The Cubs won their last pennant to date with a mid-season steal. The Yankees put pitcher Hank Borowy on waivers, and most teams passed in disbelief. The Cubs took a flier, and got a good pitcher for their trouble. The Cubs won by three games over perennial winners St. Louis, with Brooklyn 3rd, Pittsburgh 4th, and New York 5th. Boston and Cincinnati trailed. Philadelphia lost 108 games. The late season was peppered by the return of some ballplayers from overseas as the war came to an end, with a return to something close to normalcy in the offing.
Phil Cavarretta won the batting title with a .355 average, beating out Tommy Holmes at .352. Cavarretta led in on-base, Holmes in slugging and OPS. Eddie Stanky led with 128 runs, Red Schoendienst with 33 steals, and Dixie Walker with 124 RBI. Holmes led with 224 hits, 47 doubles, 13 triples, and 28 homers.
Red Barrett led the league with 23 wins and Hank Wyse won 22. Preacher Roe was tops with 148 strikeouts. Ray Prim's 2.40 ERA edged Claude Passeau's 2.46. Ace Adams and Andy Karl tied with 15 saves.
Win Shares leaders, players; Stan Hack (Chicago) 34, Goody Rosen (Brooklyn) 31, Augie Galan (Brooklyn) and Phil Cavarretta (Chicago) 30, Tommy Holmes (Boston) 29, Dixie Walker (Brooklyn) 28, Eddie Stanky (Brooklyn) and Whitey Kurowski (St. Louis) 27, Andy Pafko (Chicago) 25, Buster Adams (Philadelphia/St. Louis) 24, Luis Olmo (Brooklyn) and Mel Ott (New York) 22.
Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Hank Wyse (Chicago) and Red Barrett (Boston/St. Louis) 24, Claude Passeau (Chicago) 22, Preacher Roe (Pittsburgh) and Ken Burkhart (St. Louis) 20, Nick Strincevich (Pittsburgh) 18, Hal Gregg (Brooklyn), Ray Prim (Chicago), Van Lingle Mungo (New York) and Harry Brecheen (St. Louis) 17 each.
WAR (Wins Against Replacement) scores: Holmes 8.6, Hack and Cavarretta 6.6, Galan 6.3, Stanky 5.6, Rosen 5.5, Walker 5.3, Kurowski 4.9, Pafko 4.1, Ott 4.0 (last good year), Jim Russell (Pittsburgh) 3.9.
Pitchers, Roe 5.9, Wyse 5.1, Barrett and Passeau (last big year) 4.9, Burkhart 4.2 (rookie), Strincevich and Brecheen 3.8, Harry Feldman (New York) and Hank Borowy (Chicago) 3.2, Bucky Walters (Cincinnati) 3.0.
Actual Award Voting: MVP Top 20
Rk Name Team Place Points Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+---------+---+-----+----
1 Phil Cavarretta CHC 15 279 336 0.83 | 498 177 6 .355 .949 5
2 Tommy Holmes BSN 3 175 336 0.52 | 636 224 28 .352 .997 15
3 Red Barrett TOT 1 151 336 0.45 | + 98 12 0 .122 .274 0|+23-12 285 3.00 1.198 76 2
4 Andy Pafko CHC 4 131 336 0.39 | 534 159 12 .298 .816 5
5 Whitey Kurowski STL 0 90 336 0.27 | 511 165 21 .323 .894 1
6 Hank Borowy TOT 1 84 336 0.25 | 41 7 0 .171 .440 0| 11-2 122 2.13 1.243 47 1
7 Hank Wyse CHC 0 72 336 0.21 | 101 17 0 .168 .356 0| 22-10 278 2.68 1.175 77
8 Marty Marion STL 0 69 336 0.21 | 430 119 1 .277 .709 2
9 Dixie Walker BRO 0 66 336 0.20 | 607 182 8 .300 .820 6
10 Goody Rosen BRO 0 56 336 0.17 | 606 197 12 .325 .840 4
11 Stan Hack CHC 0 42 336 0.12 | 597 193 2 .323 .826 12
12 Harry Brecheen STL 0 31 336 0.09 | 57 7 0 .123 .351 0| 15-4 157 2.52 1.144 63 2
13 Mel Ott NYG 0 22 336 0.07 | 451 139 21 .308 .910 1
14 Augie Galan BRO 0 18 336 0.05 | 576 177 9 .307 .864 13
15 Johnny Hopp STL 0 17 336 0.05 | 446 129 3 .289 .758 14
16 Bob Elliott PIT 0 15 336 0.04 | 541 157 8 .290 .790 5
17 Luis Olmo BRO 0 13 336 0.04 | 556 174 10 .313 .818 15
18 Buster Adams TOT 0 12 336 0.04 | +634 182 22 .287 .793 3
19 Claude Passeau CHC 0 9 336 0.03 | 91 17 2 .187 .479 0| 17-9 227 2.46 1.163 98 1
20 Johnny Barrett PIT 0 8 336 0.02 | 507 130 15 .256 .775 25
Top player: Tommy Holmes. The voters went for batting champ Cavarretta, but Holmes led the league in homers, slugging, total bases, OPS, and times on base. He was 2nd in batting and RBI, 3rd in runs. Since the Cubs won, Holmes was a longshot in the voting.
#1 Tommy Holmes, #2 Stan Hack, #3 Phil Cavarretta, #4 Goody Rosen, #5 Augie Galan.
Top pitcher: Hank Wyse in a close contest with no clear standout. Choosing a winner is a matter of balancing all the factors.
#1 Hank Wyse, #2 Red Barrett, #3 Preacher Roe, #4 Claude Passeau, #5 Ken Burkhart.
Top rookie: Ken Burkhart in a very poor field. He would never have another good season.
Top manager: Charlie Grimm, guiding the Cubs to their title.
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