Dr. Doom here (via Doug) with our final 2017 awards-voting post.  I decided to “save the best for last,” as it were, so we could talk about what may be the most interesting and competitive race in the league.

The American League in 2017 was interesting in that there were only five winning teams in the league.  There was one good pennant race (the East) and two dominant, 100-win teams.  Oh, and the Twins scheduled their (formerly annual) playoff loss to the Yankees. Continue reading →

Dr. Doom here (via Doug) again with an awards-voting post. We’re sticking with the Cy Young, but switching over to the National League.

Remember how there were two candidates in the AL who (at least on paper) stood head-and-shoulders above everyone else? Yeah… get ready for a repeat. Continue reading →

Dr. Doom here (via Doug) again with an awards-voting post. We’re switching leagues (and awards), as we vote for the Cy Young in the AL. I don’t think I’ve ever written a Cy Young post before, so here we go.

Continue reading →

Dr. Doom here (via Doug) with an awards-voting post. That’s what I’ve typically done around here. Your friend and mine nsb mentioned to me that he tried to get a discussion going on the NL MVP on another thread, but it’s a little buried and hard to find. I thought maybe we could bring that idea over to its own post. I’ll do the tabulatin’, but I thought we might have fun doing awards voting.

More after the jump! Continue reading →

Dr. Doom here, with my final post about re-voting MVPs.  I want to begin by thanking you all for participating in these discussions.  It’s been a lot of fun to write the posts and to read what everyone’s opinions are on these issues.  If/when I have ideas about stuff in the future, I’ll write and see if I can convince Doug to post more stuff.  I’ve been on this discussion board since it was the baseball-reference blog (I’m thinking it was sophomore year of college when I started posting a lot – the 2006-07 school year).  I may be younger than a lot of the commenters here, but I stretch back as far as just about anyone in terms of being part of this community, and it’s meant a lot to me as it’s moved from bbref to blogspot and finally here.  In all that time, I’ve been part of a lot of great discussions in the comments, but it’s been really, really fun to actually contribute some posts.

Continue reading →

Hey everyone! Dr. Doom here again, with my penultimate post on MVPs from the past.
By 2004, it had become rote; more often than not over the previous six seasons, the Yankees and the Red Sox were both in the playoffs. Unsurprisingly, yet again, the Yanks and BoSox finished with the top two records in the American League. Even thought the final margin was only 3 games, the Yankees led the division from June 1st on, which makes that race a lot less exciting. They won 100+ for the third straight season (exactly 101 for the second year in a row). Was there a little extra drama due to the way they’d beaten the Red Sox the year before? Sure. I mean, if you’re leading the ALCS by 3 in the eighth inning of Game Seven, it’s probably going to add a little fuel to the fire of next year if you lose, as the Red Sox did. But mostly, it was an uninteresting race.

Continue reading →

Greetings, HHS fans!  Dr. Doom here again, with yet another interminably-long post about an MVP race.

This is our final trip to the Senior Circuit, so my fellow NL fans and I will have to be happy with this one.  The year was 2000.  It was the first of a new millenium, or the last of an old one, or perhaps the only year of the Willenium (which was technically released in 1999, but it was too good of a joke to pass up).  The point is, that was an actual debate that people would have.  I was enjoying the summer between 6th and 7th grade, all awkward and growing my first couple of facial hairs, small and blonde though they were.
Continue reading →

Hey everyone! Dr. Doom here, posting under Doug’s name. Here’s our next MVP post here at HHS.

Remember baseball in 1998? I sure do. There’s all that stuff about America falling in love with baseball again. I’m not sure how true it is, but if it’s a lie, it’s an awfully fun one in which a couple of sluggers are tasked with reinvigorating Americans’ love of their national pastime following the bad taste left by the player strike four years earlier. Playing the roles of dual protagonists, of course, were Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, making their run at Roger Maris‘s single-season home run record. But that’s an NL story. We’re here to talk about the American League. And in the American League in 1998, the big story was all about one team: the New York Yankees.

Continue reading →

Dr. Doom here again, with yet another MVP post.

The National League in 1997 was an interesting bird. The second-best team was the Florida Marlins, who won the wild card.  The best team was the Braves – just as they had been in 1996, and 1995, (1994 was the strike year,) and 1993, and 1992, and 1991.  And they would be again in 1998, and in 1999.  The ’90s were their party, alright.  Too bad it didn’t work out for them in the World Series department.  Anyway, one of the oddest things about the 1997 NL is just how balanced it was; only 3 of the 14 teams were more than 5 games under .500.  And of course, this was the middle of Selig-ball.

Incidentally, 1997 was probably the first season that I followed really heavily from start to finish.  I had been following the AL from before the strike, at least a little.  But, in the Brewers final year in the AL, I thought it was about time to start checking out the competition.  And, of course, with 1997 being the advent of inter-league play, it was the perfect time to start learning.  It was also convenient, for the purposes of this post, that I remember bits and pieces of this year.  But, because we’re in the heart of Selig-ball, just remember that the numbers are going to be a LOT bigger all of a sudden, both for position players and pitchers.  May your eyes adjust well! Continue reading →