Boog Powell

[Fuzzy Bear]

--That is the problem with sorting firstbasemen. Boog Powell is NOT an unreasonable player to put forth for the Hall of Fame. Nor is Cecil Cooper. It is simply that so many firstbasemen are roughly interchangable that you have to be a slam dunk type Hall of Famer not to get lost in the shuffle. In any given season half the guys starting at firstbase are good enough hitters to be Hall of Famers if they played another position. If you're playing first you are getting paid 99% for your bat.

Does Powell (http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=powelbo01) have a case?

[leecemark]

--He has a case, just not a very compelling one. No chance he will ever actually make it.

[Fuzzy Bear]

--He has a case, just not a very compelling one. No chance he will ever actually make it.

Agreed, but his MVP record is impressive. He finished second in 1969 and won the award in 1970. It is clear that Powell, and not F. Robby, Brooksie, or anyone else was perceived as the big star on the 1969-70 Orioles. The MVP vote is evidence of the perception of the time.

Another thing I noticed is the shortness of Powell's career. He was done at 35, but not before a last hurrah at age 33 in 1974. He's closer to Albert Belle in career value than I thought.

[hellborn]

Agreed, but his MVP record is impressive. He finished second in 1969 and won the award in 1970. It is clear that Powell, and not F. Robby, Brooksie, or anyone else was perceived as the big star on the 1969-70 Orioles. The MVP vote is evidence of the perception of the time.

Another thing I noticed is the shortness of Powell's career. He was done at 35, but not before a last hurrah at age 33 in 1974. He's closer to Albert Belle in career value than I thought.

If Boog had played in the 20s and 30s or the 90s and (20)00s, instead of the 60s and early 70s, he could easily have piled up some numbers that would have brought more HOF attention. He was hosed by playing in a time that was very tough on hitters.

[Fuzzy Bear]

If Boog had played in the 20s and 30s or the 90s and (20)00s, instead of the 60s and early 70s, he could easily have piled up some numbers that would have brought more HOF attention. He was hosed by playing in a time that was very tough on hitters.

The weight, the short career, the injuries, all helped depress his HR total.

Boog was enough of an impact player, at his best, to where had he been able to get to 400 HRs he would have been a solid HOF candidate. Although Frank Robinson and Brooks Robinson are the HOFers in that group. at the time the O's were winning, it was POWELL that was considered the best player, as evidenced by MVP voting.

[RuthMayBond]

Does Powell have a case?He probably has something to wash down his barbecued food

[hellborn]

The weight, the short career, the injuries, all helped depress his HR total.

Boog was enough of an impact player, at his best, to where had he been able to get to 400 HRs he would have been a solid HOF candidate. Although Frank Robinson and Brooks Robinson are the HOFers in that group. at the time the O's were winning, it was POWELL that was considered the best player, as evidenced by MVP voting.

Yeah, all that extra weight was not needed and must have had a lot to do with the injuries and short career. He could hit the ball plenty hard enough at 230lbs, didn't need to build up to 300 or whatever he got to.
Frank and Brooks were getting to the tail ends of their careers when Boog got his MVP votes, and MVP voters clearly have a hard time seeing past big batting numbers to look for other skills.
I loved reading a story about the Os travelling to Japan in the early 70s and Weaver saying things like, "Boog, we're down a few runs, hit a HR"...and Boog doing it. They really demoralized the Japanese teams on that trip, who thought that they had a chance to compete, having stars like Oh, Nagashima, etc. More recent trips, signings, and international series have shown that they're doing a good job catching up to the US MLs...

[DoubleX]

The weight, the short career, the injuries, all helped depress his HR total.

Boog was enough of an impact player, at his best, to where had he been able to get to 400 HRs he would have been a solid HOF candidate. Although Frank Robinson and Brooks Robinson are the HOFers in that group. at the time the O's were winning, it was POWELL that was considered the best player, as evidenced by MVP voting.

I don't quite follow this whole "MVP vote shows Powell was considered the best," argument.

Frank Robinson played on the Orioles from '66-'71, here's how the two compared in the MVP standings during that time:

1966
Robinson: 1st
Powell: 3rd

1967
Robinson: 11th
Powell: n/a

1968
Robinson: n/a
Powell: 21st

1969
Robinson: 3rd
Powell: 2nd

1970
Robinson: 10th
Powell: 1st

1971
Robinson: 3rd
Powell: n/a

Yeah, if you isolate just '69 and '70, Powell was regarded the better player, but in anything larger than a two year sample, Robinson seems to have received more recognition.

We could also look to All Star games since we are talking about recognition. Robinson was an All Star 5 of the 6 seasons. Powell was an All Star 4 of the 6 seasons.

So I just don't see how MVP indicates that Powell was considered the best player on the O's during that period. Sure, it indicates that he has a valid argument, but I don't know if it is any stronger than the argument that Frank Robinson has.