1981 Season
1980 / 1982
Baseball-Reference Links
Links
Top HitterMike
Schmidt
Top PitcherBert
Blyleven

1981 Major League Player of the Year

Winner
Player
Tm
Pos
Fernando Valenzuela*
LAN
SP
20.7
5.3
16.7
10.6
by Wins Above Replacement
  Player
Tm
Pos
1 Mike Schmidt
PHI
3B
31.8
7.7
29.9
21.3
2 Andre Dawson
MON
CF
27.0
7.4
24.9
15.9
3 Dwight Evans
BOS
RF
29.7
6.7
25.8
17.0
4 Rickey Henderson
OAK
LF
22.5
6.6
26.7
18.0
5 Buddy Bell
TEX
3B
29.8
6.2
18.0
10.0
6 Bert Blyleven
CLE
SP
30.2
5.6
14.6
9.6
7 Steve Carlton
PHI
SP
36.5
5.5
15.8
9.8
8 Bobby Grich
CAL
2B
32.5
5.4
20.8
12.2
9 Fernando Valenzuela*
LAN
SP
20.7
5.3
16.7
10.6
10 Nolan Ryan
HOU
SP
34.4
5.1
14.6
9.9
11 Robin Yount
ML4
SS
25.8
4.9
20.0
11.1
12 Steve McCatty
OAK
SP
27.3
4.6
18.0
12.3
13 Dave Stieb
TOR
SP
23.9
4.5
14.5
8.8
14 Rick Burleson
CAL
SS
30.2
4.5
17.2
6.7
15 Tom Seaver
CIN
SP
36.6
4.4
16.1
10.8
16 Dwayne Murphy
OAK
CF
26.3
4.3
20.3
10.9
17 Jerry Reuss
LAN
SP
32.0
4.3
13.4
8.6
18 Tom Paciorek
SEA
LF
34.7
4.3
17.0
8.9
19 Rollie Fingers
ML4
RP
34.9
4.3
17.2
12.9
20 Cecil Cooper
ML4
1B
31.5
4.2
22.3
14.8
21 Tony Armas
OAK
RF
28.0
4.2
17.9
9.7
22 Keith Hernandez
SLN
1B
27.7
4.2
19.9
12.1
23 Willie Wilson
KCA
LF
26.0
4.1
14.1
5.8
24 Chet Lemon
CHA
CF
26.4
4.0
16.0
8.5
25 Britt Burns
CHA
SP
22.1
4.0
11.4
6.5
26 Jim Sundberg
TEX
C
30.1
4.0
17.1
8.0
27 Lou Whitaker
DET
2B
24.1
3.8
13.5
5.1
28 Gary Carter
MON
C
27.2
3.8
18.0
8.3
29 Steve Kemp
DET
LF
26.9
3.8
17.3
9.5
30 Eddie Murray
BAL
1B
25.4
3.8
21.0
13.9
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