NDF 2003-04 Winter Fun - 1913 Award Winners - NL

[sweaver]

For the season referenced in the subject line of this thread, who would be your pick for Best Positional Player (Include defense and position played in your determination), Best Pitcher, Best First Year Player and any other topics of discussion from this season.

[WiredTiger]

Best Hitter: Gavvy Cravath
Cravath started his career late but hit the ground hitting. Led the league in SLG% and was second in OBA. Had 128 RBIs and 19 home runs. Wasn't a great fielder by the looks of it but his hitting was too good to ignore in 1913.

Best Pitcher: Christy Mathewson
Matty agian is the best pitcher. Had a league leading ERA+ of 151 and won 25 games. Even though he won 24 games the following season this was his last great season.

Tom Seaton of the Phillies went 27-12 with an ERA of 2.60. The other pitchers on the Giants also had good years... Al Demaree was 13-4 with a 2.21 ERA and Jeff Tesreau was 22-13 with a 2.17 ERA.

I go with Cravath here too - by a WIDE margin. Zimmerman, Saier and I guess Luderus would be the next level....but way back.


I guess you go with Mathewson again - although his principal skill this year really seems to be his usual stinginess (particularly good this year 21 in 302ip) in not allowing walks. Tom Seaton Was OK, I think his walk totals - like that of Tsreau put him on the next level down. Larry Cheney had a pretty interesting year with 21 wins and 11 'saves.'

[sweaver]

Win Shares leaderboard:
Players; Gavy Cravath (Philadelphia) 29, Vic Saier (Chicago) 26, Heinie Zimmerman (Chicago) 25, Tommy Leach (Chicago) and Art Fletcher (New York) 24, Tilly Shafer (New York) and Jim Viox (Pittsburgh) 23, George Burns (New York) 22, Larry Doyle and Fred Snodgrass (New York) 21.

Pitchers; Christy Mathewson (New York) 30, Tom Seaton (Philadelphia) and Babe Adams (Pittsburgh) 29, Pete Alexander (Philadelphia) 27, Rube Marquard (New York) 26, Larry Cheney (Chicago) and Jeff Tesreau (New York) 25, Slim Sallee (St. Louis) 22.

WARP3 scores: Cravath 7.8, Saier 5.7, Zimmerman 5.7, Leach 6.2, Fletcher 4.8, Shafer 5.5, Viox 4.9, Burns 5.0, Doyle 4.6, Snodgrass 5.1. Pitchers; Mathewson 9.2, Seaton 7.2, Adams 9.9, Alexander 6.8, Marquard 6.4, Cheney 6.5, Tesreau 7.1, Sallee 8.4.

Award voting (MVP only):

Place   Name   Team   Points
1 Jake Daubert      BRO    50             
  2 Gavvy Cravath     PHI     40                 
  3 Rabbit Maranville BSN       23             
  4 Christy Mathewson NYG      21  
  5 Chief Meyers      NYG   20            
  6 Vic Saier         CHC     15                 
  7 Larry Cheney      CHC      12   
  8 Dots Miller       PIT     11            
  8 Honus Wagner      PIT     11           
 10 Johnny Evers      CHC     10                     
 11 Tom Seaton        PHI      9     
 12 Art Fletcher      NYG      7                 
 13 Jimmy Archer      CHC       6              
 13 Mickey Doolan     PHI      6             
 13 Bill Sweeney      BSN       6                
 13 Jim Viox          PIT      6                  
 17 Larry Doyle       NYG       5                   
 17 Tillie Shafer     NYG        5                      
 19 Otto Knabe        PHI       4              
 19 Red Murray        NYG      4                 
 19 Heinie Zimmerman  CHC       4                    
 22 Babe Adams        PIT      3    
 22 George Cutshaw    BRO       3                     
 24 George Burns      NYG      2                 
 24 Bert Humphries    CHC      2   
 24 Armando Marsans   CIN       2                            
 27 Mordecai Brown    CIN      1

Daubert, the contemporary voters' choice for MVP, collected 17 Win Shares and a WARP3 of 6.2. Rabbit Maranville, 3rd in the voting, had 17 Win Shares and a WARP3 of 5.0 in his first full season.

[sweaver]

Best player: um, nobody? The voter's pick of Daubert is an historical hiccup caused by a complete dearth of star players in the NL. That's what you notice looking at this period of National League history, the quality of play was not that good. The AL was much better.

For lack of a truly good alternative, I pick Gavy Cravath, who was certainly the best player of an overall poor lot.

Best pitcher: Christy Mathewson, 2nd in wins and 1st in ERA for the pennant winners. Talent is a little better on NL mounds, but not a lot. I'd like to pick Babe Adams, 2nd in ERA on a poorer team, but I have to go with Big Six.

A footnote on Daubert - Started with the Dodgers at age 26 in 1910. and his last year was in 1924....cut short due to appendicitus, complications of which would lead to his death that fall at age 40.

Serviceable 1Ber, his best year was at the beginning of the lively ball era at age 38 in 1922. .336, 205 Hits 114 runs for the Reds.