4. Greg Maddux 7.25 WARR
5. John Olerud 7.19 WARR
6. Tom Glavine 7.10 WARR
7. Kevin Brown 7.07 WARR
8. Al Leiter 7.05 WARR
9. Mike Piazza 6.97 WARR
10. Roger Clemens 6.97 WARR
11 Ken Griffey 6.92 WARR
12. Scott Brosius 6.58 WARR
13. Albert Belle 6.51 WARR
14. jeff Bagwell 6.09 WARR
15. Pedro Martinez 6.06 WARR

Rest of the top 20
Matt Lawton
Andruw Jones
Derek Jeter
Kenny Rogers
Alex Rodriguez

Note: Maddux (.28 WARR), Glavine (.57 WARR), Brown (.63 WARR) and Leiter (.26 WARR) all improved their rating with their hitting abilities.

I remain interested in the relationship between my own 18-year-old lists in posts 2 and 3 and what MrC. put in posts 9 and 10 (presumably recently written).

The first thing I note is that the lists really are quite a lot alike.

I was more aggressive at position-switching, and I created a DH for the NL. So I have McGwire at DH and Olerud at 1B; if you'd told me I couldn't do that, then McGwire would be at 1B. I moved Belle to DH; if you had restricted me to actual DH's, then Belle would have been my LF and Martinez my DH. And I spread 3 AL shortstops all across the infield while Mr.C. named a 2B and a 3B. All of these are more questions of style and internal rules - they don't look like particularly large differences in evaulation.

Where there are differences, they seem to mostly be about defensive value. And I'll admit that I didn't have much to go on for defense - just reputation and raw PO/A/E statistics (that I occasionally crudely processed into range factors). Differences over defensive value appear to account for Kent vs. Biggio at NL 2B; for Rolen vs. C. Jones at NL 3B; for A. Jones vs. Lankford at NL CF; for Easley vs. Offerman at AL 2B (although I didn't have either as a starter, using a SS instead).

Our starting rotations agree on 4 out of 5 pitchers in each league. Relief pitchers are all over the map, but I won't worry about those.

The single largest point of disagreement between me (historically) and MrC. (now): Juan Gonzalez. I had Gonzalez as my starting AL RF; MrC. didn't even mention Gonzalez as he debated AL RF between Matt Lawton and Paul O'Neill (and considered moving Bernie Williams over - I had already moved Williams to LF). That's something I need to look into a little more.

re post 12

Since batted ball data has been used for defensive systems such as UZR and DRS, my belief is that defensive numbers are more reliable than those available to evauate fielding1998( although many point to the differences achieved by these two systems as a counter argument to this statement). For 1998, the two defensive systems for which I can find defensive numbers easily are Total Zone (at baseball reference) and DRA (at baseball gauge). After some study of the 2 systems, I chose to use DRA. A player's total ranking may vary depending on which system that one uses.

Which brings me to the point of this point.: American League right fielders in 1998.

OCF, The reason that Juan Gonzalez did not rate a mention was because of his "defense". Offensively, he was my highest ranked RF. However, according to DRA, his defense rates as -22; as compare to lawton at +19 and O'Neill at +12. So with my ranking system Gonzalez comes out 3rd. At Baseball reference, O'neill ranks as the best followed by Gonzalez and Lawton.; and thus the importance of finding a community consensus for the rankings.

Although when I first look at OCF's list and my list, I am somewhat surprised by the amount of agreement; it would probably be much more surprising, and possibly disturbing, if we didn't have a significant agreement with the "best" players.

1998 Preliminary

1. Barry Bonds - big offense plus good defense another great all round year.
2. Alex Rodriguez -
3. Mark McGwire - 70 HR but bad glove puts him behind Bonds and Arod
4. Kevin Brown - MLBs best Pitcher
5. Roger Clemens - Al best pitcher
6. Derek Jeter -
7. Chipper Jones -
8. Pedro Martinez - would be a career year for most pitchers
9. Greg Maddux
10. Ivan Rodriguez
11. Scott Rolen
12. Ken Griffey Jr.
13. Barry Larkin - 26 steals in 29 attempts
14. Sammy Sosa
15. Nomar Garciaparra

