NDF 2003-04 Winter Fun - 1963 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: Elston Howard
I will agree with the voters on this one. Howard had a OPS+ of 141, which was 10 points less than the leader. He caught 132 games for the pennant winning Yankees and helped them overcome the injuries of Mantle.

Best Pitcher:Gary Peters
Peters had an ERA+ of 151 and a record of 19-8 in 243 innings for the second place White Sox. Sandy Koufax won the comibned award in a landslide but Whitey Ford finished third in the MVP vote. Peters was better though.

[WiredTiger]

Best Rookie: Gary Peters
Peters was the best pitcher and the best rookie.

[sweaver]

Win Shares leaders, players: Carl Yastrzemski (Boston) and Tom Tresh (New York) 29, Albie Pearson (Los Angeles), Bob Allison (Minnesota) and Elston Howard (New York) 28, Earl Battey (Minnesota) 26, Pete Ward (Chicago), Max Alvis (Cleveland) and Al Kaline (Detroit) 25, Norm Cash (Detroit) and Harmon Killebrew (Minnesota) 23.

WS leaders, pitchers: Gary Peters (Chicago) 25, Dick Radatz (Boston) 24, Whitey Ford (New York) 23, Camilo Pascual (Minnesota) and Jim Bouton (New York) 22.

WARP3: Yaz 9.3, Tresh 7.5, Pearson 8.1, Allison 9.2, Howard 7.8, Battey 8.0, Ward 5.4 (rookie year), Alvis 5.4 (rookie year), Kaline 6.3, Cash 7.7, Killebrew 7.1. Peters 9.9 (rookie), Radatz 9.3, Ford 6.9, Pascual 9.0, Bouton 6.6.

Actual award voting:
MVP (top 15)

Place  Name  Team  1st place  Points
1 Elston Howard     NYY   15    248        
  2 Al Kaline         DET    1    148         
  3 Whitey Ford       NYY    3    125   
  4 Harmon Killebrew  MIN    0     85                 
  5 Dick Radatz       BOS    0     84    
  6 Carl Yastrzemski  BOS    0     81         
  7 Earl Battey       MIN    0     57           
  8 Gary Peters       CHW    0     55   
  9 Pete Ward         CHW    0     52          
 10 Bobby Richardson  NYY    0     43                
 11 Tom Tresh         NYY    1     38           
 12 Camilo Pascual    MIN    0     29      
 13 Dick Stuart       BOS    0     25         
 14 Albie Pearson     LAA    0     22        
 15 Bob Allison       MIN    0     15    

Cy Young was over both leagues, and Koufax was the unanimous choice.
Rookie

Place  Name  Team  Points
1 Gary Peters       CHW   10     10     
  2 Pete Ward         CHW    6      6               
  3 Jimmie Hall       MIN    4      4   

[sweaver]

Best player: Carl Yastrzemski, just ahead of Bob Allison. Allison, the leader in OPS and OPS+, is a hair ahead on offense, but Yaz edges ahead based on defense.

Best pitcher: Gary Peters, again by a thin margin over Dick Radatz. The Monster was very intimidating, but Peters was simply more prolific.

Best rookie: Peters again. After four cups of coffee, he finally got a full-year chance, and made the most of it.

Best manager: Ralph Houk, who had to juggle with serious injuries to Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris that limited his sluggers to 155 combined games, but came up golden with an easy pennant.