At his peak, Pedro Martinez has a strong case as the best pitcher to ever climb a major league mound.

As the author of a book about the most controversial MVP ballots of all time, I am often asked: “Which is the single worst MVP vote of all time?”



The answer really depends on how one defines “worst.”

If on-field performance is the criteria, Washington Senators shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh in 1925 makes a case for worst of the worst: The hobbled Senators shortstop appeared in 126 games, hitting .294/.367/.379 (generating 2.6 WAR). That he was named MVP over teammates Goose Goslin (.334/.394/.547/6.5 WAR) or Philadelphia’s Al Simmons (.387/.419/.599; 6.5 WAR) defies imagination. Peck’s reward for his MVP campaign? He was replaced at shortstop prior to the 1926 season.

If production differential between the league’s best player and the player who was voted MVP is the criteria, then Mickey Cochrane’s 1934 selection might serve as a touchstone: Detroit’s Cochrane (.320/.428/.412) was worth six-and-a-half wins less than Lou Gehrig (whose .363/.465/.706) Triple Crown effort rated 10.4 WAR). Put another way, Gehrig in 1934 was as good Mickey Cochrane and Tigers teammate Hank Greenberg (6.2 WAR) combined.

If (alleged) voter spite is the measuring stick, the 1947 ballot slithers to the top of the list. In the closest vote in MVP history, Ted Williams lost the award to Joe DiMaggio by a single point (202–201). Despite slugging his way to the Triple Crown and leading the league in essentially every meaningful offensive category save stolen bases, Williams was left off the ballot of one anonymous voter. Williams assumed for decades that it was one of the Boston writers with whom he had long sparred, but this was never proven.

If it’s the inexplicable selection of an unqualified player over a slew of seemingly superior candidates, then Juan Gonzalez in 1996 might be your cup of tea. As ranked by WAR, Gonzalez (3.8) wasn’t one of the fifteen best players in the league (while runner-up Alex Rodriguez was arguably the best player in the league).

But if you rank your terrible MVP selections based on the level of dishonesty, hypocrisy, or bureaucratic incompetence attendant to a vote, there is only one choice for the worst MVP vote of all time.

“What game were those guys watching?”

By now, you doubtlessly know part of the story: In a tight vote, Texas Rangers catcher Ivan Rodriguez was named 1999 AL MVP over Pedro Martinez. Boston’s otherworldly right-hander captured more first-place votes than Rodriguez, but was famously left off two ballots — omissions that cost him the award.

It’s a slight Martinez carries with him like a post-career limp, and you can’t blame him. Despite pitching into the teeth of a violent offensive storm (AL teams averaged 5.18 runs per game, 12th highest in history), Martinez produced one of the great pitching lines of the last 100 years.

Martinez earned the elusive “Triple Crown” for pitchers, leading the league in wins, ERA, and strikeouts — but that barely begins to capture his achievement. As measured by WAR, he was 50% better than the next best pitcher in the league; his ERA was more than a full run better than the next best in the league; and despite missing four starts to injury, he struck out 113 more batters than the runner-up in that category. His fielding-independent pitching (FIP), which strips team defense from the equation when measuring pitcher effectiveness by comparing HR/9, K/9 and BB/9 rates to the league average, is the lowest ever recorded (1.39). His adjusted ERA (243 ERA+), which compares a pitcher’s earned run average to the league average while adjusting for where he pitched, is one of the 10 best ever recorded — and was almost twice as good as the runner-up in that category for 1999. His 0.92 WHIP is excellent, but not historic — until one realizes it was 33% better than the next pitcher on the leaderboard. His 13.2 strikeouts-per-nine innings was a record at the time (the next-best in this category registered 8.4 K/9), and he was able to deploy this power with remarkable precision: Martinez struck out 8.5 men for every man he walked.

And for good measure, Martinez pitched his team into the playoffs: Boston’s record in games started by Pedro El Grande was 24–5; it was 70–63 in all others. For equivalency in dominance relative to the league, one has to look to Babe Ruth in his prime. [1]

None of this is to suggest that Pudge Rodriguez didn’t deserve some consideration for the MVP award (especially if you value the often underappreciated defensive responsibilities of catcher). If, as a catcher, you hit .332/.356/.558/125 OPS+while playing indisputably great defense for a playoff team, you’re going to get your share of votes. And you should get your share of votes. Pudge Rodriguez had a fine year, and deserved to place among the top-five on the ballot. In many other years, Rodriguez might have been a sound choice for MVP.[2]

But 1999 wasn’t like many other years — not when Pedro took the mound. Despite pitching in one of the toughest environments ever for pitchers, the dynamic star produced a season out of the Dead Ball era. Yet two writers — George King of the New York Post and La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune — failed to list the amazing Martinez on their ballot.

Said Ted Williams of this ghastly omission: “What game were those guys watching?”

Of the two snubs, the King “non-vote” was, at first blush, the more infuriating. Despite listing pitchers David Wells and Rick Helling (he of a 4.41 ERA) on his ballot the year prior, King defended his treatment of Martinez by saying the “MVP is for everyday players. Pitchers have their own award.”

That King, a year after voting for two pitchers, would claim the “MVP is for everyday players” was laughable. His snub of Martinez was so bad that his own newspaper called it “bunch of hogwash.”

King’s hypocrisy was galling, but it’s not what makes 1999 so notable. It’s La Velle Neal’s snub of Martinez that differentiates this terrible MVP ballot from the dozens of questionable votes that have marked the award’s history.

Because La Velle Neal should not have been allowed to vote in 1999.