1998 Prelim

1. Mark McGwire, 1B, St. Louis Cardinals: huge leads in OPS+ (38 pts) and RC (40 pts)
2. Barry Bonds, LF, San Francisco Giants: better defense (+10) not enough to catch McGwire's career year with the bat
3. Greg Maddux, P, Atlanta Braves: 187 ERA+ to lead MLB
4. Albert Belle, LF, Chicago White Sox: 172 OPS+ and 158 RC lead AL
5. Alex Rodriguez, SS, Seattle Mariners: the most complete player of 1998
6. Mike Piazza, C, LAD/Florida/NYM: kept mashing for a 150 OPS+ and 124 RC despite a crazy year
7. Roger Clemens, P, Toronto Blue Jays: the best pitcher in the AL
8. Nomar Garciaparra, SS, Boston Red Sox: 140 OPS+ and +11 fielding at short
9. John Olerud, 1B, New York Mets: 163 OPS+ and +15 fielding for the quiet man
10. Kevin Brown, P, San Diego Padres: a great combo of rate (164 EA+) and bulk (MLB-leading 257 IP)
11. Pedro Martinez, P, Boston Red Sox: 163 ERA+ is second in the AL
12. Sammy Sosa, RF, Chicago Cubs: 160 OPS+ and 149 RC would be impressive most other years
13. Mo Vaughn, 1B, Boston Red Sox: 153 OPS+ and not as bad with the glove as usual (+5 fielding)
14. Trevor Hoffman, RP, San Diego Padres: 265 ERA+ in 73 IP with an NL-leading 6.3 WPA
15. Chipper Jones, 3B, Atlanta Braves: solid year with the bat (148 OPS+) garners the last ballot spot

16. Tom Glavine, P, Atlanta Braves
17. Ken Griffey Jr., CF, Seattle Mariners
18. Edgar Martinez, DH, Seattle Mariners
19. Craig Biggio, 2B, Houston Astros
20. Derek Jeter, SS, New York Yankees
21. Scott Rolen, 3B, Philadelphia Phillies
22. Rafael Palmeiro, 1B, Baltimore Orioles
23. Ivan Rodriguez, C, Texas Rangers
24. Vladimir Guerrero, RF, Montreal Expos
25. Jeff Bagwell, 1B, Houston Astros

Mr. C - If it helps any, I remember Gonzalez as being a lousy glove, and O'Neill as being a very good RF, but with NO flair to make anyone recognize it. - Brock

LDS Padres 3 Astros 1

Player Name  G  AB  R  H  2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB  SO  BA  OBP  SLG  OPS  SB  CS  E
Greg Vaughn  4  15  2  5  1  0  1  1  0  4  .333  .333  .600  .933  0  1  0

Moises Alou  4  16  0  3  0  0  0  0  0  2  .188  .188  .188  .375  0  0  0
Jeff Bagwell  4  14  0  2  0  0  0  4  1  6  .143  .250  .143  .393  0  0  0
Derek Bell  4  16  1  2  0  0  1  1  0  7  .125  .125  .313  .438  0  0  0
Craig Biggio  4  11  3  2  1  0  0  1  4  4  .182  .471  .273  .743  0  0  1

Pitcher Name  G  GS  ERA  W  L  SV  CG  IP  H  R  ER  BB  SO  WHIP  
Andy Ashby  1  1  6.75  0  0  0  0  4.0  6  3  3  1  4  1.750
Kevin Brown  2  2  0.61  1  0  0  0  14.2  5  1  1  7  21  0.818

Randy Johnson  2  2  1.93  0  2  0  0  14.0  12  4  3  2  17  1.000

LDS Braves 3 Cubs 0

Player Name  G  AB  R  H  2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB  SO  BA  OBP  SLG  OPS  SB  CS  E
Andres Galarraga  3  12  1  3  0  0  0  0  1  3  .250  .308  .250  .558  0  0  0
Andruw Jones  3  9  2  0  0  0  0  1  3  2  .000  .231  .000  .231  2  0  0 
Chipper Jones  3  10  2  2  0  0  0  1  4  3  .200  .429  .200  .629  0  0  0

Sammy Sosa  3  11  0  2  1  0  0  0  1  4  .182  .250  .273  .523  0  2  0

Pitcher Name  G  GS  ERA  W  L  SV  CG  IP  H  R  ER  BB  SO  WHIP  
Tom Glavine  1  1  1.29  0  0  0  0  7.0  3  1  1  1  8  0.571  
Greg Maddux  1  1  2.57  1  0  0  0  7.0  7  2  2  0  4  1.000  
John Smoltz  1  1  1.17  1  0  0  0  7.2  5  1  1  0  6  0.652  

LDS Indians 3 Red Sox 1

Player Name  G  AB  R  H  2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB  SO  BA  OBP  SLG  OPS  SB  CS  E
Kenny Lofton  4  16  5  6  1  0  2  4  1  1  .375  .412  .813  1.224  2  0  0  
Manny Ramirez  4  14  2  5  2  0  2  3  1  4  .357  .471  .929  1.399  0  0  0

