NDF 2003-04 Winter Fun - 1907 AL Award Winners

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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.

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A look inside the numbers:

Win Shares leaders:
Players; Ty Cobb (Detroit) 41, Elmer Flick (Cleveland) 37, Sam Crawford (Detroit) 36, Nap Lajoie (Cleveland) 32, Topsy Hartsel (Philadelphia) 29, Ed Hahn (Chicago) and George Stone (St. Louis) 27, Fielder Jones (Chicago) 25, Davy Jones (Detroit) 24, Kid Elberfeld (New York) and Harry Davis (Philadelphia) 21.

Pitchers; Ed Walsh (Chicago) 37, Ed Killian (Detroit) and Eddie Plank (Philadelphia) 29, Addie Joss (Cleveland) 28, Cy Young (Boston) 27, Doc White (Chicago) 25, Frank Smith (Chicago) 24, Wild Bill Donovan (Detroit) and Harry Howell (St. Louis) 23, Chief Bender (Philadelphia) 22, George Mullin (Detroit) 21.

WARP3 scores for those guys: Cobb 10.9, Flick 9.1, Crawford 8.4, Lajoie 10.0, Hartsel 6.0, Hahn 7.8, Stone 9.1, F. Jones 9.0, D. Jones 6.1, Elberfeld 7.2, H. Davis 6.3.

And the pitchers: Walsh 11.9, Killian 8.3, Plank 8.0, Joss 7.8, Young 7.6, White 7.9, Smith 6.5, Donovan 5.2, Howell 7.0, Bender 6.0, Mullin 4.4.

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It's the beginning of the Ty Cobb era, as the Tigers won the first of three straight pennants. Cobb was the league's best player (get used to that phrase) leading in average, slugging, OPS, hits, RBI, and steals. The first of several no-doubt top player awards.

Top pitcher is Ed Walsh, the ERA leader. 2nd in strikeouts, 1st in starts and complete games. Walsh also won 24.

No big rookie splashes, although Tris Speaker and Walter Johnson both debuted this year. Speaker only batted 19 times, and Johnson was 5-9.

[WiredTiger]

Best Hitter: Sam Crawford
Cobb's first full year was a good one. He only gets better and doesn't come back to this level until 1919. Crawford almost matched his teammate's hitting feats and played a tougher defensive position with better defense than Cobb.

Best Pitcher: Big Ed Walsh
Wins a tight race with Ed Killian on the basis of his better ERA+ and more innings pitched. Killian also had a much better team behind him.

For the hitter, gotta go with Cobb on this one - no real new names otherwise.

Crawford had a good year. As did Stone, Flick, Davis and the usual candidates - Lajoie had an off year.

Pitching....hmm.....I'd be tempted to go with Doc White this year based on wins, his decent K rate and low walks (38 in 291 ip!). Even though his ERA was 'only' 2.26. Walsh would be the safe pick I guess....nice staff...start of with 27 and 24 wins, Frank Smith had 22. The rest of the staff (including Atrock who had won 20 the year before) had a total of 14......