What do you think is the greatest year ever by a player way under the radar?

jsq · #1 10-29-2019, 10:17 PM

ragin cajun ron guidry, 25 -3 record with 1978 yankees.

the yankees sucked big time till after the all star break and guidry was the only thing holding the team together and he still posted a 25-3 record. yankees were still 6.5 games out starting september they caught fire and went on to win.

jim rice won mvp. rice had an excellent year. and since many people felt bad about fred lynn winning the mvp the prior yr over rice when rice in 1977 was arguably better, rice received massive sympathy votes in 1978 and had a great year but no where near as exceptional a year as guidry.

guidry had one of the best pitching yrs in major league history, he had that record with a great team for 1 month of the season (september), a sub 500 team for first 1/2 of the season and a solid team for a few months.

guidry was unstoppable. go look up the era, the strikeouts, everything, he totally dominated every team he pitched against. literally one of the greatest pitching feats in major league history

Tabe · #2 10-29-2019, 10:33 PM

Lynn won the MVP in 1975. It had zero effect on the voting three years later.

Aquarian Sports Cards · #3 10-30-2019, 07:38 AM

Not to mention Lynn deserved it in 1975, and probably deserved it again in 1979. It's not like he was gifted an MVP and the writers regretted it.

Bpm0014 · #4 10-30-2019, 07:47 AM

I hate to throw gasoline on this thread, but all seasons before 1935 flew under the radar which wasn�t invented until then.

hahahahahhahaha!!

conor912 · #5 10-31-2019, 12:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tabe

Lynn won the MVP in 1975. It had zero effect on the voting three years later.

If I�m not mistaken, not only did he win MVP, but was an AS, Gold Glove and ROY. Now that I think about it, has anyone even done that since?

rats60 · #6 10-31-2019, 05:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by conor912

If I�m not mistaken, not only did he win MVP, but was an AS, Gold Glove and ROY. Now that I think about it, has anyone even done that since?

Ichiro Suzuki

Yoda · #7 10-31-2019, 10:51 AM

How about Denny MacLaine and his 30 win year? The future should have been bright but, of course, it wasn't.

conor912 · #8 11-04-2019, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rats60

Ichiro Suzuki

Never heard of him.

Aquarian Sports Cards · #9 11-05-2019, 12:44 PM

Thinking of other one season wonders has anyone mentioned Jim Gentile's 1961 yet?

46 HR, 141 RBI .302/.423/646

rats60 · #10 10-30-2019, 09:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsq

ragin cajun ron guidry, 25 -3 record with 1978 yankees.

the yankees sucked big time till after the all star break and guidry was the only thing holding the team together and he still posted a 25-3 record. yankees were still 6.5 games out starting september they caught fire and went on to win.

jim rice won mvp. rice had an excellent year. and since many people felt bad about fred lynn winning the mvp the prior yr over rice when rice in 1977 was arguably better, rice received massive sympathy votes in 1978 and had a great year but no where near as exceptional a year as guidry.

guidry had one of the best pitching yrs in major league history, he had that record with a great team for 1 month of the season (september), a sub 500 team for first 1/2 of the season and a solid team for a few months.

guidry was unstoppable. go look up the era, the strikeouts, everything, he totally dominated every team he pitched against. literally one of the greatest pitching feats in major league history

Jim Rice had a monster year. He finished 3rd in AVE, 1st in SLG, 1st in OPS, 2nd in runs, 1st in hits, 1st in TB, 1st in 3b, 1st in HR and 1st in RBI. He carried the Red Sox to a first place tie in the AL East. He absolutely deserved MVP.

Guidry had a great season and won the Cy Young, but he had nowhere near the impact of Rice. You want to bad mouth the Yankees, but they were loaded, the best team money can buy. The Yankees won 97 games in 1976 and were AL Champions. The Yankees won 100 games in 1977 and were World Champions. The 1978 Yankees again won 100 games.

Also, your description of the Yankees season is false. The Yankees went 10-9 in April and were above .500 the rest of the season. They were 46-35 the 1st half of the season, 11 games over .500. They were 53-28 the 2nd half and won game 163. They were 77-54 at the end of August, 23 games over .500. They got crazy hot in September going 22-9 to catch the Red Sox. Only a Yankees fan would call 11 games over .500 sucking or 23 games over .500 only solid.

Guidry had a good season, but nowhere near historic. That would be Steve Carlton in 1972 or Dwight Gooden in 1985. If you go by WAR and look at the 20 years between 1969-1988, Guidry only had the 13th best year during that period.

byrone · #11 10-30-2019, 10:10 AM

Not sure it's a greatest year ever by a player way under the radar, but Nolan Ryan's 1987 season sure was odd.

He led the league is ERA and posted a 8-16 won-loss record.

Thanks for the run support, boys

Aquarian Sports Cards · #12 10-30-2019, 12:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by byrone

Not sure it's a greatest year ever by a player way under the radar, but Nolan Ryan's 1987 season sure was odd.

He led the league is ERA and posted a 8-16 won-loss record.

Thanks for the run support, boys

K's and WHIP too if I recall correctly

EDIT: I don't. He was 4th in NL in WHIP

Touch'EmAll · #13 10-30-2019, 01:08 PM

In 1884 Old Hoss Radbourn went 60-12 with ERA 1.38

bnorth · #14 10-30-2019, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 100backstroke

In 1884 Old Hoss Radbourn went 60-12 with ERA 1.38

Holy BLEEP he also had 73 complete games, I guess that was when men were real men, before we became all sensitive and delicate.:

Aquarian Sports Cards · #15 10-30-2019, 04:06 PM

Hell he didn't even throw 700 innings that year.

Tabe · #16 10-30-2019, 11:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 100backstroke

In 1884 Old Hoss Radbourn went 60-12 with ERA 1.38

Old Hoss, besides being the first known person photographed while flipping the bird, is also one of the victims of statistic revisionism. Like Cobb having 4189 hits instead of 4191, Hack Wilson having 191 RBI instead of 190, and Dutch Leonard having a 0.96 ERA instead of 1.01.

Old Hoss now officially has 59 wins in 1884 instead of 60.

Incidentally, there's a fabulous book about his season, "59 in '84". Highly recommended.

robw1959 · #17 11-02-2019, 08:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsq

ragin cajun ron guidry, 25 -3 record with 1978 yankees.

the yankees sucked big time till after the all star break and guidry was the only thing holding the team together and he still posted a 25-3 record. yankees were still 6.5 games out starting september they caught fire and went on to win.

jim rice won mvp. rice had an excellent year. and since many people felt bad about fred lynn winning the mvp the prior yr over rice when rice in 1977 was arguably better, rice received massive sympathy votes in 1978 and had a great year but no where near as exceptional a year as guidry.

guidry had one of the best pitching yrs in major league history, he had that record with a great team for 1 month of the season (september), a sub 500 team for first 1/2 of the season and a solid team for a few months.

guidry was unstoppable. go look up the era, the strikeouts, everything, he totally dominated every team he pitched against. literally one of the greatest pitching feats in major league history

That season came to mind, but I don't think it went "under the radar." Maybe it's because I'm from Syracuse and was a teenager in the 70s, but it seemed like Ron Guidry was all over the sports news all year long that year.

Aquarian Sports Cards · #18 11-02-2019, 11:10 PM

Love Gator, but the year even spawned a catch phrase "shades of '78" not really under the radar

DoubleXX · #19 11-06-2019, 09:25 PM

Hard to believe but one of those 3 losses was to the Blue Jays -- only the team's second year in existence. "Louisiana Lighting" had a great slider!

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