Choose Your MVP: Re-evaluating the 1965 MVP Race

“In addition, Versalles led the Majors in strikeouts with 308, 244 more strikeouts than his teammate Oliva.”

Huh??

Also kinda silly to highlight Oliva as having more RBI than the leadoff batter (who batted behind the pitcher)... but not the leadoff batter having more runs scored.

Obviously, Oliva proved to be the much better hitter and better player over time, but Versalles was the MVP in ‘65.

yikes -- six twins among top 15 AL MVP candidates for 1965 (mudcat 6, battey 10, jimmie hall 13, harmon 15).

If Oliva had the MVP award on his resume` that should have been more than enough to put him over the top for the HoF. But I`m prejudice, Oliva is my favorite

If Oliva had the MVP award on his resume` that should have been more than enough to put him over the top for the HoF. But I`m prejudice, Oliva is my favorite

We'll see.   I kind of view Mauer as having roughly the same chance and he does have an MVP.   In my book, 3 batting titles or two Cy Youngs should get you in.

Gotta wonder how many errors Zoilo would have had in modern-day scoring. Things like that can change, especially over forty years.

It was a good choice - Versalles really electrified the game for those of us who were watching in 1965, but Oliva would have been a good choice too and overall was the better player, just not in 1965.

ESPN had an article on "one hit wonders" for each team.  They chose Versalles for the Twins.  It is a choice I disagree with, but this is what they said, "In the National League list of one-hit wonders, I wrote about Jim Konstanty, the 33-year-old relief pitcher for the Phillies who won the MVP award in 1950. Versalles is in some fashion the American League version of Konstanty

I also had just read this article and was about to make the exact same reference!!

It’s not great to retroactively simply look at the stats and then make a judgement call on a league-wide award.  It’s like the Cy Young award that Bartolo Colon won in 2005;  every Twins fan brings that up as the worst vote ever, but mostly because it robbed “our guy” Santana.  Colon wasn’t a chump that year; the voters were just swayed for non-stats reasons.

I wasn’t around to watch it, but Versalles is probably just another example of that.  He was deemed the best player on the best AL team in ‘65.  Why was that?  If you look up and down the lineup, there were a lot of “decent” years, but nothing really stands out.  Oliva had the great BA, but didn’t have the great counting stats that should have gone with it (for the time).  Killebrew would have been the obvious choice if it had been any other year, but he only played in 110 games and didn’t have the kind of great year despite that in order to sway people (if he hits .300 with 35 HRs and 100 RBI, for instance, he might have gotten it).  Bob Allison hit .233.  I could go on.  So, I expect that the voters just went with Versalles because he had 666 AB and thus great counting stats, especially for a shortstop.

At least “our guy” got the award!!

Tony-O is my favorite Twins player, but Zoilo was the right choice.  I do think that if Tony-O had won that MVP award he would probably already be in the HOF.  MVP awards carry weight.  There was an interesting article about the controversial MVP Mo Vaughn won over Albert Bell.  Bell's stats were not just better, they were MUCH better.  Bell had an epic season but the writers didn't like him and he'd been caught corking his bat the year before.  

I'm okay with Zoilo winning MVP.  It was slightly before my time but Tony-O was not.  The comparison to Puckett was accurate.  Tony belongs in the Hall and I am sure someday he will get in.  However, what a shame if will be if it is posthumously.  Somebody better pull their head out and get this done!  What a better time than a surprise announcement by the Commissioner during the suspended season to bring a little love to the game.

From the reading I have been doing lately, it seems Versalles overtakes Oliva in large part due to his ability to field SS. Right now we live in an era of several very good offensive shortstops, that was not the case in '65. There was such a need for offensively capable middle infielders it seems that any life there made you an All-Star. That value of offensive capability at short seems to be represented in that 1.9 higher WAR for Versalles. 

Shortstops were significantly MORE important in Versalles day than they are today. What do I mean?...

Versalles fielded 774 chances for the Twins in 1965. That didn't lead the league. That was an average year for Versalles. In 1962, he fielded 862 chances. For context, only 4 short-stops in the majors last year had over 600 chances. Jorge Polanco was 6th in the AL with 506. Major league batters used to put balls in play.

This explains the need for defense at 'all cost' at the position in that era. Several of the 'great' offensive shortstops of today, wouldn't qualify to play that position in Versalles era. (Polanco, for example.)

Still, there's about a 99% chance that if a modern shortstop lead his league in runs, doubles, triples, and total bases...that player would be elected MVP. Versalles really wasn't a controversial choice. Then or now.

Also, Versalles wasn't as much of a "one-hit wonder" as comes across in some of our comments (or as much as he's perceived that way, in general). He got MVP votes in '62. He won a GG and was an all-star (in an era where it was DIFFICULT to make the all-star game) in '63.

In the five seasons culminating with his MVP ('61-'65), MLB SS leaders for fWAR...

Jim Fregosi - 18.9

Maury Wills - 18.0

Ron Hansen - 16.7

Dick Groat - 15.8

Zoilo Versalles - 15.1

Luis Aparicio - 14.1

These were Aparicio's age 27 to 31 seasons, and he was widely considered to be the best short-stops in the majors. (Soon to be overtaken by Fregosi; Wills was a bat-first guy who was already starting to dabble in a bit of 3rd-base.) Anyway, the thing that created the 'one-hit wonder' legend with Versalles was the fact that he didn't do much AFTER the MVP in '65. But, he did plenty before it.

I was a SS and Zoilo was my idol. I remember saving my money to buy the same high end model Rawlings glove Versalles used. There was a sporting goods store in downtown Mpls, I think called A&B Sports, where I went to purchase the glove. I remember the salesman told me when Versalles made an error he would throw the glove away. He said Versalles was only given 2 gloves a year from Rawlings, so he came in often to buy new ones. He said he spent a lot of money there.

Apparently his superstition got the better of his common sense.