12 June 2008

1940 National League

The Cincinnati Reds won their second straight pennant, and second ever World Series. This was their first untainted World's Championship, as the first time had been over the 1919 Black Sox. The Reds outpaced Brooklyn by 12 games. St. Louis was 3rd and Pittsburgh 4th, followed by Chicago, New York, and Boston. Philadelphia lost 103 games to finish last. Cincinnati won with pitching and defense, a hallmark of manager Bill McKechnie, but would become infected with another McKechnie hallmark, the sacrifice of too much offense to get defense. The offense was already slipping.

Debs Garms ran away with the batting title at .355: Ernie Lombardi was second at .319. Elbie Fletcher led in on-base, while Johnny Mize topped the slugging and OPS boards. Mize led with 43 HR and 137 RBI, and also in total bases. Arky Vaughan led with 113 runs and also 15 triples. Stan Hack and Frank McCormick tied with 191 hits, while Lonny Frey stole 22 bases.

Bucky Walters led with 22 wins and a 2.48 ERA, while Kirby Higbe led with 137 strikeouts. Claude Passeau was second in strikeouts and ERA and tied for second in wins. The league lead in saves was seven.

Win Shares leaders, players; Johnny Mize (St. Louis) 33, Arky Vaughan (Pittsburgh) 31, Frank McCormick and Billy Werber (Cincinnati) 27, Elbie Fletcher (Pittsburgh) 26, Dolph Camilli (Brooklyn) and Stan Hack (Chicago) 25, Chet Ross (Boston), Lonnie Frey (Cincinnati) and Mel Ott (New York) 24, Dixie Walker (Brooklyn), Terry Moore and Enos Slaughter (St. Louis) 22.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Bucky Walters (Cincinnati) 32, Claude Passeau (Chicago) 28, Paul Derringer (Cincinnati) 24, Kirby Higbe (Philadelphia) 21, Hugh Mulcahy (Philadelphia) 19, Dick Errickson (Boston), Larry French (Chicago), Junior Thompson and Jim Turner (Cincinnati), and Lon Warneke (Chicago) 18.

WAR scores: Vaughan 7.4, Mize 7.0, Frey 6.6, McCormick 6.0, Fletcher 5.5, Hack 5.4, Camilli, Ott, and Eddie Miller (Boston) 5.1, Werber 5.0 (last good year), Moore (career year) and Debs Garms (Pittsburgh) 4.3, Ross 4.1 (rookie, only year as regular), Slaughter and Jimmy Gleeson (Chicago) 4.0.

Pitchers, Walters 6.4, Passeau 6.2 (career year), French 4.5, Derringer 4.3, Rip Sewell (Pittsburgh) 4.2, Errickson 4.1 (career year), Higbe, Warneke, Whit Wyatt and Freddie Fitzsimmons (both Brooklyn) and Mort Cooper (St. Louis) 3.7.

Actual award voting: MVP Top 10 | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+--+-----+----
1 Frank McCormick CIN 16 274 336 0.82 | 618 191 19 .309 .850 2
2 Johnny Mize STL 6 209 336 0.62 | 579 182 43 .314 1.039 7
3 Bucky Walters CIN 0 146 336 0.43 | 117 24 1 .205 .488 2| 22-10 305 2.48 1.092 115
4 Paul Derringer CIN 1 121 336 0.36 | 108 18 0 .167 .370 0| 20-12 297 3.06 1.105 115
5 Freddie Fitzsimmons BRO 0 84 336 0.25 | 47 5 0 .106 .304 0| 16-2 134 2.81 1.080 35 1
6 Dixie Walker BRO 0 71 336 0.21 | 556 171 6 .308 .793 3
7 Harry Danning NYG 0 64 336 0.19 | 524 157 13 .300 .803 3
8 Stan Hack CHC 0 61 336 0.18 | 603 191 8 .317 .834 21
9 Ernie Lombardi CIN 1 38 336 0.11 | 376 120 14 .319 .871 0
10 Billy Werber CIN 0 36 336 0.11 | 584 162 12 .277 .777 16

Top player: Johnny Mize led in homers and OPS by large margins, and also led in RBI. He was 5th in average.
#1 Johnny Mize, #2 Arky Vaughan, #3 Frank McCormick, #4 Billy Werber, #5 Stan Hack.

Top pitcher: Bucky Walters again, a big reason the Reds won these two pennants.
#1 Bucky Walters, #2 Claude Passeau, #3 Paul Derringer, #4 Lon Warneke, #5 Whit Wyatt.

Top rookie: Chet Ross had a strong rookie year for Boston but could never repeat it.

Top manager: Bill McKechnie, but his style would soon overwhelm the team.

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