Fine with this. Going to be very annoyed when Hamilton walks away with the MVP.

Can't argue with it. And I love seeing who voted for whom.

1) Why?

[1] I think 133 games played is an absurdly low number for a non pitcher or catcher to win the MVP. In the American League, its the lowest non strike year total (including two years when catchers won) since George Brett in 1980. (Including Mo Vaughn playing more games in a strike year!)

4) I can relate. Know what's amazing? Mantle won the MVP in '62 playing only 122 games (out of 161)!

5) Yes, but Alex, that was Mickey Fucking Mantle!

6) Does that mean that DJ should have won the GG again this year because he's D fuggin Jeter?

lol

It's good to be the king. Felix was Henry VIII in 2010, and the Yanks were one of his more misfortunate brides.

3-0, 2 complete games (including one at the Stadium - so much for right handed disadvantage). 26 innings - 1 earned run (a Swish! dinger) - 31 strikeouts. .035 ERA.

Your Cy Young, your majesty.

Mickey Mantle won the award, I would contend, because he was a white boy from Commerce, or thereabouds. He hit 30 homers, three less than Maris. Yanks won pennant by five and beat the Giants, with Willie Mays in the WS. Both MM and WM stunk up the junt. Killebrew led the league with 48, while batting .243, not the type of number a member of the voting crew wanted to honor. Who should have received the award? Richardson. He excelled in the regular season, batting over .300 for the first time and caught the game 7 ending line drive hit by McCovey.

In the National League, the top four vote getters were all people of color. Don Drysdale came in 5th, because Koufax missed half the season.

Almost forgot. I read Slate. Chip Bok be a fantastic editorial cartoonist. His Rangel bit today is a winner. He and the one guy from outside the loop write for the same paper.

I know why King voted for CC, but how did this Acron acorn toss his vote to Sabbathia? I think maybe Chip gets some of his sense of humor from this moron in the lav.

[9] I disagree. Mantle was clearly the best player in the AL, despite the limited number of games played. In the NL, Wills was frankly a poor choice, Robinson, Aaron and Mays all had much better seasons.

[11] Matt is dead on. Despite missing a month, Mantle was head and shoulders ahead of everyone in the AL that season. Also, he was a centerfielder and the next best offensive players were mostly first basemen. In 1962, Mantle was the clear cut AL MVP.

[9] What does being white from Oklahoma have to do with it? All of the other contenders were also white. The AL wasn't as integrated as the NL, so there weren't as many star black players to warrant consideration.

As for Richardson, he led the AL in making outs in 1962 and was just about a league average hitter. His second place finish was undeserved.

Re: "The Stat Nyerds are Taking Over, Dammit! "

Isn't 13-12 a stat?

[13] That he won 13 games for a dog team is worthy of a few MVP votes as well. He very much deserved this.

DId Bobby Murcer win the MVP?

[14] Never, but he finished in the top-10 from 1971 to 1973 and as high as fifth in 1972.

[10][11] As I have noted, I am having trouble with Jane's latest book. But the argument I put forth is one she discusses. I would not do her justice if I recounted her arguments, but many have been asked if Mickey would have been whom he was if he were black.

Willie Mays was never really accepted as he should have been because he was not an urbanized UCLA player. He just played the game which god designed for him.

My recollections could be tempered by a number of things, but I missed him that year for long stretches. I think they also gave it to him because Maris broke the Babe's record the year before when he turned up lame due to his own self-abuse.

I cannot argue with your stats which were not available to me then so they didn't affect my judgment and which today mean much more. But his season did not make him more valuable than Bobby (who counselled him in the later years) or Ralph Terry.

I sat we take Cy Young's name off the award altogether. The SOB only leads in a meaningless category, and for his career is only 59th in ERA, 37th in WHIP, and doesn't even make the board in alot of other categories.

Clearly over-rated.

I am enjoying the Mantle book.
I hate that this award is being given to someone with such a record.
Sandy Koufax got no run support and won 27, ditto Steve Carlton. This is really sad.
To quote a famous philosopher,"You play to win the game"

[18] I typed "omarcmoing" into my Japanese-English dictionary and it gave the dfeinition as "Murray Chass".

[19] It also told me to learn how to type...

