Posted by MikeT23 on 8/26/2013 2:48:00 PM (view original):
I'm suggesting the numbers from the games don't tell the entire story.
THIS:
I know none of us think badluck has ever watched a game but you really have to. It's nice to look at a boxscore and see that Player A had two hits and a walk in 5 AB. That's a pretty good game. Except he may have struck out twice with the bases loaded in a 1 run loss. He's not going to feel like he had a good game.
And this applies to looking at stats 28 years later. Mattingly got 23 of 28 votes and Rickey got 0. And even I agree that, looking at the numbers, a case could be made. But why the landslide? Is there something else that the numbers, especially the precious WAR!!!!!, don't show?
First, let's stop pretending that I don't watch games. Because I love baseball so much, I wanted to understand it beyond the lazy, surface level analysis. I also manage/play in a men's league. Not softball, baseball. I manage the team. We have guys on our team that play as high as low minors. There's a guy on another team in our division that was on the Tigers' 1984 world series roster.
Second, that batter will probably feel ****** about his day. But I'm sure there will be other days when a slow ground sneaks threw and plates two runners or a bloop single falls in. That **** tends to even out over 700 plate appearances.
Third, MVP voters are notorious idiots. We've seen it as recently as the 2006 NL vote. Relying on things they may have seen (when exactly, btw, did a sportswriter in Los Angeles or St. Louis gain special insight into Mattingly's performance?) is lazy and stupid, considering the information we have available.