Who deserved MVP in 1968?

[willshad]

I know it was considered the 'year of the pitcher', but does anyone think that Willie Mccovey deserved the MVP that year over Gibson? While i tend to agree that in a pitcher's season , where no batters really stood out, that a pitcher should be considered for MVP, I certainly think that Mccovey stood out. Those numbers were simply amazing considering the circumstances...at least as good in context as his 1969 season. His team wasnt bad either..finishing in second, ahead of the Reds ( and strangely enough pete Rose still finished ahead of Mccovey in the MVP voting).

[Iron Jaw]

Pete Rose led the majors with his .338 average that season (a year, where the A.L. was lucky to get one .300 hitter - Yaz led with his .301 average to save the moment).

McCovey certainly was a viable candidate. And really, so was Rose (Pete led the league in average, tied for the lead in hits, led in OBP, 2nd in runs and 2b's, 3rd in OPS and TB's, 1st in runs created - pretty good season). But in the year of the pitcher, where Denny McLain also won the A.L. MVP Award (31 wins, it was hard to argue), every day candidates would have probably been W.S. winning Detrioit's Willie Horton, the Senator's Frank Howard, or Ken "Hawk" Harrelson who had a heck of a season for the 4th place BoSox. Actually, Detroit catcher, Bill Freehan took second in the voting. Four pitchers in the AL were in the top-10 (McClain, McNally, Tiant and Stottlemyre). The NL had two - Gibson and Marichal.

Funny thing was, the Cincinnati Reds of 1968 appeared to be the only team not bothered by the pitcher's season. The Reds hit .273 that year, and only one player in the starting lineup batted under .271 (ss Leo Cardenas hit .235 - and he was coming back from injuries in the prior season). The Pirates and Reds finished a distant second at .252 (in the A.L., the 6th place Oakland A's led at .240).

However, the Reds, good as they were offensively, couldn't compete with their starting pitching shelled with injuries. Maloney was still sound, but 1967 rookie sensation Nolan went down, as did Mel Queen, and veteran Milt Pappas was slow coming out the gate and was shipped to Atlanta (where he forged a decent season). They had to rely on Jerry Arrigo and George Culver as starters, and picked up sore-armed Tony Cloninger from Atlanta. They had two aces in the pen too, with Abernathy and Carroll, but the rest of the relief corps was quite average.

[Frank]

That was Bob Gibson's season all the way...

W-L- 22-9 {how did he lose 9 games?}
SO- 268
ERA- 1.12
SHO- 13
Hit's- 198,,62-BB in 304.2-IP

The Cardinals Won the NL BY 9-Games over the Giants,and 14 over th Reds.

[SamtheBravesFan]

That was Bob Gibson's season all the way...

W-L- 22-9 {how did he lose 9 games?}

Except for his first loss, which was by four runs, every single one of his losses was by one or two runs.