re mvp revisited total baseball which also tries to evaluate a player s total offensive and defensive contributions gives barry bonds a total player rating of for only one other player since ruth attained that mark cal ripken for his season rounding out the top five offensive players in the nl last season sheffield sandberg van slyke and larkin the top offensive players in the al in were e martinez ventura anderson r henderson and thomas in short total baseball says bonds enjoyed one of the best seasons ever in the game s history better than any year had by mantle mays williams etc if you disagree don t flame me flame the writers of total baseball also martinez and ventura are neck and neck so given the shortcomings of any statistical analysis which one had the better year can be considered a toss up thus total baseball supports your choices of bonds and ventura as the mvps of phil brown aka pb csc albany edu
