3 MVPs, 1 Signed Photo

Do you remember who won the National League MVP in 1960?  

If you answered Dick Groat, your baseball knowledge is very very very strong.

Groat was the starting shortstop for the 1960 World Series Champions, Pittsburgh Pirates. He finished the season with a .766 OPS.  While advanced analytics weren't that common back in 1960, it took one teammate to voice his opinion about what he thought about the writer's choice for the 1960 NL MVP campaign.

Roberto Clemente, one of the greatest Pittsburgh Pirates ever, voiced his anger towards the writers selecting Dick Groat over Roberto Clemente for the 1960 MVP.  I found an article from 2008 that discusses a very early sabremetric look at the 1960 campaign to see how far off Clemente was.  Clemente finished with an 8th place vote with three other Pirates voted higher than him (Dick Groat, Don Hoak, and Vern Law)

Dick Groat might seem like an unlikely victor for the 1960 MVP as he hit only two home runs, stole zero bases, scored only 85 runs and knocked in only 50 runs.  He did finish with the second highest hit total in the senior circuit that season behind Willie Mays (who also happened to have a .936 OPS with over 100 runs and 100RBI while stealing 25 bags.  Goat's WAR that season was 6.1 which was based largely on his glove which accounted for nearly half that total (2.6 dWAR).  

While Goat's MVP season remains as much a controversy today as it was in 1960, Barry Bonds, the NL MVP of 1992 isn't questioned nearly as much.

Bonds QUIETLY put up a near Triple Crown campaign in 1992, his last season with the Pirates.  He finished 1HR shy of the leader, Fred McGriff and only 6RBI behind the NL leader, Darren Daulton.  His batting average of .311 was good for 6th place behind Gary Sheffield.  Bonds posted a 9.0WAR, the best among position players that season.  He also lead the league in on base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS (1.030!!!).  Bonds hit a HR once every 13 at bats in 1992.

Between 1993 and 2012 there wasn't much to root for regarding the Pittsburgh Pirates as the franchise suffered two decades without a winning season.  

That all changed in 2013 when the Pirates went to the playoffs in 2013 largely due in part to Andrew McCutchen, who was emerging as one of the game's greatest stars.  Cutch finished the season with the highest WAR among position players and finishing many categories in the top 10 (hits, HR, batting average, runs, RBI, SB).  Cutch didn't lead any traditional statistical categories, but excelled at them all.  He received 28 (of 30) 1st place votes for the 2013 NL MVP.  

I came across the signed photo you see above via eBay about a year ago.  It doesn't have any third party certification for the signatures, but the source I bought it from specializes in Pittsburgh sports signatures.  The autographs for Groat and Bonds both look authentic and the Cutch, while being a quick signature appears to be valid as well.  Even if it is not authentic, it is still a great looking 8x10 photo to hang on the wall as it features the Pirates 2014 Opening Day ceremonies with Dick Groat and Barry Bonds presenting Cutch with his MVP Award and Silver Slugger based on the 2013 season. 

I found this YouTube video of some of Cutch's 2013 highlights if you want to revisit how great Cutch was in his prime.

Who was the last MVP winner of the team you root for?

The Landis MVP Debate

Because of the 100 year celebration of the Negro Leagues on Monday, I spent a lot of time yesterday watching some great movies with ties to the Negro Leagues.


One of my favorite baseball movies is Soul of the Game.  It was a mid 90s made for HBO movie that starred Delroy Lindo as Satchel Paige.  It also featured notable Negro league players like Jackie Robinson and Josh Gibson.

Below is a clip from the movie where Josh and Satchel are trash talking each other and Satchel had the other fielders behind him walk off the field due to his confidence in getting Josh Gibson, the black Babe Ruth, out with no help from anyone else.

The story follows the history that lead to Jackie Robinson being the 1st black player to join a major league franchise.

There were a few quotes in the movie about teams trying to sign Satchel but Commissioner Landis wouldn't sign off on it.  In the opening credits it even has newspaper articles printed that Judge Landis banned Negro players from playing in the majors.

Another movie I watched yesterday was 42 starring the Black Panther himself, Chadwick Boseman as Jackie Robinson.  It wasn't until after Landis' death did baseball move forward with integration.


Yesterday there was an article that came out where former MVP winners were wishing to remove Judge Kennesaw Landis name and face from the award.  Barry Larkin, Terry Pendleton, and Joe Morgan, both black former MVP winners spoke up about it.  You can read the article here.

Above is a card with a manufactured relic designed to look like the MVP award.  It appeared in packs of 2017 Topps Update and shows the full name of Landis along with a picture of the first commissioner of baseball.

For a sport that has writers so involved in the history and preserving of the game, do you think that baseball will rename the MVP award and remove the Landis name from it?

M-V-P Thoughts

Over the year's Topps has produced some manupatches and manurelics and manupins etc.
This year they decided to make miniature MVP awards in their flagship release.

