The Boston Braves staff of "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain" got enough rain, apparently, to win the pennant. Actually, Bill Voiselle and Vern Bickford helped out on the mound, and Tommy Holmes, Al Dark and Bob Elliott led the offense as the Braves won their first pennant since the 1914 "miracle" team. They would not win another until they moved to Milwaukee. The Braves beat the Cardinals, Dodgers, Pirates, and Giants to win the flag. Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and Chicago filled out the bottom of the standings. Stan Musial came back from an off year to nearly win the Triple Crown and lead the league in just about every batting category.
Musial was just one home run short of a Triple Crown. He led the league with a .376 average (Richie Ashburn was second at a mere .333) and 131 RBI (Johnny Mize was second at 125). He also led in on-base, slugging, and OPS, had 135 runs, 230 hits, 46 doubles, and 18 triples, all leading figures. His 39 homers were just short of Ralph Kiner and Mize at 40. Ashburn led with 32 steals.
Johnny Sain's 24 wins paced the loop. Harry Brecheen led with 149 strikeouts and a 2.24 ERA. Brecheen also led with 7 shutouts and was second with 20 wins. Dutch Leonard was second in ERA with a 2.51 mark. Harry Gumbert had 17 saves.
Win Shares leaders, players; Stan Musial (St. Louis) 46, Johnny Mize (New York) and Ralph Kiner (Pittsburgh) 30, Bob Elliott (Boston) 27, Enos Slaughter (St. Louis) 26, Jackie Robinson (Brooklyn) and Sid Gordon (New York) 25, Del Ennis (Philadelphia) 24, Pee Wee Reese (Brooklyn), Andy Pafko (Chicago) and Whitey Lockman (St. Louis) 23, Richie Ashburn (Philadelphia) and Stan Rojek (Pittsburgh) 21, Al Dark and Jeff Heath (Boston) 20.
Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Johnny Sain (Boston) 28, Harry Brecheen (St. Louis) 27, Johnny Schmitz (Chicago) 22, Johnny Vander Meer (Cincinnati) 20, Dutch Leonard (Philadelphia) 19, Rex Barney (Brooklyn) 18, Larry Jansen (New York) and Ted Wilks (St. Louis) 17, Preacher Roe (Brooklyn) and Bob Chesnes (Pittsburgh) 16.
WAR scores: Musial 11.5 (his peak), Mize 6.9 (last big year), Kiner 6.1, Elliott and Gordon 6.0, Robinson 5.5, Pafko 5.3, Slaughter 5.0, Reese 4.8, Lockman 4.7 (not quite a rookie--played too much in 1945), Heath 4.6, Gene Hermanski (Brooklyn) 4.2, Ashburn (rookie), Rojek (best year), and Dark (rookie) 3.8.
Pitchers, Brecheen 8.0 (career year), Sain 7.5, Leonard 5.4, Schmitz 5.0 (career year), Roe 4.5, Barney 4.4 (career year), Vander Meer 4.3 (last good year), Wilks 4.0, Jansen 3.9, Ralph Branca (Brooklyn) 3.3.
Actual award voting—MVP Top 20.
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+----+---
1 Stan Musial STL 18 303 336 0.90 | 611 230 39 .376 1.152 7|
2 Johnny Sain BSN 5 223 336 0.66 | 115 25 0 .217 .485 0| 24-15 315 2.60 1.207 137 1
3 Alvin Dark BSN 1 174 336 0.52 | 543 175 3 .322 .786 4|
4 Sid Gordon NYG 0 72 336 0.21 | 521 156 30 .299 .927 8|
5 Harry Brecheen STL 0 61 336 0.18 | 82 12 0 .146 .387 0| 20-7 233 2.24 1.037 149 1
6 Pee Wee Reese BRO 0 60 336 0.18 | 566 155 9 .274 .753 25|
7 Ralph Kiner PIT 0 55 336 0.16 | 555 147 40 .265 .924 1|
7 Enos Slaughter STL 0 55 336 0.16 | 549 176 11 .321 .879 4|
9 Danny Murtaugh PIT 0 52 336 0.15 | 514 149 1 .290 .721 10|
10 Stan Rojek PIT 0 51 336 0.15 | 641 186 4 .290 .721 24|
11 Richie Ashburn PHI 0 48 336 0.14 | 463 154 2 .333 .810 32|
12 Johnny Schmitz CHC 0 37 336 0.11 | 84 11 0 .131 .328 0| 18-13 242 2.64 1.169 100 1
13 Bob Elliott BSN 0 33 336 0.10 | 540 153 23 .283 .897 6|
14 Warren Spahn BSN 0 31 336 0.09 | 90 15 1 .167 .452 0| 15-12 257 3.71 1.222 114 1
15 Jackie Robinson BRO 0 30 336 0.09 | 574 170 12 .296 .820 22|
16 Andy Pafko CHC 0 25 336 0.07 | 548 171 26 .312 .891 3|
17 Johnny Mize NYG 0 22 336 0.07 | 560 162 40 .289 .959 4|
18 Rex Barney BRO 0 15 336 0.04 | 84 14 0 .167 .353 0| 15-13 247 3.10 1.277 138
19 Johnny Vander Meer CIN 0 13 336 0.04 | 78 11 1 .141 .417 0| 17-14 232 3.41 1.414 120
20 Johnny Wyrostek CIN 0 9 336 0.03 | 512 140 17 .273 .799 7|
and Rookie of the Year: | 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 Alvin Dark BSN 27 27 48 0.56 | 543 175 3 .322 .786 4|
2 Gene Bearden CLE 8 8 48 0.17 | 90 23 2 .256 .650 0| 20-7 230 2.43 1.276 80 1
3 Richie Ashburn PHI 7 7 48 0.15 | 463 154 2 .333 .810 32|
4 Lou Brissie PHA 3 3 48 0.06 | 76 18 0 .237 .506 0| 14-10 194 4.13 1.531 127 5
4 Billy Goodman BOS 3 3 48 0.06 | 445 138 1 .310 .801 5|
Top player: Stan Musial by a wide margin. Stan the Man fell one HR short of a Triple Crown, and was on a second-place team, but the voters got this right. Bob Elliott got surprisingly little support, probably because he won the award the year before. If he hadn't, he might have won for the pennant-winning year.
#1 Stan Musial, #2 Bob Elliott, #3 Johnny Mize, #4 Ralph Kiner, #5 Jackie Robinson, #6 Andy Pafko.
Top pitcher: Johnny Sain and his 24 wins dominate here. He was also 3rd in ERA and strikeouts. Brecheen was 2nd in wins and first in ERA and strikeouts, but didn't have quite the innings of Sain.
#1 Johnny Sain, #2 Harry Brecheen, #3 Johnny Schmitz, #4 Johnny Vander Meer, #5 Dutch Leonard.
Top rookie: Richie Ashburn. Voters went for Al Dark on the pennant winners, but Dark was 26, and Ashburn played better.
Top manager: Billy Southworth, managing that rotation and delicate offense.
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