Walsh 1908
 

Might’ be the greatest pitcher season ever. Too bad they let him do that and blow out his arm after a few more seasons of that level of work.

So how would you rate Lefty Grove's 1931 Season?
31 Wins... 4 Losses ... 2.06 ERA

1930 was an "off year"... 28-5 2.54 ERA

For truly under the radar season how about Max Bishop in 1930. He only hit 252 and only had 38 rbi but he walked 128 times leading to 117 runs scored and a .426 On Base Average. I bet few people realized how valuable he actual was because no one thought about walks

Charlie Ferguson, 1886.

30-9 pitching record, with a 1.98 ERA. WAR of 10.5

66 hits, including 12 for extra-bases, 25 RBIs, OBP of nearly .350


His 1887 was even more extraordinary at the plate, fetching nearly 90 RBIs and a .337 batting average, though he wasn't quite as dominant on the mound.

He unfortunately died that offseason.

1993 Kevin Appier: 18-8, 2.56 ERA (led the league), with a 0.3 HR/9 (in 1993!)

1995 John Valentin: .298/.399/.533, 27 hr, 102 rbi, 20 sb, 148 ops+, .973 fielding pct at SS. Was 1st in WAR in 1995 -- 2nd in offensive WAR and 1st in defensive WAR.

I saw all the Tip O'Neil mentions earlier, and for a second I thought this thread was about to get political. :D

Wilcy Moore with the 1927 Yankees. He went 19-7, had the lowest ERA and WHIP of any pitcher on their staff, but wasn't picked up by the sound mirror (what was used before radar) because Babe Ruth was hitting more home runs than every team in the American League.

ron guidry, 25 - 3
 

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

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

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.

I hate to throw gasoline on this thread, but all seasons before 1935 flew under the radar which wasn’t invented until then.

hahahahahhahaha!!

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.

Grove
 

I would say that Grove's 1931 was as dominant as any pitcher season ever- to me Grove, especially when you factor in his record when he was stuck with Baltimore for several years, is the only guy who has a legitimate claim to compete with WaJo for best pitcher ever.

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

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

Petrocelli in '69 gets my vote. Extraordinarily good season and totally under the radar.

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

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

Hi Tim... I agree. Grove's numbers are absolutely staggering, especially considering that era. When you look at his total career, he has to be right there with the best ever... No question. IMO

George Stone was dominant in 1906 & the last AL player to win a batting title before Cobb won nine straight.

Also, Dave Orr's entire career:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/p.../orrda01.shtml

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.

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

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

Around Horn
 

Around Horn

1b gil hodges
2b jeffkent
ss jim fregosi
3b matt williams
c any molina
of jim edmonds
of curt flood
of hunter pence

p tim hudson
p david wells
p dave stewart
p billy pierce
p jimmy key
p eric show

su scott shields
su alan embree
bp quizenberry
lhc bily wagner
rhc percival

skiper marse joe

MJD

We can't forget Ross Barnes in 1876.

I like Eric Davis of the Reds in 1987, one of the best all around seasons ever. 37 HR’s, 50 SB’s, 100 RBI, 120 R’s and more over the wall catches in centerfield than you can count.

That qualifier, "way under the radar" limits my thought to exclude HOFers from the list. Therefore, the first one that comes to my mind is Zack Britton's 2016 pitching campaign. As the Orioles closer, he posted an historic 0.54 E.R.A. on route to earning 47 saves and ZERO blown saves! In that year, Britton only gave up 4 earned runs all year long. Yet he didn't get any award recognition whatsoever. By the way, whatever happened to the "Fireman-Of-The-Year" award for relief pitchers, huh?

I deleted this double-post.

Can you imagine how many losses they would have had without Carlton that year? Maybe 115-120?

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.

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

They still give it out. Josh Hader and Aroldis Chapman won it this year. They did the award ceremony during the World Series.

Now it is called the Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman Award for the respective relievers in the AL and NL.

I miss the Rolaids Relief Award however I tend to live in the past when it comes to baseball.

Here's a name that probably won't ever be uttered again on this board: Darrell Porter.

In 1979 Darrell Porter became only the second catcher ever to score 100 runs, drive in 100 runs, and walk 100 times in a season.

His stat line: 101 runs, 20 homers, 112 rbis, 121 walks, hit 291 with 421 OBP and a 905 OPS.

Never heard of him.

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

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

That’s a pretty good list of CAREER underrated players by position.

But I’d go with Dave Concepcion at SS and Ted Simmons at Catcher. I’d also consider Al Oliver, probably in place of Hunter Pence. That guy could rake, and doesn’t get anywhere near the credit he was due.

Lastly, there are lots of pitchers I’d put ahead of Eric Show (RIP). Too many to name, but Tommy John is probably first and foremost. Jamie Moyer and David Cone would also be ahead of Show. Too busy/lazy to think of others right now, but could probably name off a bunch if time allowed. Just my meager contribution.

Maybe not the greatest under the radar year, but it is worth noting that in 1925 Bob Meusel of the Yankees led the league in homers and rbi's (33/134) and had a very decent .290 BA and .548 SP, picking up the slack from less than impressive Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig seasons, but only finished 18th in MVP balloting, probably due to the Yankees lowly finish that year.

Brian

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!