13 September 2008

1955 American League

The Yankees won the pennant and returned to their accustomed place in the World Series, but lost to the Dodgers. Cleveland was three games back, with Chicago five games back. Boston and Detroit also finished over .500, a big turnaround from the previous year. The Philadelphia A's moved west to Kansas City, and finished 6th with 91 losses, while Baltimore lost 97 and Washington 101.

Mickey Mantle led in HR (with 37),on-base, slugging, and OPS, while Al Kaline won the batting title at .340 (ahead of Vic Power's .319) and the RBI lead was a tie between Ray Boone and Jackie Jensen at 116. Yogi Berra was third at 108. Al Smith led in runs with 123, followed by Kaline and Mantle at 121. Kaline had 200 hits, Harvey Kuenn 38 doubles, Mantle and Andy Carey 11 triples, and Jim Rivera 25 steals.

Billy Pierce had a big lead in the ERA race with a 1.97 mark to second-place Whitey Ford's 2.63. Rookie Herb Score led in strikeouts with 245, Bob Turley was next with 210. No one won 20 games. Ford, Bob Lemon, and Frank Sullivan led with 18. Turley and Early Wynn won 17. Sullivan led with 260 innings, and Ford had 18 complete games. Billy Hoeft had 7 shutouts. Ray Narleski had 19 saves to edge Tom Gorman and Ellis Kinder at 18 each.

Win Shares leaders, players; Mickey Mantle (New York) 41, Al Kaline (Detroit) 31, Al Smith (Cleveland) 29, Vic Power (Kansas City) 26, Nellie Fox (Chicago) 25, Yogi Berra and Gil McDougald (New York) 24, Ted Williams (Boston) 23, Larry Doby (Cleveland) and Harvey Kuenn (Detroit) 22, Sherm Lollar and Minnie Minoso (Chicago), Hank Bauer (New York) and Mickey Vernon (Washington) 21.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Billy Pierce (Chicago) 23, Frank Sullivan (Boston) and Whitey Ford (New York) 22, Early Wynn (Cleveland) 21, Herb Score (Cleveland) 19, Billy Hoeft (Detroit) 18, Bob Turley (New York) 16, Dick Donovan (Chicago), Bob Lemon (Cleveland) and Frank Lary (Detroit) 15.

WARP3 leaders, position players: Mantle 10.4, McDougald 7.1, Fox 6.9, Kaline 6.8, Power 6.2, Berra 5.6, Williams 5.3, Lollar 4.7, Minoso 4.3, Bobby Avila (Cleveland) 4.0, Smith 3.9.

WARP3 leaders, pitchers: Pierce 8.8, Hoeft 7.7, Sullivan 7.0, Wynn 6.7, Ford 6.0, Jim Wilson (Baltimore) 5.9, Score 5.8, Mickey McDermott (Washington) 4.5, George Susce (Boston) and Johnny Schmitz (Washington) 4.5.

WAR, position players (fWAR): Mantle 10.1, Kaline 7.7, Berra 5.5, McDougald and Smith 5.4, Piersall 5.3, Fox 5.2, Bauer 5.1, Doby 4.5, Minoso 4.4, Jensen 4.1, Boone 4.0, Lollar 3.9. Pitchers (bWAR): Pierce 6.8, Wynn 6.0, Score 5.8, Hoeft 5.4, Sullivan 4.7, Ford 4.5, Wilson 4.4, Wight 3.9, Lary 3.6, Garcia and Turley 3.4.

