THE PTOLEMAIC MVP METHOD PART 1

James freakin' Loney: What the hell am I doing
in this post??

Gone in 60 seconds for a wild, won-ton weekend, but time enough at last for a quick start-up of a multi-part dissertation on a more structured/nuanced/artfully-balanced-on-the-end-of-a-pin MVP process.

As always, it's not just the destination but the journey, and this one will begin with a look at the hitting leaders over the last two months of 2011 season from each league (data courtesy of the always useful David Pinto Day-By-Day Database).

Almost all of the players selected are at least on the fringes of the current MVP discussion, though some will produce head-scratching. Those folks (Dan Uggla, to name one) are there mostly to show the league-leading totals in a stat (in his case, HRs over the last two months).

We'll get into the "Ptolemaic method" and how it probably won't change anyone's preconceived notions of the MVP selection process next week, but for now, peruse the data. We've sorted the hitters by OPS, and have highlighted achievement levels for OBP (just under .400 and higher) and SLG (.600 and higher).

Here's the NL:

And here's the AL:

More soon. (Threat? Promise? My candy mint is your breath mint...)