What do you think is the greatest year ever by a player way under the radar?
 

How about Hack Wilson in 1930 for the Chicago Cubs. 56 home runs, 190 RBI's (record still stands today), .359 batting average, and 109 walks! My second choice might be Denny McClain in 1968 with 30 wins.....

People don't realize the single greatest season by a 3B is Al Rosen's 1953 .336 43 145
10.1 WAR

For a decent player, Norm Cash's 1961 was absurd.

Lefty O’doul 1929 batted .398 with 254 hits 152 runs 35 doubles 32 homers with 122 rbi and .465 OBP and gets no attention .

Yeah league went crazy that year with career years for decent players. Maris, Cash, Colavito, Jim Gentile

Fun fact Bobby Richardson finished 24th in MVP voting in 1961 with a -0.7 WAR wonder how many negative WAR's have gotten MVP votes!

Steve Stone's 25-7, 3.23 Cy Young year in 1980.

Bob Welch's 27-6, 2.95 Cy Young year in 1990.

Zach Greinke's 2015: 19-3, 1.66 ERA. His ERA all year was never over 1.97.

Luis Tiant's 1968: 21-9, 1.60 ERA. 0.871 WHIP, 9 shutouts.

One I always think of is Steve Carlton's 1972 season.
The team's record was 59-97. He was 27-10 with a 1.97 ERA, and struck out 310 batters. I'm stunned every time I think about what he did that year on that team.

Steve Carlton did not exactly fly under the radar though.

Joe Wood. 1912
 

Joe Wood 1912 season
34 and 5, 35 complete games, 10 shutouts, and 3 wins in the World Series. Just for kicks he batted .290

Given that Stone won the Cy Young award in 1980 I'd say that the actual best pitcher in the league that year, Mike Norris, was even further under the radar.

Harry Heilmann's 1923 season. There were a few others that came close, but this one stands out.

Yaz 1967 WAR= 12.5

Still can't believe Looie is not in the Hall of Fame.

I agree... maybe "under appreciated" is more appropriate... IMO

Devers
 

2019 Rafael Devers! 😊

One has already been mentioned, but I was always amazed as a kid looking at the backs of their baseball cards at the one monster year by these three, Norm Cash in 1961, Tommy Davis in 1962, and Deron Johnson in 1965.

Honus Wagner 1908. 1st in BA, OBP, SLG, OPS, hits, TB, 2B, 3B, RBI, SB, 2nd in runs, 1b & HR. He had 11.5 oWAR, Hans Lobert was 2nd place with 6.5. I don't think a player has ever dominated a league like that. He did that in the lowest scoring season of the dead ball era, league ERA 2.35 and the toughest hitting park, 16% below league average. Bill James rates it as the best season ever.

1959 Roy Face 18-1 pitching record.

Honus Wagner was a player under the radar?

Russ Ford

1910 W-L 26 - 6 (rookie year)

1911 W-L 22 - 11


http://photos.imageevent.com/tedzan7...Cfactory30.jpg



TED Z

T206 Reference
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His 1908 season was. It is not like almost every other season mentioned isn't well known. The OP picks the all time record for RBIs in a season and the last pitcher to win 30 games and says they are under the radar:eek:

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

So I’ll add Ruth and Cobb and all our other prewar friends including Wahoo, Cy and my namesake, “The Crab”. :D

Pirates outfielder Adam Comorosky in 1930. He hit 47 doubles, 23 triples and 12 homers. You can't find another season in baseball history where a player reached all three of those numbers. The best part is that he led the majors with 33 sacrifice hits, so he was giving up plenty of at-bats that season to move runners along, yet he still set numbers that were never reached nor equaled.

Granderson had a 20-20-20-20 season in 2007 with Detroit. Not bad !
2B-38
3B-23
HR-23
SB-26

Minor leagues, but Joe Hauser of the Minneapolis Miller’s in 1933 hit 69 HRs and had a 332 batting avg and 770 slugging pct. this came only 3 years after he hit 63 HRs with the Baltimore Orioles of the International League.

Dean Chance 1964

AB - 89
H - 7
2B - 0
3B -0
HR - 0
BB - 0
K - 53
AVG - .079

Since he couldn't hit, they let him do some pitching:

Games - 46
Starts - 35
Innings - 278.1
W/L - 20-9
Shutouts - 11
ERA - 1.65 (which would be amazing in the deadball era, let alone the 1960s)

Lifetime he was 128-115.

Cecil Travis -- 1941
 

He led the AL in hits while the radar techs were distracted by hitting streaks and .400 averages.

Also, in 1998 or so, Bonds became first 400HR/400SB and couldn't get a ping with all the yapping about McGuire, Sosa, et al. It appears that was when he decided to get back on the radar by juicing.

Babe Herman's 1930 season:

Hit 393, 35 homers, 138 rbi's, 241 hits, 28 doubles and scored 143 runs.

