NATIONAL LEAGUE
1985
RUNS CREATED RC
1 Dale Murphy 129
2 Tim Raines 126
3 Willie McGee 124
4 Pedro Guerrero 120
5 Ryne Sandberg 117
T6 Mike Schmidt 111
T6 Dave Parker 111
8 Tom Herr 107
T9 Keith Hernandez 99
T9 Keith Moreland 99
I was looking at the National League MVP voting in 1985 as part of the piece I plan to write on Murphy and Parker, and noticed that Murphy was actually a better hitter (at least in the raw stats) that year, though Parker finished second and Murph seventh. Obviously there were good reasons for this (the Braves lost 96 games while the Reds won 89), but it was interesting.
That was one of those weird years where nobody really jumps out as having an MVP season. The actual best player in the league was likely Doc Gooden (24-4, 1.53, 268 K). The best hitter was Pedro Guerrero, but he missed 25 games and was a brutal defensive player. Eventually, they gave it to McGee, who hit .353 but with little secondary offense. I probably would have voted Raines-Gooden-Murphy but I was only 14 and didn’t get a vote.
Your vote at 14 would have made as much sence as most sports writters
Forgot to mention…
1. These were the only MVP votes McGee ever got.
2. Someone voted for Glenn Wilson (.275 .311 .424 for a fifth-place team.)
3. Someone else voted for Mariano Duncan (.244 .293 .340.)
Interesting question: will Tim Raines make the Hall of Fame? I would be surprised if he did, considering how hard it’s been for outfielders from the 1980s. He’s a hell of a ballplayer.
*I meant to say–“But still, he’s a hell of a ballplayer.”
Raines should, but leadoff hitters haven’t done well in the voting.
From the AP:
Who are other leadoff hitters who have been shafted by the Hall?
Pete Rose
Exactly Joey, Sosa will be making about the same as HoRo will. That’s ridiculous.
Gotta to love ARod, first he was going to represent PR, then withdrawn from WBC all together, then PR added him to their roster, and he decides to play for the US. Think he is so important? I can’t care less about ARod.
It was actually the Dominican Republic he was considering playing for, which makes about as much sense as me playing for Ireland. If, as you point out, I cared.
Mac;
Thread hijack alert!
You said yesterday that Langerhans didn’t have as much upside as Kelly Johnson. Will you please explain that, maybe in your KJ analysis?
I’m wary of the term “upside.” In comparing two players, does it mean we’ve seen what player A has in him, where we expect to see more from player B in the long run?
I’d advise KJ to go to the bank to try to cash in that upside! I don’t think he performed to anybody’s expectations last year.
As for Langerhans; why wouldn’t his experience last year lead to improved performance this year?
Looks like I’m about to learn something!
Mac, which version of RC are you using? The one listed at baseball-reference has the top five different than yours:
Murph 129
Parker 127
McGee 119
Guerrero 118
Sandberg 112
http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/NL_1985.shtml
That site also has OPS+ to give park effects and out creating a context:
Guerrero 181
Raines 153
Murphy 151
Clark 150
Schmidt 149
Oh yeah, both Wilson and Duncan received a single 10th place vote in ’85. Mac’s comment above seems to imply they got a 1st place pick.
The Wilson and Duncan votes are repeated every year. In 2005, two voters put Jose Reyes (273 / 303 / 386) and Scott Eyre (68 IP, 2-2 won loss record and zero saves) on their ballots at 10th.
I certainly didn’t mean to imply that… The version is whatever the Sabermetric Encyclopedia uses.
Duncan probably wasn’t one of the ten most valuable Dodgers.
The Langerhans/Johnson thing, meanwhile, is easy. Johnson is younger, he had better minor league stats, and he showed flashes of being a very good hitter (in between awful slumps). I don’t know that he’ll actually be better than Langerhans.
From what I saw last year, I’m a big fan of Langerhans’ hustle. I know Bobby likes that, too.
Unfortunately, it made him fall in love with guys like Michael Tucker, but that’s another story.