Slang Editorial :: Never Underestimate The Value Of A Holla'

Sunday, February 01, 2009
Daily Baseball: Rogers Hornby, Superman / 1984, Least Superlative Year Ever?

Have been slowing reading through a recent Baseball Analysts article on "Jeff Kent, Hall of Famer?" and I keep getting waylaid in my quest and I stray down various baseball-reference roads.

The first was in revisiting the career of Rogers Hornsby--after hitting the topic of who between he and Kent hit with greater power--and I was blown away in looking at his ridiculous numbers and being reminded that Hornsby was the National League's equivalent to Babe Ruth throughout the 1920s, including a five year stretch from 1921-25 where he won two Triple Crowns (Hornsby and Ted Williams are the only men to do it twice) and hit .397, .401, .384, .424 (!!!), and .403--all with power--each year. Overall, Hornsby hit .358 for his career, ranking number two all-time after the illustrious Ty Cobb. Yes, Hornsby was a notorious dick, but lines close to .424/.507/.696 222OPS+ (from Hornsby's amazing '24 season) have happened almost never. Keep all of this in mind the next time you hear someone cite Jeff Kent as the most-power hitting second baseman of all time.

Reading about Hornsby took me on so many tangents that I put the BA article down entirely for a few days before picking it up again. Next, however, my attention was turned the 80s, as the merits of Kent's candidacy was laid against HoFer Ryne Sandberg (he compares favorably). I remember thinking growing up that Sandberg had indeed been a great player, thought of among the league's best--and wonderied if I'd ever felt that way about Kent. I remembered Sandberg unexpectedly hit 40 HR in 1990, but did not win the MVP--his one MVP was won instead in 1984. His line though was rather pedestrian. 19HR, 84 RBI, 32SB and .314/.367/.520. Granted he was a second baseman, and granted these were the days of the uninflated offense of the early 80s, but the numbers seemed uninspiring nonetheless.

I then went and checked out the entire awards section of 1984 and was shocked at the general unexcitingness of the "best of 1984". The Cy Young Winner and AL MVP was Tigers reliever WIllie Hernandez, which should be as good a first sign as any that it was an underwhelming year. I have a general issue with relievers winning Cy Youngs given the few number of innings they throw, but to suggest that there was no one in the entire American League in 1984 than a pitcher who threw 140 innings seems like either a terrible stretch or a damning condemnation of the truly unexciting play of 1984. Hernandez's next in competition for the Cy Young was Dan Quisenberry, another reliever, and number two for MVP was Kent Hrbek and his modest 27HR/.311 AVE/.905 OPS. In the NL, there was Sandberg and his underwhelming line for MVP, and Rick Sutcliffe beat out rookie Dwight Gooden in a half-season of excellent pitching for Cubs. Sutcliffe's time with the Cubs was undoubtedly great, but also very short--only 150 innings, as he came over as a midseason trade. It was Sutcliffe's one moment in the sun, as he rattled off a 16-1 record over 20 games while leading the Cubs to a rare division championship. However, his Cy Young, beyond being silly for covering only 150 innings of pitching, also leaves out from history the fact that prior to the trade he went 4-5 with a 5.15 ERA in 94 innings for the Indians (and remember, a 5.15 ERA was lot worse in 1984 than it is the offense-bloated seasons of the past 14 years).

The rest of the list is worth poking through for a trip down memory lane and some examinations of what was weird, underwhelming year of non-memorable seasons culminating with a powerhouse Tigers team slaughtering the Padres in the lone World Series appearance of the franchise.

Labels: baseball

posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/01/2009 06:10:00 PM 1 comments

1 Comments:

hotdoorknobs said...: Not only did a pitcher win MVP, but a RELIEVER?? Pshaw...; 2/02/2009 04:30:00 PM