Vote Billy !!!

[19braves77]

http://content.usatoday.com/communit...1#.UDEn-qOe3uw

Nuff Said.

[powersackers]

Just voted. Will Myers of KC is up by 175 votes or so.

[dougdirt]

Hamilton probably shouldn't be close to some of those guys. Hamilton is having a good season with a ton of steals. Those guys are all having incredible seasons.

[powersackers]

Originally Posted by dougdirt

Hamilton probably shouldn't be close to some of those guys. Hamilton is having a good season with a ton of steals. Those guys are all having incredible seasons.

They aren't setting history old records! Players have outstanding seasons every year - all those guys included but they won't be talked about years from now. Billy's season will be. Let's reward it, plus he's one of our own!

[dougdirt]

Originally Posted by powersackers

They aren't setting history old records! Players have outstanding seasons every year - all those guys included but they won't be talked about years from now. Billy's season will be. Let's reward it, plus he's one of our own!

Doesn't matter, the award should be for the best player. The other guys on that list are having incredible all around years. Hamilton is having a good year with an incredible number of steals.

[Brutus]

Originally Posted by dougdirt

Doesn't matter, the award should be for the best player. The other guys on that list are having incredible all around years. Hamilton is having a good year with an incredible number of steals.

Ordinarily, I would agree with you in principle, but when you're about to break a 30-year old single-season record such as this, you probably deserve extra special consideration.

I'd vote Wil Myers under normal circumstances, but these aren't normal circumstances and Hamilton is about to break a pretty incredible record.

[dougdirt]

Originally Posted by Brutus

Ordinarily, I would agree with you in principle, but when you're about to break a 30-year old single-season record such as this, you probably deserve extra special consideration.

I'd vote Wil Myers under normal circumstances, but these aren't normal circumstances and Hamilton is about to break a pretty incredible record.

So if in a few years Hamilton hits .280/.340/.390 and breaks the stolen base record in the Majors you would vote for him as an MVP over a guy who hits .320/.381/.571 as a center fielder (Oscar Taveras this year for example)? I just can't buy into that being more valuable than what a guy like Taveras is doing.

[Brutus]

Originally Posted by dougdirt

So if in a few years Hamilton hits .280/.340/.390 and breaks the stolen base record in the Majors you would vote for him as an MVP over a guy who hits .320/.381/.571 as a center fielder (Oscar Taveras this year for example)? I just can't buy into that being more valuable than what a guy like Taveras is doing.

There are a ton of hypotheticals in that question, but I'd point out that this is a different situation because the players Hamilton is being pinned against are either in another league or on another level altogether. So it's not as easy a direct comparison as an MVP award in the Majors where they're in the league and on the same level, competing against one another.

[Brutus]

On an unrelated note, perhaps some foreshadowing: the MLB record for most steals in a game is seven. One of the players that is tied for the record: a guy named Billy Hamilton.

Perhaps history will repeat itself

[powersackers]

Remember this is ML POTY not ML MVP. The difference is hard to explain but normal MVPs will still be named in leagues. Achievement over value is how I would explain the difference.

[VottoFan54]

Originally Posted by dougdirt

So if in a few years Hamilton hits .280/.340/.390 and breaks the stolen base record in the Majors you would vote for him as an MVP over a guy who hits .320/.381/.571 as a center fielder (Oscar Taveras this year for example)? I just can't buy into that being more valuable than what a guy like Taveras is doing.

Reminds me of the 1962 NL MVP vote: http://www.baseball-reference.com/aw...62.shtml#NLmvp

Mays should've won it, but Wills got it because of his 104 stolen bases.

[camisadelgolf]

I'm just voting for him for the publicity. Other guys deserve it more, but I wouldn't mind seeing Hamilton's value driven up.

[19braves77]

Originally Posted by camisadelgolf

I'm just voting for him for the publicity. Other guys deserve it more, but I wouldn't mind seeing Hamilton's value driven up.

Nothing wrong with over hyping your own prospects. The Braves do it very well with their pitching prospects.

[scott91575]

Originally Posted by dougdirt

So if in a few years Hamilton hits .280/.340/.390 and breaks the stolen base record in the Majors you would vote for him as an MVP over a guy who hits .320/.381/.571 as a center fielder (Oscar Taveras this year for example)? I just can't buy into that being more valuable than what a guy like Taveras is doing.

What if you had to choose between these slash lines?

.292/.349/.731

vs.

.317/.378/.594

That is what 143 stolen bases can do to a slash line if you figure in the fact 143 extra bases are added to a guys slugging percentage and caught stealing is taken from average/OBP (I did equal number walks and singles). Now, it won't be quite to that number since there are probably a couple doubles in there and a caught stealing at third. That would erase a double instead of a single or a walk like I did. Yet the numbers would still be rather similar. Maybe down to .292/.353/.700 at worst.

edit: BTW, your Hamilton numbers were short changing him to start with. Were those his AA only numbers at that point? He just went 5 for 7 in his last 2 ballgames. You can't just use his AA numbers anyway. Too small of a sample size.

[dougdirt]

Originally Posted by scott91575

What if you had to choose between these slash lines?

.292/.349/.731

vs.

.317/.378/.594

That is what 143 stolen bases can do to a slash line if you figure in the fact 143 extra bases are added to a guys slugging percentage and caught stealing is taken from average/OBP (I did equal number walks and singles). Now, it won't be quite to that number since there are probably a couple doubles in there and a caught stealing at third. That would erase a double instead of a single or a walk like I did. Yet the numbers would still be rather similar. Maybe down to .292/.353/.700 at worst.

edit: BTW, your Hamilton numbers were short changing him to start with. Were those his AA only numbers at that point? He just went 5 for 7 in his last 2 ballgames. You can't just use his AA numbers anyway. Too small of a sample size.

Problem is 1 steal does not equal 1 total base, so you can't just add it to the slugging and pretend the two things are equal, because they aren't. Steals don't advance other runners. Hits do.

Either way, Oscar Taveras has had a much stronger season than Billy Hamilton has. Again, Billy Hamilton has had a good season and a bunch of steals. The other guys on the list have had incredible seasons all around.