MVP 1978 and 1986: Yankees Got Jobbed

Just went back to look at Ron Guidry's pitching line for his terrific 1978 season -- the season in which young me became a Yankee fan, incidentally -- and that led me to look at the MVP voting from that year. One thing quickly became apparent: MVP voting is neither rational nor objective; nor are the stated reasons for voting in a particular manner consistent... in other words, the voting is par for the course in the absurdity of human reasoning and the joke that is human rationality. Or take the short answer: in 1978 and/or 1986 (I'll get to that after the jump), the Yankees got jobbed!

In 1978, Jim Rice was voted MVP and Guidry finished second in the voting. Per my recollection, the stated reason was that Guidry, great as his season might have been, was a pitcher and therefore only impacted the game once every so many days; Rice was an everyday player and as such had a greater overall impact on the games.

Okay, let's accept that at face value.

In 1986, Don Mattingly had a monster season... in fact, the case could be made that Mattingly's 1986 campaign actually surpassed that of Rice in 1978. So why the heck did Mattingly finish SECOND in MVP voting to Roger Clemens, who last time I checked was a pitcher?

See a problem here???

Let's get into some numbers. First, here are the pitching lines for Guidry 1978 and Clemens 1986 for comparison...

1978 Ron Guidry NYY:25-3, 1.74 ERA, 0.946 WHIP, 35 G, 273.2 IP, 13 HR, 248 SO

1986 Roger Clemens BOS: 24-4, 2.48 ERA, 0.969 WHIP, 33 G, 254.0 IP, 21 HR, 238 SO

Guidry outperformed Clemens across the board.

Now look at Rice 1978 vs. Mattingly 1986 for comparison... and note the eerie fact that they had EXACTLY the same number of at-bats in their respective seasons...

1978 Jim Rice BOS: 677 AB, 121 R, 213 H, 46 HR, 139 RBI, 58 BB, .315 BA, .370 OBP, .600 SLG, .970 OPS

1986 Don Mattingly NYY: 677 AB, 117 R, 238 H, 31 HR, 113 RBI, 53 BB, .352 BA, .394 OBP, .573 SLG, .967 OPS

Mattingly crushed Rice in batting average and and beat him handily in hits. Rice crushed Mattingly in home runs and beat him in RBI. OBP and SLG essentially cancel each other out, so OPS is effectively identical. One could make the argument that Rice's home runs were inflated by taking aim at the monster on a regular basis, but that's beyond the scope of this article. For our purposes, one can make a strong case that these two seasons were basically equivalent.

That brings us to the crux of the matter: how is it, if both hitters were equally good in their respective seasons, that in 1978 the superior pitcher lost the MVP, while in 1986 the lesser pitcher won the MVP? Also keep in mind that the "won their division" arguments works AGAINST the logic (if indeed there IS any logic here) that the MVP goes to the best player on the best team... the Yankees won the division in 1978.

(To add insult to injury, 1986 Rice had nearly as many MVP votes as 1986 Mattingly, despite underperforming Mattingly in virtually every category! I'll include those numbers below.)

Here is the MVP voting for both years in its historical context...

1978 MVP VOTING

1st (352 votes, 20 first place) Jim Rice BOS: 677 AB, 121 R, 213 H, 46 HR, 139 RBI, 58 BB, .315 BA, .370 OBP, .600 SLG, .970 OPS

2nd (291 votes, 8 first place) Ron Guidry NYY:25-3, 1.74 ERA, 0.946 WHIP, 35 G, 273.2 IP, 13 HR, 248 SO

1986 MVP VOTING

1st (339 votes, 19 first place) Roger Clemens BOS: 24-4, 2.48 ERA, 0.969 WHIP, 33 G, 254.0 IP, 21 HR, 238 SO

2nd (258 votes, 5 first place) Don Mattingly NYY: 677 AB, 117 R, 238 H, 31 HR, 113 RBI, 53 BB, .352 BA, .394 OBP, .573 SLG, .967 OPS

3rd (241 votes, 4 first place) Jim Rice BOS: 618 AB, 98 R, 200 H, 20 HR, 110 RBI, 62 BB, .324 BA, .384 OBP, .490 SLG, .874 OPS

Am I alone in thinking the Yankees got the fuzzy end of the lollipop in at least one of these seasons?