1978 Season
1977 / 1979
Baseball-Reference Links
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Top HitterJim
Rice
Top PitcherPhil
Niekro

1978 Major League Player of the Year

Winner
Player
Tm
Pos
Ron Guidry
NYA
SP
27.8
9.6
31.3
22.4
by Wins Above Replacement
  Player
Tm
Pos
1 Phil Niekro
ATL
SP
39.3
10.4
29.5
18.7
2 Ron Guidry
NYA
SP
27.8
9.6
31.3
22.4
3 Mike Caldwell
ML4
SP
29.4
8.1
28.0
18.4
4 Jim Rice
BOS
LF
25.3
7.6
36.0
23.7
5 Dennis Eckersley
BOS
SP
23.7
7.3
23.8
15.1
6 Amos Otis
KCA
CF
31.2
7.3
29.3
17.9
7 Dave Parker
PIT
RF
27.1
7.0
36.8
24.8
8 Doug DeCinces
BAL
3B
27.8
6.8
26.6
15.6
9 Dave Goltz
MIN
SP
29.0
6.6
19.2
12.1
10 Jon Matlack
TEX
SP
28.5
6.4
25.2
16.3
11 Jim Palmer
BAL
SP
32.7
6.4
27.0
17.4
12 Mike Schmidt
PHI
3B
28.8
6.2
22.7
10.2
13 Vida Blue
SFN
SP
28.9
6.2
22.6
14.4
14 Roy Smalley
MIN
SS
25.7
6.0
21.5
6.2
15 Carlton Fisk
BOS
C
30.5
6.0
27.4
12.6
16 Jack Clark
SFN
RF
22.6
5.9
28.0
15.8
17 Willie Randolph
NYA
2B
24.0
5.8
22.8
10.5
18 Bob Knepper
SFN
SP
24.1
5.8
23.4
15.1
19 Gary Carter
MON
C
24.2
5.7
23.6
9.1
20 Larry Bowa
PHI
SS
32.6
5.7
21.6
6.0
21 Graig Nettles
NYA
3B
33.9
5.7
26.1
13.0
22 Sal Bando
ML4
3B
34.4
5.6
22.7
10.8
23 Luis Tiant
BOS
SP
37.6
5.6
16.9
10.0
24 John Denny
SLN
SP
25.6
5.6
16.2
8.8
25 Fergie Jenkins
TEX
SP
35.6
5.6
20.9
12.6
26 Jason Thompson
DET
1B
24.0
5.6
22.4
11.2
27 Ted Simmons
SLN
C
28.9
5.5
28.3
14.6
28 Ellis Valentine
MON
RF
23.9
5.5
22.1
10.6
29 Craig Swan
NYN
SP
27.6
5.5
16.5
9.9
30 Rick Reuschel
CHN
SP
29.1
5.4
18.3
10.6
WAR data courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com
*Rookie
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The statistics used were obtained free of charge from The Baseball Databank.

Wins Above Replacement data courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

Defensive Regression Analysis data used here was obtained with permission from Michael Humphreys, author of Wizardry.

The transaction and player splits data used here was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by Retrosheet.
Interested parties may contact Retrosheet at "www.retrosheet.org".

Uniform images used with permission from Marc Okkonen, author of Baseball Uniforms of the 20th Century.
Images can also be viewed at the Hall of Fame online exhibit Dressed to the Nines

Win Shares are calculated using the formula in the book Win Shares by Bill James