WHAT IS VALUABLE?

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What does Willie McGee have in common with Lou Gehrig? What does Phil Cavarretta have in common with Ted Williams? What about Jim Konstanty with Willie Mays? The answer is they all won MVP awards. How is it that some of the greatest players of all-time have won the same award as players whose careers did not even come close to reaching the same level or perhaps even players you never heard of before? It might well be the many different definitions of “most valuable” that have formed and changed over the years ever since the Baseball Writers Association of America began voting for the award in 1931.

As unlikely an MVP as McGee, Cavaretta and Konstanty were, there must have been some sort of criteria by which they were elected. Even though it is often the case that a true mega superstar such as Gehrig, Williams or Mays might have garnered some MVP votes based on their career accomplishments, an MVP must have accomplished something special, something “valuable” in that one season alone, even though he might never come close to approaching those accomplishments again in his career. But what criteria was used to judge how valuable a player was in that one season and has it changed at all since 1931?

Let’s take the extreme example of Konstanty. He won the MVP in 1950 with the Philadelphia Phillies while having an otherwise mediocre career. Konstanty was primarily a relief pitcher throughout his career, starting only 36 times in his career 433 appearances. In those days, relief pitchers were considered the second-class citizens of a pitching staff who were stuck in the bullpen because they couldn’t make it as a starter. Even as a reliever, nothing stood out in Konstanty’s career as he only struck out 2.6 batters per nine innings, walked more hitters (269) than he struck out (268) and allowed more hits (957) than innings pitched (945.2). But in 1950, he contributed heavily to the unlikely success of the Phillies. In 74 appearances which led the league, he had 22 saves which set the National League record at that time. He also won 16 games and had a WHIP of 1.039 compared to his career mark of 1.296. The Phillies, labeled the “Whiz Kids” because of their collective youth, won the National League pennant that year after they had finished in seventh or eighth place in the 8-team league 24 out of the last 31 seasons from 1919 to 1949.

Now we’ve gained some insight into what is considered valuable. What made Konstanty’s 1950 season more valuable than other notable performances that season such as Ralph Kiner’s 47 home runs and 118 RBI or Stan Musial’s .346 batting average was the fact that Konstanty made a significant contribution to a winning team and that there was some historical significance involved. Kiner hit ten more home runs than anyone else in major league baseball and was second in the league in RBI but the Pirates finished last that year with a 57-96 record. Musial won the National League batting title and led the major leagues in OPS but the Cardinals finished fifth that year with a 78-75 record. The Wins Above Replacement (WAR) statistic was not available to the baseball writers voting for MVP in 1950 but if it had been it would have validated their choice. Konstanty’s WAR was 4.7 in 1950, a figure unheard of for relief pitchers.  There have been only three other relief pitchers ever to win the MVP. Rollie Fingers won it in 1981 (4.2 WAR), Willie Hernandez in 1984 (4.8 WAR) and Dennis Eckersley in 1992 (2.9 WAR). Since the Phillies only won the pennant by two games over the Dodgers, Konstanty’s 4.7 wins above replacement was indeed quite valuable. Kiner’s WAR was 5.2, but the last place Pirates finished 33 ½ games behind the Phillies. Not very valuable. Musial’s WAR was 7.3 but the Cardinals finished 12 ½ games behind the Phillies. Without Musial’s seven-game difference, the Cardinals still would’ve finished in fifth place. If one measures value by WAR, then the most valuable players will be those who finish on a first-place team since subtracting the number of games indicated by a player’s WAR merely sinks any team who finished below first further behind first. But subtracting the number of games indicated by a player’s WAR from the first-place team might drop them out of first.

Over the years, MVP voters have consistently shown their bias for players on first-place teams. The two teams who boast more MVP awards than anyone else are the same two teams who have won the most World Series titles. The New York Yankees have fielded 23 MVPs with the St. Louis Cardinals coming in second with 21 MVPs. The Yankees, of course, have won the most World Series (27) while the Cardinals have won the second most (11). That trend continued this season with Aaron Judge winning the AL MVP and Paul Goldschmidt winning the NL MVP.

The historical turnaround of the Whiz Kids in 1950 also contributed to Konstanty’s MVP selection. To win the National League pennant after thirty long years of second-division finishes had to have made a huge impression on the voters. But Konstanty was not the only Phillie to have a good year. Del Ennis hit 31 home runs with 126 RBI and a .311 batting average. Robin Roberts was the ace of the starting staff, going 20-11 with a 3.02 ERA. But Ennis finished fourth in the voting and Roberts was seventh.  Neither received any first-place votes. What stood out for Konstanty?

Most likely Konstanty scored points with the MVP voters due to the historical impact he made from his position. While he did set the National League record at that time for saves with 22 (Joe Page of the Yankees set the major league record with 27 the year before in 1949), voters would not have taken the number of saves he had into consideration. Like WAR, the statistic of saves had not yet been created. The statistic was not created until 1959 by writer Jerome Holtzman and was not officially adopted as a statistic by major league baseball until 1969. What would have gotten the voters attention was Konstanty’s 16 wins in relief. No relief pitcher had ever had so many wins in a single season. Only Roy Face (18 in 1959), John Hiller (17 in 1974) and Bill Campbell (17 in 1976) have had more in the history of major league baseball. Today wins by relief pitchers are dismissed as “vulture” wins when a pitcher comes in from the bullpen, merely pitches a third of an inning and gets credit for a win when his team happens to score the go-ahead run in the next half inning. But before the glorification of the save or the one-inning closer, relief pitchers regularly worked multiple innings. Konstanty pitched 152 innings in his 74 appearances, averaging over two innings per outing. Today some starting pitchers don’t even pitch that many innings.

The rationale for MVP votes really hasn’t changed much. Voters today look for some of these same variables. The hypothetical subtraction of the player’s WAR from his team, where his team finished in the standings and the historical significance of the performance all seem to trump pure stat compilation. George Brett won the AL MVP in 1980 thanks largely to his historic attempt to become the first hitter since Ted Williams to hit .400 for the season. Willie Hernandez of the Tigers (1984) and Ichiro Suzuki of the Mariners (2001) won MVP awards due to their contribution to two of the most winningest teams in major league history. Buster Posey won the NL MVP in 2012 by hitting .336 and driving in 103 RBI. There have been plenty of hitters to reach both of those single season marks, but not as a catcher. Last season, Shohei Ohtani became only the 11^th player to unanimously win the AL MVP due to his unprecedented combination of starting pitcher and 46-home-run hitter. This season, of course, all Aaron Judge had to do to win the MVP was to break one of the all-time iconic records in baseball history. You see sometimes at least, the definition of “valuable” is simple and requires no analysis.