Actual award winners, MVP: 1st Max | Season Results
Rk Name Team Place Points Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+--+-----+-----+---+
1 Yogi Berra NYY 7 218 336 0.65 | 541 147 27 .272 .819 1|
2 Al Kaline DET 4 201 336 0.60 | 588 200 27 .340 .967 6|
3 Al Smith CLE 7 200 336 0.60 | 607 186 22 .306 .880 11|
4 Ted Williams BOS 1 143 336 0.43 | 320 114 28 .356 1.200 2|
5 Mickey Mantle NYY 0 113 336 0.34 | 517 158 37 .306 1.042 8|
6 Ray Narleski CLE 1 90 336 0.27 | 24 7 0 .292 .583 0| 9-1 112 3.71 1.280 94 19
7 Nellie Fox CHW 0 84 336 0.25 | 636 198 6 .311 .770 7|
8 Hank Bauer NYY 1 64 336 0.19 | 492 137 20 .278 .821 8|
9 Vic Power KCA 1 53 336 0.16 | 596 190 19 .319 .859 0|
10 Jackie Jensen BOS 0 39 336 0.12 | 574 158 26 .275 .848 16|
11 Sherm Lollar CHW 0 37 336 0.11 | 426 111 16 .261 .782 2|
12 Gil McDougald NYY 2 34 336 0.10 | 533 152 13 .285 .768 6|
13 Billy Klaus BOS 0 27 336 0.08 | 541 153 7 .283 .729 6|
14 Tommy Byrne NYY 0 24 336 0.07 | 78 16 1 .205 .555 0| 16-5 160 3.15 1.400 76 2
15 Whitey Ford NYY 0 21 336 0.06 | 86 14 1 .163 .455 0| 18-7 254 2.63 1.186 137 2
16 Ray Boone DET 0 16 336 0.05 | 500 142 20 .284 .822 1|
17 Roy Sievers WSH 0 9 336 0.03 | 509 138 25 .271 .853 1|
18 Harvey Kuenn DET 0 8 336 0.02 | 620 190 8 .306 .769 8|
18 Billy Pierce CHW 0 8 336 0.02 | 70 12 0 .171 .405 1| 15-10 206 1.97 1.099 157 1
20 Dave Philley TOT 0 6 336 0.02 | +415 124 8 .299 .789 1|
20 Early Wynn CLE 0 6 336 0.02 | 84 15 1 .179 .483 0| 17-11 230 2.82 1.248 122
22 Elmer Valo KCA 0 5 336 0.01 | 283 103 3 .364 .944 5|
23 Mickey Vernon WSH 0 4 336 0.01 | 538 162 14 .301 .835 0|
24 Billy Hoeft DET 0 1 336 0.00 | 82 17 0 .207 .525 0| 16-7 220 2.99 1.191 133
24 Don Mossi CLE 0 1 336 0.00 | 9 1 0 .111 .384 0| 4-3 82 2.42 1.212 69 9
24 Frank Sullivan BOS 0 1 336 0.00 | 89 10 0 .112 .297 0| 18-13 260 2.91 1.288 129
24 Gus Triandos BAL 0 1 336 0.00 | 481 133 12 .277 .732 0|
24 Jose Valdivielso WSH 0 1 336 0.00 | 294 65 2 .221 .594 1|
24 Sammy White BOS 0 1 336 0.00 | 544 142 11 .261 .714 1|

Berra won a close three-way race, but Mantle did not get even one first-place vote. He finished fifth. Even Vic Power got a first-place vote! And Ray Narleski, for heaven's sake!

Rookie of the Year: 1st Max | Season Results
Rk Name Team Place Points Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+-----+-----+---+--+
1 Herb Score CLE 18 18 24 0.75 | 84 10 0 .119 .280 0| 16-10 227 2.85 1.373 245
2 Billy Klaus BOS 5 5 24 0.21 | 541 153 7 .283 .729 6|
3 Norm Zauchin BOS 1 1 24 0.04 | 477 114 27 .239 .765 3|

Score won, Lary didn't even draw a vote. It's possible he wasn't considered a rookie under the rules of the time.

Top player: Mickey Mantle. It was pretty clearly the Mick, although the voters didn't see it that way because no one took OBA or SLG seriously. Mantle was the leader in OPS+ by 19 points over Kaline, who was 29 points ahead of Roy Sievers in 3rd. Instead, Berra got his 3rd trophy.
#1 Mickey Mantle, #2 Al Kaline, #3 Gil McDougald, #4 Yogi Berra, #5 Al Smith.

Top pitcher: Billy Pierce. His 1.97 ERA was way ahead of Ford's 2.63 for second. He was third in strikeouts, and three off the wins lead with a 15-10 record.
#1 Billy Pierce, #2 Frank Sullivan, #3 Whitey Ford, #4 Billy Hoeft, #5 Early Wynn.

Top rookie: Herb Score, the strikeout leader, with Frank (The Yankee-Killer) Lary 2nd.

Top manager: Casey Stengel returned to the winner's circle.

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