Wed Jan 24, 2018 10:11 pm
While I generally agree with the proposition that it would be nice to have all cards based on award winning seasons such as MVP, Cy Young and ROY, I don't believe that such will EVER be accomplished in the current card add format, unless SOM decides to add such cards en masse. Moreover, such awards evolved over time and were not given in the early years of baseball. Further, as Rosie reminded us, players were not allowed to win more than 1 MVP award in the early years of the award, meaning that even if a former winner was deserving of the award, the rules prevented him from getting it, with the award going to an arguably less deserving player.
In addition, the underlying assumption behind issuing cards for award winning seasons is that it should be a GOOD card. While such may be true, in some cases, and in Peckinpaugh's case in particular, it won't necessarily be the player's BEST card. Bill correctly notes that in the current card adding process, there seems to be a bias against a player having TOO MANY cards. While acknowledging that Peckinpaugh's 1919 card would likely be superior to his 1925 card, Bill is legitimately concerned that adding a player's superior non-MVP card would lessen the incentive to later add the arguably inferior MVP card. The reasoning goes something like this: "We already have the player's best card. Why do we need another card for that player when there are only a limited number of new cards added when we can add the best card of another player?" However, for those concerned with a player having too many cards at the expense of other deserving players, a converse argument against adding the superior card can be made if the MVP card is added.
As noted elsewhere in this forum, I generally strongly prefer to add the best available card of a player. During previous new card adds, in some circumstances the community voted to add cards not representative of a player's best season and not only do those cards barely get used, but they are taking up a spot that could be used for a better player. Good examples of such are Charles Johnson, who had his 1997 card (.250 19 63 .347 .454) added instead of his far superior 2000 card (.304 31 91 .379 .582), which would have given the White Sox a badly needed Expansion Era catcher, and 2010 Jose Bautista (.260 54 124 .378 .617 .995) instead of his superior 2011 card (.302 43 103 .447 .608 1.056), which also would have more greatly benefited the Expansion Era Blue Jays.
While it is a laudable goal to add all of the cards for award seasons, as noted above, in the current card add format, it will take forever to add all of such cards, even if one assumes that such would be voted in by the community, which is not guaranteed. I say give the community the opportunity to vote on the best card for a player now, and leave it up to SOM to make a special add of cards for players with award winning other seasons.
Let's vote on the 1919 Peckinpaugh, as that is the better card compared to his 1925 MVP season.
