18 August 2008

1950 American League

The Yankees won another pennant as Phil Rizzuto had his career year, a monster season. It was a season of haves and have-nots, with a four-team pennant race between New York, Detroit (3 out), Boston (4 out) and Cleveland (6 out) all winning at least 92 games, and a second division starting with Washington at 87 losses. Chicago, St, Louis, and Philadelphia followed. Not much middle ground here. Berra and DiMaggio provided the Yankee power. Detroit had a nice surprise season. Boston had to deal with Ted Williams' missing much of the season after an All-Star Game injury but still rolled up the offense. Cleveland featured power and the league's best pitching.

Billy Goodman won the batting title at .354. Joe DiMaggio led in slugging, and Larry Doby in on-base and OPS. Dom DiMaggio led with 131 runs, 15 stolen bases, and tied Bobby Doerr and Hoot Evers with 11 triples. George Kell had 218 hits and 56 doubles. Al Rosen had 37 home runs, and Walt Dropo tied Vern Stephens with 144 RBI.

Bob Lemon had 23 wins, followed by Vic Raschi with 21. Lemon had 170 strikeouts to pace Allie Reynolds at 160. Early Wynn had a 3.20 ERA, followed by Ned Garver at 3.39. Mickey Harris had 15 saves to pace the loop.

Win Shares leaders, players; Phil Rizzuto (New York) 35, Yogi Berra (New York) 32, Larry Doby (Cleveland) 30, Al Rosen (Cleveland) and Joe DiMaggio (New York) 29, Hoot Evers, George Kell, and Vic Wertz (all Detroit) 26 each, Dom DiMaggio (Boston), Jerry Priddy (Detroit) and Ed Yost (Washington) 24, Bobby Doerr (Boston) 23, Vern Stephens (Boston), Johnny Groth (Detroit) and Irv Noren (Washington) 22, Walt Dropo (Boston) 21.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Bob Lemon (Cleveland), Art Houtteman (Detroit) and Ned Garver (St. Louis) 25, Mel Parnell (Boston) 22, Early Wynn (Cleveland) and Fred Hutchinson (Detroit) 21, Ed Lopat (New York) 20, Bob Feller (Cleveland) 19, Vic Raschi (New York) 18.

WAR scores: Rizzuto 7.1 (career year), Doby 6.3, Rosen 6.0 (first full year), Berra and J. DiMaggio 5.9, D. DiMaggio 4.5, Evers (career year) and Kell (best year) 4.4, Wertz, Priddy, and Ted Williams (Boston) 4.1, Stephens 4.0, Doerr 3.9, Johnny Pesky (Boston) 3.8, Yost 3.2. Billy Goodman, second in the MVP balloting, had 16 Win Shares and a 2.8 WAR.

Pitchers, Garver 7.1, Houtteman 6.6 (career year), Parnell 5.6, Feller 4.9, Wynn 4.5, Bill Wight (Chicago) 4.2, Allie Reynolds (New York) and Joe Dobson (Boston) 4.1, Raschi and Ellis Kinder (Boston) 3.9, Lopat 3.7, Lemon, Dizzy Trout (Detroit) and Lou Brissie (Philadelphia) 3.6, Hutchinson 3.3.

