Factoid

Over at www.baseball-reference.com you can find a lot of fun facts. For example, among retired players, the highest ranking hitters in MVP 'shares' who are not in the Hall of Fame are:

1) Pete Rose (at number 17) 3.68 shares
2) Dave Parker (tie 25) 3.19 shares
3) Jim Rice (tie 28) 3.15 shares

This squares somewhat with Bill James' argument that Parker is the best right fielder not in the Hall-of-Fame.

The MVP Shares top 10 all-time:
Barry Bonds (7 time MVP)
Stan Musial
Ted Williams (2 time MVP and left off the ballot vindictively once)
Willie Mays
Mickey Mantle
Hank Aaron
Lou Gehrig
Joe DiMaggio
Mike Schmidt
Frank Robinson

The highest non-Barry Bonds active player? Frank Thomas at number 11.

Babe Ruth? Evidently they didn't have the MVP at that time.

Roger Clemens is number one among pitchers, active or not.