Nomar Garciaparra  4  15  4  5  1  0  3  11  1  0  .333  .333  1.000  1.333  0  0  0  
John Valentin  4  15  5  7  1  0  0  0  3  1  .467  .556  .533  1.089  0  0  0  
Mo Vaughn  4  17  3  7  2  0  2  7  1  5  .412  .444  .882  1.327  0  0  0  

Pitcher Name  G  GS  ERA  W  L  SV  CG  IP  H  R  ER  BB  SO  WHIP  
Bartolo Colon  1  1  1.59  0  0  0  0  5.2  5  1  1  3  3  1.412

Pedro Martinez  1  1  3.86  1  0  0  0  7.0  6  3  3  0  8  0.857

LDS Yankees 3 Rangers 0

Player Name  G  AB  R  H  2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB  SO  BA  OBP  SLG  OPS  SB  CS  E
Scott Brosius  3  10  1  4  0  0  1  3  0  3  .400  .400  .700  1.100  0  1  0
Derek Jeter  3  9  0  1  0  0  0  0  2  2  .111  .273  .111  .384  0  0  0
Paul O'Neill  3  11  1  4  2  0  1  1  1  1  .364  .417  .818  1.235  0  0  0
Bernie Williams  3  11  0  0  0  0  0  0  1  4  .000  .083  .000  .083  0  0  0

Juan Gonzalez  3  12  1  1  1  0  0  0  0  3  .083  .083  .167  .250  0  0  0
Ivan Rodriguez  3  10  0  1  0  0  0  1  0  5  .100  .100  .100  .200  0  0  0  

Pitcher Name  G  GS  ERA  W  L  SV  CG  IP  H  R  ER  BB  SO  WHIP  
Mariano Rivera  3  0  0.00  0  0  2  0  3.1  1  0  0  1  2  0.600  

ALCS Yankees 4 Indians 2

Player Name  G  AB  R  H  2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB  SO  BA  OBP  SLG  OPS  SB  CS  E
Scott Brosius  6  20  2  6  1  0  1  6  2  4  .300  .348  .500  .848  0  0  1
Derek Jeter  6  25  3  5  1  1  0  2  2  5  .200  .259  .320  .579  3  0  0  
Paul O'Neill  6  25  6  7  2  0  1  3  3  4  .280  .357  .480  .837  2  0  0  
Bernie Williams  6  21  4  8  1  0  0  5  7  4  .381  .536  .429  .964  1  1  0  

Kenny Lofton  6  27  2  5  1  0  1  3  1  7  .185  .214  .333  .548  1  0  1
Manny Ramirez  6  21  2  7  1  0  2  4  4  9  .333  .423  .667  1.090  0  0  0

Pitcher Name  G  GS  ERA  W  L  SV  CG  IP  H  R  ER  BB  SO  WHIP  
Mariano Rivera  4  0  0.00  0  0  1  0  5.2  0  0  0  1  5  0.176  

Bartolo Colon  1  1  1.00  1  0  0  1  9.0  4  1  1  4  3  0.889  

NLCS Padres 4 Braves 2

Player Name  G  AB  R  H  2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB  SO  BA  OBP  SLG  OPS  SB  CS  E
Greg Vaughn  3  8  1  2  0  0  0  0  1  1  .250  .333  .250  .583  0  0  0

Andres Galarraga  6  21  1  2  0  0  1  4  6  6  .095  .296  .238  .534  0  0  4  
Andruw Jones  6  22  3  6  0  0  1  2  1  4  .273  .292  .409  .701  1  1  0
Chipper Jones  6  24  2  5  1  0  0  1  4  5  .208  .321  .250  .571  0  0  0  

Pitcher Name  G  GS  ERA  W  L  SV  CG  IP  H  R  ER  BB  SO  WHIP  
Andy Ashby  2  2  2.08  0  0  0  0  13.0  14  3  3  2  5  1.231  
Kevin Brown  2  1  2.61  1  1  0  1  10.1  5  3  3  4  12  0.871

Tom Glavine  2  2  2.31  0  2  0  0  11.2  13  6  3  9  8  1.886
Greg Maddux  2  1  3.00  0  1  1  0  6.0  5  2  2  3  4  1.333
John Smoltz  2  2  3.95  0  0  0  0  13.2  13  6  6  6  13  1.390