Of course there are various color parallels to chase too.  So far, I only have the base award though.  The black, red, and gold are still out there for me to chase.

With the MVP awards being handed out last night, there seemed no better time to show off my latest piece of Cutch cardboard.

Many thought that the AL race would be very close, but it was actually the NL race that was extremely close, one of the closest of all time in fact.

I have no problems with who won the awards, but the basis of which they won made me do some head scratching.  Let me clarify and say no disrespectful things to Jose Altuve or Giancarlo Stanton, they are both fantastic athletes and superstars in the league.  Personally though, I think voters got it wrong for who is the Most Valuable.

Stanton seemed to have won the award based on the number of homeruns he hit, but Aaron Judge who posted one of the best All-Time Rookie seasons in the history of the game got very little MVP love, amassing only 3 first place votes.

Altuve who exceeds at all aspects of the game got a lot of admiration and received 27 of the 30 1st place votes.  Nolan Arenado who is this generation's best defensive third baseman and is constantly one of the league leaders in homeruns and RBIs continues to get overshadowed because he plays in Colorado got very little 1st place votes.

Here's how the top 5 MVP vote getters played out and how their teams would have done without them according to WAR on Baseball-Reference page.

Jose Altuve, Houston Astros
Altuve had 8.3 WAR and the Astros won 99 games.  With Altuve missing from lineup, the Stros still make the playoffs by winning their division.

Aaron Judge, New York Yankees.
Judge amassed 8.1 WAR and the Yankees won 90 games.  Without Judge, the Yankees don't make the playoffs.

The rest of the AL MVP debate wasn't as close as the NL so I am leaving out the likes of Trout, Ramirez, and Lindor.

Giancarlo Stanton, Miami Marlins
Stanton posted monster power numbers, but he did it for a team celebrating their 9th losing season.  Stanton did lead the league in homeruns, but his 77 win Marlins failed to make the playoffs (obviously) despite his 7.6 WAR.  They would still be a non contender without him.

Joey Votto, Cincinnati Reds
The Reds finished with one of the worse records in baseball having lost 92 games.  Votto and his incredible strike zone discipline and above average defense compiled a 7.5 WAR.  He was just one of a handful of qualifying players who had more walks than strikeouts and did it by a +51 rate.  That's mind blowing in today's age where everyone is so prone to the punch out.

Paul Goldschmidt, Arizona Diamondbacks
Goldy might be one of those guys that never wins an MVP award but is always deserving of being in the conversation for one.  Without his 5.8 WAR, the DBacks still make the playoffs.

Nolan Arenado, Colorado Rockies
Arenado had 7.2 WAR for the 87 win Rockies.  Without Arenado, the Rox go from being a playoff team to missing the playoffs.

Charlie Blackmon, Colorado Rockies
Chuck Nazty and his 6.0 WAR make the Rockies miss the playoffs, but they still post a winning record which is something that can't be said without his teammate Arenado.

There's many things that goes into the MVP voting.  I don't think anyone will ever give a definitive answer to what makes a player most valuable.

How did Clayton Kershaw who appeared in 16% of the games and only impacted less than 13% of the innings played for the 2014 Dodgers win an MVP award?  Was he dominant for those 13% of the Dodgers innings?  Yup.  Was the other 87% of the Dodgers season that meaningless in comparison to what Kershaw did?   Probably not.

Why wasn't Carlos Correa or Mike Trout who both missed large amounts of time, but still posted above 6.2 WAR each considered more heavily for what they were able to accomplish in a short period of time?  Are they not Valuable to their teams?

I showed this card off after the Astros won the World Series.  This card officially features four MVP award winners now.

Above is another parallel that I have and below is the back.

What are your thoughts on the MVP?
Did the voters get it right?

Personally I would give the awards to Judge and Arenado.

Team MVP?

Since his MLB debut in 2009, Andrew McCutchen has been the Pirates Team MVP according to WAR. Last year he struggled to produce his All-Star level and MVP level numbers. Many suspect this was due to him playing through injuries, batting in a different spot in lineup, playing out of his comfortable deep center field position.

The Pirates are starting to go back to a youth movement and create a new core for the Pirates future.

Gone are the days of callups like Garrett Jones, Cutch, Neil Walker, Jose Tabata, and Pedro Alvarez.

The team has focused on their international scouting a lot since Neal Huntington took over.  The first Korean born position player (Jung Ho Kang) made his debut in 2015 along with the first African born player (Gift Ngoepe) in 2017.

The new core will likely feature many international players going forward in 2018 and beyond.  Gregory Polanco, Starling Marte, Gift Ngoepe, Alen Hanson, Felipe Rivero all will likely compete with Josh Bell and Adam Frazier for the Team's MVP name going forward.

I think with Cutch batting only .200 his time as Team MVP is over.

And it saddens me...

Prizm 2013 spotlights Cutch's incredible 2012 season, which unfortunately ended with a rough September.  The drop off of Cutch's production likely cost him the batting title, MVP, and the Pirates Post Season hopes.