Last night, I completed the PAR calculations for the 2008 season and posted those numbers. This means we now have a full decade's worth of data for that stat. Perhaps I will get a few more seasons done this winter, but no promises as I have several other major tasks planned.
A couple interesting things stuck out to me when examining the '08 numbers. First, our choices for MVP and Cy Young that year were NOT the batting and pitching PAR leaders. David Wright won the MVP, but he was 0.4 points behind Albert Pujols. In hindsight, Pujols finishing fifth in the balloting for MVP was pretty interesting. Of course, he went on to win the DTBL MVP the following two seasons anyway. Also, it is worth noting that the MVP voting was all over the place in '08. Five different players received first place votes and nobody received more than three.
On the pitching side, the late Roy Halladay led the way in pitching PAR in '08 (13.3) ranking 10th among all single seasons calculated so far. He's already up to 54 PAR for his career and that only includes the second half of his DTBL career. A sad reminder that we recently lost one of the greatest pitchers in league history. Halladay finished third in the Cy Young vote that year. The award was won by Tim Lincecum, who was in a virtual tie for second in PAR with C.C. Sabathia.
Finally, the league total PAR of 411 for 2008 was a bit shy of the ideal total of around 450 (available standings points above the minimum of 10 for finishing last place in every category). But the average season total over the ten years I've calculated to date is 447, which is just about perfect. The offensive explosion of the past couple years has helped even this out. Overall, I remain pleased with how these numbers are turning out.