The Pure Joy of Gut Awards

Let’s talk about baseball awards for a minute … because, get ready, we’re about to announce … our Willie Stargell and Jim Palmer Award winners for 2025! I know what you’re saying: “What the heck are the Willie Stargell and Jim Palmer Awards?” Great question. We’ll get to it in a minute.

But first, Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal won the Cy Young Awards on Wednesday — Skenes unanimously (the third unanimous Cy Young winner in the last three years) and Skubal with 26 of 30 votes (Boston’s Garrett Crochet got the remaining four). Today, the MVPs will be announced, and you probably already know who is going to win those. The last four MVP votes were all unanimous. The American League MVP won’t be unanimous this time around, I’m sure, but the National League probably will be.

Either way, it’s unlikely there will be any drama.

And look, I’m not necessarily saying that there SHOULD be drama with baseball awards. But I am saying that I’m skeptical about groupthink in pretty much all cases. It feels like we’ve all just decided to agree on what the Cy Young and MVP are supposed to be. And, honestly, what fun is that?

Where’s the room for someone to say, “Look, I don’t care that wins have fallen out of style, Paul Skenes won just 10 games this year, and even though that’s more the Pirates’ fault than his, I can’t in good conscience vote a 10-10 pitcher for Cy Young.”

Where is the room for someone to say, “Hey, I think José Ramírez was far and away the most valuable player in the American League because the Guardians would have finished in last place without him.”

Where is the room for someone to say, “I know this is unpopular, but I don’t think a designated hitter should be MVP — even if he does pitch — and I’d give the award to Trea Turner because he played great shortstop, did everything offensively, and won the batting title.”

Where is the room for someone to say, “Look, the most dominant pitching force in baseball this year was Aroldis Chapman — he had 17 consecutive hitless appearances for crying out loud!”

I’m not saying that I agree with any of those things — in fact, I’m specifically saying that I DON’T agree with any of those things. But I know people do believe them. And I feel like they’re not going to admit that because they will get their heads chopped off, and who wants that?

This year, I voted for the AL MVP. I won’t tell you which way I went yet because we’re supposed to keep our votes secret until the reveal — another delightful consequence of gambling — but I will tell you that there are two players this year who had epic, historic seasons. I spent a very, very long time telling myself, “Forget the backlash, who do I TRULY BELIEVE deserves the MVP award?”

That’s why I voted for Joey Votto.

I guess what I’m saying is that I found the awards so much more compelling and interesting (and infuriating and captivating) when people just voted their hearts. We’d get weird award winners, ridiculous award winners, unexpected award winners, and inspired award winners. And what’s wrong with that? Even the mistakes were unforgettable. There are those of us who are STILL mad that Alan Trammell didn’t win the 1987 MVP over George Bell, or that Kevin Appier didn’t win the 1993 Cy Young over Jack McDowell, or that Pedro didn’t win the 1999 MVP over Pudge Rodriguez.

I just think it’s a whole lot more fun when there isn’t a clear formula for award winners. The fWAR leaders won both Cys this year. The fWAR leaders won both Cys last year. The bWAR leaders won both Cys the year before that. An fWAR leader and a bWAR leader swept the Cys the year before that, and also the year before that. On the MVP side, the combo-WAR leader has won every MVP since 2022.

Maybe that’s the more correct way to choose. But it’s not more fun.

And that’s what the Willie Stargell and Jim Palmer Awards are all about.

In 1979, Willie Stargell won the National League MVP award — well, tied for the MVP award — with a 2.5 bWAR. It is the lowest bWAR for any MVP ever, including José Abreu over just 60 games in the COVID season. Obviously, WAR did not exist in 1979, but even then, everybody knew that his tame numbers (.281, 32 homers, 82 RBI) did not on their own merit the award. He only played in 126 games — 21 of them as a pinch-hitter.

But he was Pops, and he hit some massive home runs, and he was the spiritual force of the “We Are Family” Pirates, and those were the days when writers cared about that stuff.