WS Yankees 4 Padres 0

Player Name  G  AB  R  H  2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB  SO  BA  OBP  SLG  OPS  SB  CS  E
Scott Brosius  4  17  3  8  0  0  2  6  0  4  .471  .471  .824  1.294  0  0  0
Derek Jeter  4  17  4  6  0  0  0  1  3  3  .353  .450  .353  .803  0  0  0
Paul O'Neill  4  19  3  4  1  0  0  0  1  2  .211  .250  .263  .513  0  0  1
Bernie Williams  4  16  2  1  0  0  1  3  2  5  .063  .167  .250  .417  0  0  0

Greg Vaughn  4  15  3  2  0  0  2  4  1  2  .133  .176  .533  .710  0  0  1

Pitcher Name  G  GS  ERA  W  L  SV  CG  IP  H  R  ER  BB  SO  WHIP  
Mariano Rivera  3  0  0.00  0  0  3  0  4.1  5  0  0  0  4  1.154

Andy Ashby  1  1  13.50  0  1  0  0  2.2  10  7  4  1  1  4.125
Kevin Brown  2  2  4.40  0  1  0  0  14.1  14  7  7  6  13  1.395

Prelim ballot-no postseason credit but some small credit for playing for a Division-contender
This season was about the HR chase & honestly I may have valued that narrative a little too much but the top 14 were very close
1. McGwire- it was awesome (at the time ) that he broke the record but great season was good enough to be MMP regardless
2. Bonds- sadly it's alleged that the HR chase made his hat size start growing a few sizes...
3. A Rodriguez- him and Bonds were best overall players
4. Sosa - the other half of the narrative was Sosa chasing Mac and spurring the Cubs to their first postseason since 89, at the time I was all for Sosa being MVP over Mac due to leading Cubs to WC as Mac's co-star
5. Belle-professional hitter
6. Brown-he was so ugly to watch pitch but he was great
7. Griffey -wait wasn't Griff supposed to break the HR record
8. Clemens-overcame poor start
9. Jeter-top player for ensemble 114 win NY team
10.Maddux-two rotation mates close for Atlanta's ensemble cast
11.Glavine
12.Biggio
13.Pedro Martinez-gave up a lot of HR in the first year at Fenway in AL
14.Olerud -not a tree hugging hippie
15.Piazza-just over Chipper for last spot

Close in no particular order- Chipper, G Vaughan, Nomah, Pudge, Hoffman, Vlad, Bags, Alou, Rolen, Andruw

I've been unable to post on the 1998 ballot thread. Could someone please move my ballot over from post #15? Thanks.

Prelim ballot. I went surprisingly pitching-heavy this year; with all the home runs, I would have guesssed it was a slugger's year. Interestingly, though, most of the top pitchers had postseason play, but few of the top position players did. That made a small difference on my ballot, as it bumped a couple of pitchers up a couple of places.

1. Kevin Brown. Arguably the best pitcher in the regular season; his good postseason work moves him to the top of my heap.
2. Greg Maddux
3. Roger Clemens - Good seasons out of all-time great pitchers.
4. Mark McGwire - 70!
5. Tom Glavine
6. Andruw Jones - Good year for the Braves, and maybe the peak of Jones' defensive greatness.
7. Pedro Martinez - A down year during Pedro's peak
8. Barry Bonds
9. Randy Johnson - A so-so start but he was pretty great down the stretch. I had really forgotten about the great pitching performances this year.
10. Albert Belle
11. Sammy Sosa - I always kind of new that Sosa's season was superficially overrated - McGwire was clearly better. I'm still surprised that I rate him this low, however.
12. Kenny Rogers
13. Jamie Moyer
14. John Olerud
15. Craig Biggio

Biggio just edges out Scott Rolen for the last spot - it's really tough for me to pick. David Wells with some postseason credit pushed toward the ballot, but he just wasn't quite there.

Others just off: Griffey, Kendall, Piazza, Rodriguez, G.Vaughn

My All-Star team. There didn't seem to be many notable performances in Japan this year, except maybe Kaz Sasaki winning MVP for pitching 56 innings.

Rotation: Kevin Brown, Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Pedro Martinez
Bullpen: Trevor Hoffman, Kenny Rogers, Randy Johnson, Jamie Moyer, David Wells
C: Mike Piazza
1B: Mark McGwire
2B: Craig Biggio
3B: Scott Rolen
SS: Alex Rodriguez
LF: Barry Bonds
CF: Andruw Jones
RF: Sammy Sosa

Bench: Jason Kendall, John Olerud, Scott Brosius, Barry Larkin, Albert Belle, Ken Griffey Jr, Greg Vaughn

I should be able to post to the ballot thread on Wednesday.