Might have gone down as an all time season if not for Bill Terry hitting 400.


Also Earl Webb's 1931 season:

Webb hit 333, scored 96 runs, had 103 rbi's but set the all time single season record with 67 doubles.

I'll toss in a couple of arms from the 1960's that fly under the radar.

Jim Maloney who had a fine but short career. He had a couple of standout seasons with 1963 being his best.

23 -7 with a 2.77 ERA. He finished with 250 IP, 183 Hits allowed and 265 K's.

For the season he finished 19 in MVP voting. No All - Star or Cy Young placement.


The next name is Sam McDowell.

In 1965, he finished at 17 - 11 and a 2.18 ERA. Additional numbers of import are 273 IP, 178 Hits allowed and 325 K's.

For the season he finished 17 in MVP voting. No All - Star or Cy Young placement.

Speaking of arms, how about some of the seasons old Hoyt Wilhelm was able to put together? I know he's a HOFer, but who ever has anything to say about him?

Between 1964 and 1968 he was 41 to 45 years old, pitched over 500 innings while maintaining an average ERA of 1.74....in his 40s! He surrendered almost 200 less hits than innings pitched over that time.

1965 was probably his masterpiece. He threw 144 innings as a 42 year old giving up only 88 hits, while pitching to the tune of a 1.81 ERA.

I've also always been a fan of fluke seasons like Davey Johsnon's and Rico Petrocelli's 40 Home Run years or Bert Campaneris's 20 HR year etc. THen you have guys like Dave Stapleton who has a very good rookie season and literally gets worse every year from there on out. Wonder what the record is for longest career with a batting average that dropped every season? Stapleton made 7.

Petrocelli is a good one. He had a 10 WAR season leading the AL. It totally went under the radar until advanced metrics. He finished 7th in MVP voting behind 5 guys with more RBIs and Cy Young winner Denny McClain.

Had Maloney's arm not given out in the late 60s he would have been the ace of the Big Red Machine and probably in the Hall of Fame.

Man that seems like a lot of innings for a reliever, even in the pre-closer days? He pitched until he was 49, how great is that? He was 29 when he made his debut.

I would vote with Peter on this one. His performance in the '61 season was well above any of his other seasons....something like 80 bps for BA. I wonder what he did that year to give rise to the increased performance? He would have been 27 and in the prime of his like......such a huge increase in BA for 1 year is just odd.

Not sure if mentioned yet, Darrell Evans 1973. 9.0 WAR 18th in MVP.

Bret Boone, 2001

.331 BA 37 HR 141 RBI 9.4 WAR

Roid heads need not apply

Here's one for you, Tip O'Neill's 1888 season
In 130 games (577 ab) led the league in these 8 categories - average 435, OB% 490, 225 hits, 167 Runs, 123 RBI, 52 doubles, 19 triple & 14 HR's
& stole 30 bases too!

https://www.qualitycards.com/pictures/1281888001.jpg

Good point.

Yaz ain't exactly flying under the radar either :)

He corked his bat.

He later did a story for Sports Illustrated where he documented the exact technique he used.

No Cy Young votes because they only picked one for both leagues in '65 and Sandy Koufax was the unanimous pick in 1965.

McDowell was almost as good in 1968 - 1.81 ERA, 6.1 H/9.

And then he finished 3rd in the CYA in 1970, too.

He once went to the plate without a bat. LOL.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEboSkPUgUo

"BiG ED Walsh" ~ Maybe Not under the Radar...
 

Howevar, certainly not mentioned enough!

BiG ED Walsh was from another planet :eek:

1908 Season

*40 Wins
15 Loses
469 Innings Pitched
Win% .727
ERA 1.42
Games Started 49
Games Completed 42

Chicago White Sox Record *88-64

Would a season where a player led the league in H's-225, 2Bs-52, 3Bs-19, HR-14, RBI and BA-.435 count? Tip O'Neil in 1887.

Trivia question - what player led the league in BA one season, dropped 100 points the next season and still led the league in BA? Tip O'Neil.

Miguel Dilone 1980.

Not including his 1980 season, he was a career .238 hitter with an OPS+ of 67. Only had 2000 career at bats in parts of 12 Major league seasons.

In 1980 he hit .340 with 30 doubles 9 triples and 61 steals and an OPS+ of 120.

Where did that come from?

He was a Strat-o-matic god that year

Wagner 1908
 

I have to agree with this. 1908 was a serious pitcher’s year and Wagner dominated completely. Wagner is known as a great player, sure, but I think he is still underappreciated. in this season he was Babe Ruth and ty Cobb combined. Greatest season of all time, imho.

Sorry guys, but anybody batting.390 in 1929 or 1930 is batting.305 in an average year. Those years were offensive explosions.

Tim

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?