Mon Dec 19, 2022 1:08 pm
I nominated Frank Owen. From 1904-1906 he was one of the best pitchers in baseball, winning 21 -22 games each of those seasons. He had arm trouble in 1907 and was out of MLB by 1909 at the age of 29. Per Andy's numbers, he seems to have the best card of all the starting pitchers currently on the ballot and would be a fine addition to the ATG card set.
There are many previously long forgotten good players in the ATG card set that I never heard of prior to playing the ATG game online. Charlie Sweeney, Silver KIng, Ross Barnes and Hugh Duffy come immediately to mind. Some of those players benefited greatly from early baseball rules that differ from the modern game and had diminishing success as the rules evolved. Sweeney, the third highest priced starting pitcher in the ATG game, had his best year, 1884, on which his sole ATG card is based, in what many historians consider NOT to be major league baseball and literally snuck into the ATG card set as a result of being improperly vetted, while his teammate, Fred Dunlap, can't even get on the ATG ballot, despite meeting the plate appearance criteria. By the way, if his 1884 41 win season is counted, Sweeney won only 64 big league games, 18 FEWER than Frank Owen.
The bottom line is that the online ATG game has really never been solely about only the true greats of the game, but has long been about great individual seasons, down to supporting role players and scrubs. How else could a card be justified for 92 AB .370 Gates Brown?
Based on his numbers and the history of the SOM online ATG game, Frank Owen is worthy of a card.