Underrated revisited

dallasactuary

The biggest problem with deciding if a player was underrated is that who is doing the rating and where they rate the player is completely undefined. So I thought one way to define it is MVP voting. What follows are not the most underrated players, but the most underrated seasons. The way I defined it was as follows:

1. Only really great seasons were considered; defined as Win Probability Added of 6.0/162 game schedule
2. I eliminated anyone who came in the top 10 in MVP voting, because that is at least a fairly significant level of "rating"
3. Then I eliminated players in the HOF, because nobody in the HOF belongs on a most underrated list
4. That left me with a grand total of seven seasons
5. I then took the ratio of the player's place on the league leaders in WPA to his position on the MVP ballot for that year to put them in order.

So, for example, in 1989 Will Clark led the league in WPA (so his numerator is 1), and came in second in MVP voting (so his denominator is 2) for a ratio of 1/2. It was a shame that he didn't win MVP, but nowhere close to making my list where the highest ratio is 1/5.

The most underrated seasons are:

1. Roy White - 1970; 3rd in WPA, 15th in MVP voting; basic stat line of 22, 94, .296
2. Mike Epstein - 1969; 4th in WPA, 25th in MVP voting; 30, 85, .278
3. Carlos May - 1972; 2nd in WPA, 21st in MVP voting; 12, 68, .308
4. Dolph Camilli - 1940; 1st in WPA, 12th in MVP voting; 23, 96, .287
5. Eric Davis - 1988; 1st in WPA, 13th in MVP voting; 26, 93, .273

And the top 2 defy explanation; upon conclusion of remarkable seasons their names did not appear on a single MVP ballot anywhere, making their ratios essentially zero.

6. Jim Wynn - 1972; 3rd in WPA, N/A in MVP voting; 24, 90, .273
7. Dick Allen - 1968; 1st in WPA, N/A in MP voting; 33, 90, .263

Maybe it's just a coincidence, but sometimes a seemingly odd choice for MVP turns out to have been a pretty good choice; Jeff Burroughs led the majors in WPA in 1974; DiMaggio beat Williams in WPA in 1941, etc. So maybe the sportswriters really could tell which hitters were delivering when it really mattered. But, at least in the case of the seven seasons listed above, they didn't have a clue.

Coinstartled

Gates Brown 1968!

Justacommeman

The Gator and Ike Brown. Detroit legends for sure

m

Coinstartled

I posted this a couple of years ago.

"""Once in 1968, Mayo Smith decided to put in his pinch-hitting specialist far earlier in the game than normal. Gates, who usually didn't come off the bench until a tight spot near the end of the game, was caught off-guard. “I was sitting at the end of the dugout, eating a couple of hot dogs,” Gates recalled. “It was only the fifth inning (and) I never expected Mayo to call on me to pinch hit that early.” Since he didn't want Smith — who often harped on Gates to lose a few pounds — to see him eating during the game, Gates quickly shoved the dogs down his shirt before heading to the plate. “That's the only time I ever wished I'd strike out,” said Gates. But being the clutch hitter he was, Gates didn't get his wish. Instead, he cracked a double and ended up having to slide head-first into second. While Tigers fans roared and cheered, Gates realized he had made quite a mess of himself. “I had mustard and squashed meat all over me,” Gates laughed, recalling that all his teammates were bent over laughing."""

Justacommeman

That is plain awesome. Thanks! I needed that

m

dallasactuary

Brown's 1968 season was epic. It wasn't a full season, but Cesar Cedeno was comparable in 1985 after the Cardinals picked him up at the trade deadline.

Coinstartled

Without all the stats baseball would not be baseball. DA, your ability to dissect the numbers and get us math dropouts to understand them is impressive and appreciated.

On the other hand, many of our heroes will never make the Hall. To an eleven year old kid, sometimes a promo record is even more important.

https://youtu.be/iT65ORAnoBA