Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

First pass through the MVP list...
ATG represents these guys pretty well. In my estimation there are only 4 MVP's that should be considered for a card.

1. Justin Morneau, MIN, 2006 - he's the only MVP without any ATG card
2. Terry Pendleton, BRV, 1991 - he has 2 cards but neither is 1991 and his high card is $3.14
3. Bobby Shantz, PHA, 1952 - MVP not represented and looks to be much better than the 2 cards in ATG - VOTED IN 16.2
4. George H Burns, CLV, 1926 - 2 cards in ATG, cool...but at .77 and .50 no where near representative of his career. - VOTED IN 17.1

Let the discussions began...

Rosie2167 wrote:First pass through the MVP list...
ATG represents these guys pretty well. In my estimation there are only 4 MVP's that should be considered for a card.

1. Justin Morneau, MIN, 2006 - he's the only MVP without any ATG card
2. Terry Pendleton, BRV, 1991 - he has 2 cards but neither is 1991 and his high card is $3.14
3. Bobby Shantz, PHA, 1952 - MVP not represented and looks to be much better than the 2 cards in ATG
4. George H Burns, CLV, 1926 - 2 cards in ATG, cool...but at .77 and .50 no where near representative of his career.

Let the discussions began...

I'm assuming that you mean this time around, because every one of the MVP years should be in! And yes, that means that whole passel of Bonds cards. Morneau is not the only MVP without a card: Braun (no matter what you might think of him), Donaldson (I just don't get the hate for recent players especially those who are MVPs), McCutcheon (see Donaldson).

Sorry whiffed on mentioning Donaldson and Braun. They're right there at the top of my spreadsheet but I was sorting on another column.

I think it's apparent and I'll fully admit this, that I'm biased to older cards first, as the further we get away from them the harder it seems to be to garner support to include them. Not unlike the hall of fame challenges and precisely why they created the veterans committee. I believe we should be limiting the recent cards (say 5 year wait) unless they are of huge historical significance, we could debate that MVP and Cy should be in every year and as early as possible but I'd still vote for a slight wait, maybe not 5 yrs.

george barnard wrote:I'm assuming that you mean this time around, because every one of the MVP years should be in! And yes, that means that whole passel of Bonds cards.

Yes this time around, but keep in mind there are 56 MVP years not carded. Of those 56 uncarded years only 4 don't have any card; Donaldson '15 - VOTED IN 16.2, Braun '11 - VOTED IN 16.2, McCutchen'13 - VOTED IN 16.2 and Morneau '06.

Of the 52 others, they have 130 cards among them.

Mike Piazza (2000) (not an MVP, but we need a Piazza card on the Mets) - VOTED IN 17.1

Barry Bonds (2002)

Barry Bonds (2004)

Let's try to correct the lack of players available from the strike-shortened 1981 season. 1980 and 82 each have 50 hitters in the set. 1981 has 2. I understand that there may be problems with max injury ratings due to the lack of AB, but I'd rather put up with that than to not have any players represented.

Just a few examples here, trying to stay away from players that are already well represented from other seasons:
1981 Tony Armas
1981 Hubie Brooks
1981 Dwight Evans
1981 Greg Luzinski
1981 Milt May
1981 Jerry Mumphry
1981 Tom Paciorek
1981 Tim Raines
1981 Jerry Remy
1981 Mike Scioscia
1981 Dave Winfield
1981 Richie Zisk

Armas may be the most deserving from this list. He was one of the top power hitters in the AL from 1980-85 but is only represented by his very sub-par 1986.

And one other player I always advocate for (in vain so far), 1970's Bob Bailey.

Just off the top of my head: Tito Francona. He has a nickle card currently, but was a solid 15 year Major Leaguer with a nice run starting in '59 (his best year) when he hit .363 with a .980 OPS. He followed that up with a .832 in '60 and .823 in '61. He had a career .272 Ave. and .746 OPS. He was also a + defender.

- The Sheik

I see a lot of players still playing in the game today, and a lot more being nominated, but for some reason Andrew McCutchen is not one of them, I am curious to why that is? Is it because he is on the wrong team? He has been one of the top CFs in the whole league for half a dozen years. It seems a pretty thin excuse.

I've seen McCutchen mentioned a bunch of times in these threads...

I can almost guarantee that McCutchen would end up like Kirby Puckett on the island of misfit free agent CFers A lot of these guys that are recommended NEVER get used - it's just a fact of life. A little more homework as to the value of the players CARD would be nice - case in point: Josh Hamilton. He got voted in and I've never seen him used because he is unusable against LHP. Usable cards would be a priority, I would think. Just my 2 cents.

- The Sheik