Actual award voting, MVP:
1 Phil Rizzuto NYY 16 284 336 0.85 | 617 200 7 .324 .857 12|
2 Billy Goodman BOS 4 180 336 0.54 | 424 150 4 .354 .882 2|
3 Yogi Berra NYY 3 146 336 0.43 | 597 192 28 .322 .915 4|
4 George Kell DET 0 127 336 0.38 | 641 218 8 .340 .886 3|
5 Bob Lemon CLE 0 102 336 0.30 | 136 37 6 .272 .825 0| 23-11 288 3.84 1.483 170 3
6 Walt Dropo BOS 0 75 336 0.22 | 559 180 34 .322 .961 0|
7 Vic Raschi NYY 0 63 336 0.19 | 86 17 1 .198 .514 0| 21-8 257 4.00 1.356 155 1
8 Larry Doby CLE 0 57 336 0.17 | 503 164 25 .326 .986 8|
9 Joe DiMaggio NYY 0 54 336 0.16 | 525 158 32 .301 .979 0|
10 Vic Wertz DET 0 50 336 0.15 | 559 172 27 .308 .941 0|
11 Hoot Evers DET 0 38 336 0.11 | 526 170 21 .323 .959 5|
12 Chico Carrasquel CHW 0 21 336 0.06 | 524 148 4 .282 .733 0|
12 Dizzy Trout DET 0 21 336 0.06 | 63 12 1 .190 .547 0| 13-5 185 3.75 1.375 88 4
14 Dom DiMaggio BOS 0 17 336 0.05 | 588 193 7 .328 .866 15|
15 Irv Noren WSH 0 16 336 0.05 | 542 160 14 .295 .834 5|
16 Bobby Doerr BOS 0 15 336 0.04 | 586 172 27 .294 .886 3|
17 Johnny Mize NYY 0 11 336 0.03 | 274 76 25 .277 .946 0|
17 Jerry Priddy DET 0 11 336 0.03 | 618 171 13 .277 .777 2|
17 Al Rosen CLE 0 11 336 0.03 | 554 159 37 .287 .948 5|
20 Eddie Yost WSH 0 8 336 0.02 | 573 169 11 .295 .845 6|
21 Whitey Ford NYY 0 7 336 0.02 | 36 7 0 .194 .469 0| 9-1 112 2.81 1.241 59 1
21 Mel Parnell BOS 0 7 336 0.02 | 98 19 0 .194 .485 0| 18-10 249 3.61 1.406 93 3
21 Ted Williams BOS 0 7 336 0.02 | 334 106 28 .317 1.099 3|
24 Ned Garver SLB 0 6 336 0.02 | 91 26 1 .286 .706 0| 13-18 260 3.39 1.431 85
24 Art Houtteman DET 0 6 336 0.02 | 93 14 0 .151 .409 0| 19-12 275 3.54 1.296 88 4
24 Vern Stephens BOS 0 6 336 0.02 | 628 185 30 .295 .872 1|
27 Sherm Lollar SLB 0 4 336 0.01 | 396 111 13 .280 .841 2|
28 Ed Lopat NYY 0 3 336 0.01 | 82 19 0 .232 .693 0| 18-8 236 3.47 1.308 72 1
29 Ken Wood SLB 0 2 336 0.01 | 369 83 13 .225 .695 0|
30 Sam Dente WSH 0 1 336 0.00 | 603 144 2 .239 .585 1|
30 Dave Philley CHW 0 1 336 0.00 | 619 150 14 .242 .662 6|


Rookie of the Year:
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+--+-----+-----+---++
1 Walt Dropo BOS 15 15 24 0.62 | 559 180 34 .322 .961 0|
2 Whitey Ford NYY 6 6 24 0.25 | 36 7 0 .194 .469 0| 9-1 112 2.81 1.241 59 1
3 Chico Carrasquel CHW 2 2 24 0.08 | 524 148 4 .282 .733 0|

Top Player: Really a five-man race with Rizzuto, Berra, Rosen, Doby, and DiMaggio all having an argument, and tough to choose between. If you stick with the winning team, you still have Rizzuto, or Berra, or DiMaggio. I will choose Rizzuto, although there isn't much difference here.
#1 Phil Rizzuto, #2 Yogi Berra, #3 Al Rosen, #4 Larry Doby, #5 Joe DiMaggio, #6 George Kell.

Top pitcher: Bob Lemon, 23-game winner, over the better ERA of Ned Garver, who even drew some MVP votes despite a 13-18 record. Garver was 2nd in ERA with almost no help from his teammates.
#1 Bob Lemon, #2 Ned Garver, #3 Art Houtteman, #4 Mel Parnell, #5 Early Wynn.

Top rookie: Irv Noren didn't get any votes, but was a better player than the showier Dropo, tied for the league lead in RBI. Noren would become a valuable part for the Yankees, while Dropo would fall out of the league as his poor defense became too much for his power to overcome.

Top manager: Casey Stengel brought the Yankees home again.

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