NDF 2003-04 Winter Fun - 1990 Award Winners – AL

[WiredTiger]

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: Rickey Henderson
Henderson had what was his best year at the plate. He had an OPS+ of 188, stole 65 bases, scored 119 runs and had an OPB of .439. Cecil Fielder was the second best on the basis of his 51 home runs and .592 SLG%.

Best Pitcher: Roger Clemens
Bob Welch won the award beacuse he won 27 games. Clemens was the better pitcher by far.

Best Rookie: Kevin Appier
A pretty lousy year for AL rookies. Appier had an ERA+ of 139 in 186 innings and went 12-8. Sandy Alomar Jr won but didn't really have a great year.

Yep - Henly - followed by Cecil Fielder (I returned from Taiwan in time to catch his 50 HR game live at the stadium) and then the bash brothers and McGriff.

I was not surprised however to see how useful the Irishman Robert O'Kelly was that year....pretty good player, not a star of course, but useful.

The pitching is SOOOO tough. Welch and Stewart were total horses taking the A's to the Series (where they...umm...assumed the position).

Clemens had a dominant year. I am torn between Stewart's year (I think he was more valuable and the ALCS performance was amazing) vs. Clemens lifting the Sox to the playoffs (with a team with only 88 wins) .

Let's go Stewart....

[sweaver]

Win Shares leaders, players: Rickey Henderson (Oakland) 39, Cecil Fielder and Alan Trammell (Detroit) 29, Mark McGwire (Oakland) and Julio Franco (Texas) 27, George Brett (Kansas City), Jose Canseco (Oakland) and Fred McGriff (Toronto) 26, Tony Fernandez and Kelly Gruber (Toronto) 25.

WS leaders, pitchers: Roger Clemens (Boston) 28, Chuck Finley (California) 23, Bobby Thigpen (Chicago) and Dave Stewart (Oakland) 21. Welch had 18.

WARP3: Henderson 13.0, Fielder 8.6, Trammell 8.7, McGwire 9.1, Franco 7.5, Brett 8.6, Canseco 8.1, McGriff 9.2, Fernandez 9.8, Gruber 7.7. Clemens 12.0, Finley 9.6, Thigpen 8.2, Stewart 9.5, Welch 7.3.

Actual award voting:
MVP (top 14)

Place  Name  Team  1st Place  Points
1 Rickey Henderson  OAK   14    317               
  2 Cecil Fielder     DET   10    286        
  3 Roger Clemens     BOS    3    212    
  4 Kelly Gruber      TOR    0    175        
  5 Bobby Thigpen     CHW    0    170   
  6 Dennis Eckersley  OAK    1    112   
  7 George Brett      KCR    0     60              
  8 Dave Stewart      OAK    0     56  
  9 Bob Welch         OAK    0     54    
 10 Fred McGriff      TOR    0     30                     
 11 Mark McGwire      OAK    0     29                        
 12 Jose Canseco      OAK    0     26               
 13 Ellis Burks       BOS    0     25                      
 14 Rafael Palmeiro   TEX    0     22  

Cy Young (top 4)

Place  Name  Team  1st place  Points
1 Bob Welch         OAK   15    107    
  2 Roger Clemens     BOS    8     77  
  3 Dave Stewart      OAK    3     43  
  4 Bobby Thigpen     CHW    2     20    

Rookie (top 4)

Place  Name  Team  1st place  Points
1 Sandy Alomar Jr.  CLE   28    140                      
  2 Kevin Maas        NYY    0     47                     
  3 Kevin Appier      KCR    0     31   
  4 John Olerud       TOR    0     13   

What's funny is, Clemens did better than Welch in the MVP, but lost to him in the Cy Young vote.

[sweaver]

Best player: Rickey Henderson, and it's not close. 1990 in the AL was all Rickey, all the time. The BBWAA came close to swooning over Cecil's 51 homers, but cooler heads prevailed.

Best pitcher: Roger Clemens, and it's not close, but the glare of Bob Welch's 27 wins blinded the voters.

Best rookie: Sandy Alomar Jr. had the best season, John Olerud would have the best career.