Well, actually, not all writers: Four left Stargell off their ballots entirely, a massive front-page scandal in Pittsburgh because it cost Stargell the solo award and pushed him into a tie with Keith Hernandez.*

“It is inconceivable to me that four men, professionals in their field who covered the National League on a daily basis, were not discerning enough to recognize the role Willie had played in transporting the Bucs into the playoffs and the World Series,” Pittsburgh Press Sports Editor Pat Livingston wrote. “There is more to baseball than swinging a bat and fielding a ball.”

“Unfortunately,” he added, “there are no statistics on a man’s ability to lead. There are no blunt figures to evaluate, for example, the number of wounded egos that a leader might soothe, or the number of rebellious tantrums or belligerent outbursts that an outstanding father figure in the clubhouse might nip in the bud.

“You cannot get a reading from a computer on the effect that a word of encouragement or a stern look of reproach from a leader might have on a seething teammate about to explode. Our incredible technology has yet to devise a gauge which measures what a mere single in the clutch or a two-out homer with men on base means to a struggling team’s morale.”

We have spent the last 20-plus years making fun of sentiments like that. I know I have. But I know there are baseball people who still believe it. And they have EVERY RIGHT to believe it. That’s the thing that does bother me about our analytical side: We often act like we have solved baseball. We haven’t. If we ever do, baseball will no longer be worth following.

There’s no worry, though. We’ll never solve baseball.

Anyway, the Willie Stargell Awards go to the players who — based on our understanding of the basic numbers, team dynamics, clutch performance, leadership, and vibes — changed the course of the season. It’s a purely subjective award.

And the same is true for the Jim Palmer Awards. Palmer won three Cy Young Awards. Here’s where Palmer finished each year in fWAR.

Palmer’s Fielding Independent Pitching number was almost always higher than his ERA — and FIP is what Fangraphs bases its WAR formula on — because his success was built around his ability to limit hits. FIP doesn’t care about that. It cares about walks, strikeouts, and homers. Well, Palmer walked lots of guys. He was never in the league’s top 10 in strikeouts per nine. He gave up a fair number of home runs.

But he had a lifetime 2.86 ERA, he pitched a bajillion innings, he routinely won 20, he never gave up a grand slam, and he took full advantage of the brilliant Orioles defense behind him.

That’s greatness, too. Obviously, voters put way too much emphasis on pitcher wins and pitcher losses in those days, but I think there’s a compelling argument that Palmer was the league’s best pitcher because he, more than anyone else, figured out how to be successful in his particular circumstances. Maybe he’d have been a different pitcher had he pitched for Cleveland or California. I don’t know. I do know this:

Orioles’ record in Palmer starts:

He was the guy, I think, more than anyone in the league, who left opponents thinking: “Whew, gonna be tough to win today.”

Anyway, we’re going to give out Jim Palmer awards too — purely subjective, based on our understanding of the basic numbers, team dynamics, clutch performance, success, and vibes.

In the future, I’ll try to put together a small panel of voters from around baseball and tell them that one caveat for voting is that they’re not allowed to consider WAR or any other advanced numbers not available in the 1970s. Dumb? Heck yeah, it’s dumb! But I’m pot-committed now.

This year, I’m choosing the Stargell and Palmer winners.

OK, you ready to get angry? Here we go — we’ll start with the Jim Palmer Awards.

And the Jim Palmer winner is …

Garrett Crochet, Boston Red Sox. He, even more than Skubal, was the toughest man in the league to beat.

And the Jim Palmer winner is …

Cristopher Sánchez, Philadelphia Phillies. Yes, Skenes was a wonderful show, but the most persuasive fact here is that the Phillies won when Sánchez took the mound.

And the Willie Stargell winner is …

Cal Raleigh, Seattle Mariners. A catcher with 60 home runs who leads the team to the division title? Absolutely, he wins the Stargell in a walk, no matter how good a season Judge may have had.

And the Willie Stargell Award winner is …

Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Dodgers. Yes, there would have been a lot of push for Schwarbs, but let’s be serious — Shohei Ohtani ALSO PITCHES. That would have blown away voters of any era.