Tuesday Trivia: Close But No Cigar
 

Name the two players with the most top 10 MVP voting finishes but never won.

Name the player with the most top 5 MVP voting finishes but never won.

How about Eddie Murray?

Jeter? How about Gwynn?

Murray is indeed the player with the most top 5 MVP finishes but never won MVP. He finished in the top 5 in five consecutive years from 1981 through 1985 including consecutive runner-ups in 1982 and 1983. He also finished 5th in 1990, for a total of 6 top 5 finishes.

Gwynn and Jeter are great guesses.

Jeter finished in the top 10 eight times, just one shy of the record without an MVP. He had 3 top 5 finishes.

Gwynn had 7 top 10 finishes and 1 top 5 finish.

So we still need to name the two players with the most top 10 finishes without an MVP.

Manny maybe.

Manny Ramirez is one of the two players who have finished in the top 10 in MVP voting 9 times but never won. He finished in the top 10 in 8 consecutive years from 1998 through 2005. His highest finish was 3rd in 2004.

Well done!

We just need to name the other player that finished in the top 10 nine times.

How about Kaline or David Ortiz?

If the answer is Ortiz and Manny that's kind of cool. I doubt it's Ortiz though. My next guess is Boggs. Kaline sounds plausible though, long career with some decent years towards the end as well and very popular..

Pujols.

He was MVP three times, no?

You are correct about Al Kaline, and David Oritz is an excellent guess.

Al Kaline, like Manny Ramirez had 9 top 10 MVP voting finishes.

Kaline's best were in 1955 and 1963 when he finished 2nd. His 1955 finish was quite close, with a 60% share vs. Berra's 65% share (201 to 218 votes).

Ortiz finished in the top 10 seven times, and in the top 5 five times (2003-2007) including a 2nd place finish in 2005.

Great job everyone!

Winfield had a bunch as well-- 7, and like Murray did it in both leagues. Kaline had no real chance in three of his seasons when he lost out to guys who won the Triple Crown (although he was not runner-up anyway). Thankfully Al got his one World Series appearance-- seems like he was always a bridesmaid. Glad he gets some love here.

Back to the drawing board...my guesses were going to be Kaline and Big Papi.

Al is also the answer to the question who hit the most career HR having never hit 30 in a season.