[16] You've lost me...are you saying Mantle was overrated because he was white? If so, the irony is that based on our fancy new stats, it turns out Mantle was actually underrated.

Also, by even the stats widely known in 1962, Mantle was the vastly superior player, so I don't get the argument ask him winning the MVP that season.

[17] Not sure if your comments were tongue in cheek, bu Young is actually 17th in adjusted ERA and his WHIP is actually very impressive considering the era in which he played. Also, he does rank number one in a very important category: innings pitched. Having said that, I wouldn't mind renaming it the Walter Johnson Award.

[18] On a previous thread in which I believe you expressed the same sentiments, I posted the run support figures that showed both Koufax and Carlton received much greater run support than Felix, especially when compared to the run environment in which they pitched. Also, for perspective, based on the calculations in the following link (http://t.co/UoXqDkw), the Mariners had the 4th worst offense of the modern era.

You may play to win the game, but you should have to win to get the Cy Young award.

[22] ..."you shouldn't have to win to get the Cy Young award".

"Omarcoming" is one of the best internet handles ever, because Omar is one of the best characters ever, in one of the best fictional narratives ever, and because "Omar coming" really sums that up perfectly.

With all due respect, winning in professional sports is all there is.

[24] Character from where?

[25] Yes, and the way to win is to pitch & hit better than your opponent. King Felix pitched better than anyone else in the AL. Not his fault he had 8 Jose Oquendos and one Ichiro at the plate for his side.

[25] I don't agree with that. There has to be other "objectives" because a business in which 90% of the franchises fail every year wouldn't last very long. The very fact that we have awards like Cy Young point to our interest in things other than winning. Otherwise, you'd just give an award to the pitcher who leads the league in wins.

[21] His legendary greatness as a baseball player can be attributed to his whiteness. As a Yankee, he got to play on the big stage, often. Though, a look at his performance in October, except for his homers, didn't put him up there with the gods. His catch and homer in Larsen's game notwithstanding. His stats, for that year, arguably the last great year, didn't wow me. Think about it. Why not Harmon? I suggest he was far more valuable for his play in 155 games. And Richardson, who won the Golden Glove, played 161, had 209 hits (leading the league), and scored 99 runs. Were it not for him, Maris (who played centerfield to spell the mick), and Ralph Terry, the Yankees would not have won the pennant.

Mantle himself said Richardson should have received the award in 1962. And let's not remember the dimunition of league talent in 1961.

Mantle could have been underrated for the period of time which he dominated baseball, I grant you, but not then. It is his majesty that I question. Note my logon name. I revered him, but I don't know why. Born in 1947, I was 10 when the Duke and Willie left. He had just won the triple crown and played in the world series. As noted before, here, I used to cry in my seat when they booed him. The fans didn't warm to him until 1962. I always thought I was in a minority of fans who loved and applauded him. He struck out so many times. He didn't run out balls. And, he was a total shit. Oft injured, he played 65 games in 1963. In 1964, he didn't play center field for the last month.

I grew up defending him. My wiffle ball mates were always Dodgers and Giants. I played the mick, despite being a natural leftie batter.

[12] Its worth noting that Richardson was a sterling defensive second baseman, but that doesn't win you the MVP. Also, 99 runs scored actually attests to his inability to get on base more - the guy batted in front of Mantle, Maris, Howard, Berra, et al. He should have regularly scored 120 runs.

[28] With all due respect, I think that is a grossly inaccurate statement. Mantle's greatness can be attributed to, well, his greatness. A huge majority of majors leaguers were white at the time...it wasn't anything special.

As for his post season (World Series) record, his career OPS was .908. Sure, if you exclude his 18 HRs, his record wouldn't look so good, but why on Earth would you want to exclude him. That doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

Back to 1962, Mantle easily led the league in OBP and SLG. He was also considered to be a very good defensive centerfielder. Killebrew, meanwhile, was a LF'er with an OPS .179 lower!! That's right....179. There is no comparison.

Mantle's graciousness as a teammate aside, Richardson also doesn't even come close to matching Mantle's productivity. As previously mentioned, he may have led the league in hits, but he also led in outs.

By just about every statistical measure, Mantle was a one of the top-10 hitters of all-time. If you call that overrated, well, then you have a ridiculously high standard.

I really can't follow your argument because it doesn't seem to have any sound basis.