OK, I've been out of town for the holiday and haven't seen a lot of the Orioles lately. There's a whole lot to catch up on but let me just say this one thing:
Kevin Millar was safe! No extra innings were necessary!
Anyway....
I'm not here to talk about the present, I'm here to talk about the past. You see, I have three big obsessions involving the Orioles:
1. Jeffrey Maier in the 1996 ALCS
2. The amazing 1987 season of Larry Sheets (you have no idea how close I came to naming this blog "Holy Sheets!")
3. The snubbing of Chris Hoiles for MVP in 1993.
(I'll also grant you that three Oriole obsessions is really understating the case. There are certainly many, many more...I am writing a blog about a baseball team for Christ's sake.)
I'm here today to talk about Mr. Hoiles and give him his due.
Top Ten OPS+ Seasons By A Catcher Since 1900
So Hoiles' season ranks only behind three seasons from the greatest hitting catcher of all time (Piazza), another by the second greatest hitting catcher of all time and a fluky season from a journeyman catcher from the deadball era (Grady). Behind him are Fisk, Lombardi, Campanella and Hartnett; all Hall of Famers.
If fact outside of Grady and Hoiles himself, all of these catchers are or will be in the Hall of Fame.
Even more impressive, the top five OPS+ performances by a catcher in the 107 year history of the American League:
Again, Hoiles leads a list of current or future Hall of Famers.
OPS+ for all position players in the American League in 1993:
Even though Hoiles had a fantastic year at the plate (.310/.416/.585, 29 HR) there were a lot of great performances in the AL that year. Olerud hit .363, Thomas slugged .617 and drove in 128, Griffey hit .309 with 45 homers and Gonazalez hit 46 with a .310 average. But only Griffey did it at a premium defensive position.
And this is not an argument that Chris Hoiles should have won the MVP. I know how MVP voting works. Your team typically has to make the playoffs or your performance has to stand out in a year where there is clearly no better option (i.e. Cal Ripken, Jr. in 1991 for the last place O's). But he deserved better than this:
Behind Kenny Lofton? Behind Mike Stanley? Mike Freakin Stanley? Jimmy Bleepin' Key?!?!?!
It gets even worse when you consider Win Shares. Hoiles leads all these guys with 6.8 Fielding Win Shares in 1993 on top of the great bat. It still doesn't make up the ground on guys like Thomas and Olerud but it certainly narrows the gap.
Hoiles arguably should've finished in the top 5 of MVP voting and certainly the top ten. As it turns out, he wouldn't even crack the top 15!
A performance worthy of baseball immortals but is largely forgotten, even in Baltimore, and was underappreciated even as it was happening 15 years ago.
Kevin Millar was safe! No extra innings were necessary!
Anyway....
I'm not here to talk about the present, I'm here to talk about the past. You see, I have three big obsessions involving the Orioles:
1. Jeffrey Maier in the 1996 ALCS
2. The amazing 1987 season of Larry Sheets (you have no idea how close I came to naming this blog "Holy Sheets!")
3. The snubbing of Chris Hoiles for MVP in 1993.
(I'll also grant you that three Oriole obsessions is really understating the case. There are certainly many, many more...I am writing a blog about a baseball team for Christ's sake.)
I'm here today to talk about Mr. Hoiles and give him his due.
Top Ten OPS+ Seasons By A Catcher Since 1900
Year OPS+
Mike Piazza 1997 185
Mike Piazza 1995 172
Mike Piazza 1996 166
Johnny Bench 1972 166
Mike Grady 1904 166
Chris Hoiles 1993 162
Carlton Fisk 1972 162
Ernie Lombardi 1942 161
Roy Campanella 1951 159
Gabby Hartnett 1937 158
So Hoiles' season ranks only behind three seasons from the greatest hitting catcher of all time (Piazza), another by the second greatest hitting catcher of all time and a fluky season from a journeyman catcher from the deadball era (Grady). Behind him are Fisk, Lombardi, Campanella and Hartnett; all Hall of Famers.
If fact outside of Grady and Hoiles himself, all of these catchers are or will be in the Hall of Fame.
Even more impressive, the top five OPS+ performances by a catcher in the 107 year history of the American League:
Name OPS+ Year
Chris Hoiles 162 1993
Carlton Fisk 162 1972
Bill Dickey 158 1936
Mickey Cochrane 157 1933
Jorge Posada 154 2007
Again, Hoiles leads a list of current or future Hall of Famers.
OPS+ for all position players in the American League in 1993:
Name OPS+
John Olerud 186
Frank Thomas 177
Ken Griffey 171
Juan Gonazalez 169
Chis Hoiles 162
Even though Hoiles had a fantastic year at the plate (.310/.416/.585, 29 HR) there were a lot of great performances in the AL that year. Olerud hit .363, Thomas slugged .617 and drove in 128, Griffey hit .309 with 45 homers and Gonazalez hit 46 with a .310 average. But only Griffey did it at a premium defensive position.
And this is not an argument that Chris Hoiles should have won the MVP. I know how MVP voting works. Your team typically has to make the playoffs or your performance has to stand out in a year where there is clearly no better option (i.e. Cal Ripken, Jr. in 1991 for the last place O's). But he deserved better than this:
1st Max Season Results
Rk Name Team Place Points Points Share AB H HR BA OPS SB W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+--+-----+-----+---+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
1 Frank Thomas CHW 28 392 392 1.00 549 174 41 .317 1.033 4
2 Paul Molitor TOR 0 209 392 0.53 636 211 22 .332 .911 22
3 John Olerud TOR 0 198 392 0.51 551 200 24 .363 1.072 0
4 Juan Gonzalez TEX 0 185 392 0.47 536 166 46 .310 1.000 4
5 Ken Griffey SEA 0 182 392 0.46 582 180 45 .309 1.025 17
6 Roberto Alomar TOR 0 102 392 0.26 589 192 17 .326 .900 55
7 Albert Belle CLE 0 81 392 0.21 594 172 38 .290 .922 23
8 Rafael Palmeiro TEX 0 52 392 0.13 597 176 37 .295 .925 22
9 Jack McDowell CHW 0 51 392 0.13 22-10 257 3.37 1.29 158
10 Carlos Baerga CLE 0 50 392 0.13 624 200 21 .321 .841 15
11 Jimmy Key NYY 0 29 392 0.07 18-6 237 3.00 1.11 173
12 Joe Carter TOR 0 25 392 0.06 603 153 33 .254 .801 8
13 Jeff Montgomery KCR 0 15 392 0.04 7-5 87 2.27 1.01 66 45
13 Mike Stanley NYY 0 15 392 0.04 423 129 26 .305 .923 1
15 Kenny Lofton CLE 0 11 392 0.03 569 185 1 .325 .816 70
16 Chris Hoiles BAL 0 10 392 0.03 419 130 29 .310 1.001 1
16 Tony Phillips DET 0 10 392 0.03 566 177 7 .313 .841 16
Behind Kenny Lofton? Behind Mike Stanley? Mike Freakin Stanley? Jimmy Bleepin' Key?!?!?!
It gets even worse when you consider Win Shares. Hoiles leads all these guys with 6.8 Fielding Win Shares in 1993 on top of the great bat. It still doesn't make up the ground on guys like Thomas and Olerud but it certainly narrows the gap.
Hoiles arguably should've finished in the top 5 of MVP voting and certainly the top ten. As it turns out, he wouldn't even crack the top 15!
A performance worthy of baseball immortals but is largely forgotten, even in Baltimore, and was underappreciated even as it was happening 15 years ago.
No comments:
Post a Comment