14 September 2008

1956 National League

The Dodgers repeated as pennant winners, their fourth in five years. It would be their last in Brooklyn. The pennant race was fast and furious, as Milwaukee finished one game back, and surprising Cincinnati was two games out of the money. The Dodgers beat the Pirates on the last day to clinch the pennant. Sal Maglie had thrown a no-hitter for Brooklyn in the last week as the Dodgers overcame a Braves lead. Cincy tied the team record for home runs in a season. St. Louis was 4th but under .500, with Philadelphia, New York, Pittsburgh and Chicago making up the second division.

Hank Aaron won the batting title with a .328 mark, Duke Snider had the lead in home runs with 43, and Stan Musial led in RBI with 109. Willie Mays led with 40 stolen bases, Snider in OPS and OPS+. Rookie Frank Robinson led in runs scored with 122. Aaron had 34 doubles, Billy Bruton 15 triples. Bill Virdon was second in average with a .319 mark, Joe Adcock and Frank Robinson had 38 HR, and Adcock was second in RBI with 103.

Don Newcombe led pitchers in wins with 27, and won the MVP and Cy Young Awards. Lew Burdette led in ERA at 2.70, Sam Jones in strikeouts with 176, and Clem Labine in saves with 19, which were not yet official. Johnny Antonelli and Warren Spahn were next in wins with exactly 20 each. Spahn had a second-place 2.78 ERA. Harvey Haddix was second in strikeouts with 170.

Win Shares leaders, players; Duke Snider (Brooklyn) 34, Hank Aaron (Milwaukee) 30, Eddie Mathews (Milwaukee) 29, Jim Gilliam (Brooklyn) and Richie Ashburn (Philadelphia) 28, Willie Mays (New York) 27, Frank Robinson (Cincinnati), Stan Lopata (Philadelphia) and Stan Musial (St. Louis) 26, Willie Jones (Philadelphia) 25, Johnny Logan (Milwaukee) 24, Ed Bailey (Cincinnati) and Ken Boyer (St. Louis) 23, Ernie Banks (Chicago), Gus Bell (Cincinnati), Joe Adcock (Milwaukee) and Wally Moon (St. Louis) 22.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Don Newcombe (Brooklyn) 27, Johnny Antonelli (New York) 25, Warren Spahn (Milwaukee) 24, Lew Burdette (Milwaukee) and Bob Friend (Pittsburgh) 20, Ron Kline (Pittsburgh) 17, Sal Maglie (Brooklyn) 16, Bob Rush (Chicago), Herschel Freeman (Cincinnati) and Murry Dickson (Philadelphia/St. Louis) 15.

WARP3 leaders, position players: Aaron 11.2, Mays 8.7, Logan and Roy McMillan (Cincinnati) 8.5, Mathews 7.6, Snider and Jones 7.4, Adcock 7.2, Musial 6.9, Gilliam 6.8, Boyer 6.7, Ashburn 6.6, Robinson 6.5, Lopata and Bailey 6.2, Banks 6.0.

WARP3 leaders, pitchers: Newcombe 8.4, Antonelli 8.3, Spahn 6.2, Friend 5.7, Kline 5.3, Dickson 5.2, Rush 5.1, Robin Roberts (Philadelphia) 5.0, Curt Simmons (Philadelphia) 4.9, Maglie 4.7.

WAR, position players (fWAR): Snider 8.1, Mays 7.6, Aaron 7.5, Gilliam 6.6, Robinson 6.4, Boyer 6.2, Mathews 6.1, Logan and Ashburn 5.8, Musial and Banks 5.4, Lopata 4.8, Adcock 4.7. Pitching (bWAR): Friend 6.3, Antonelli 6.2, Spahn 5.9, Kline 5.0, Maglie 4.3, Rush 4.2, Burdette and Newcombe 4.1, Dickson 3.6, Grissom 2.9.

Actual award winners:

MVP (top 25) | 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 Don Newcombe BRO 8 223 336 0.66 | 111 26 2 .234 .654 1| 27-7 268 3.06 0.989 139
2 Sal Maglie TOT 4 183 336 0.54 | 70 9 0 .129 .269 0| 13-5 191 2.87 1.079 108
3 Hank Aaron MLN 0 146 336 0.43 | 609 200 26 .328 .923 2|
4 Warren Spahn MLN 1 126 336 0.38 | 105 22 3 .210 .562 1| 20-11 281 2.78 1.070 128 3
5 Jim Gilliam BRO 4 103 336 0.31 | 594 178 6 .300 .794 21|
6 Roy McMillan CIN 3 96 336 0.29 | 479 126 3 .263 .710 4|
7 Frank Robinson CIN 0 79 336 0.24 | 572 166 38 .290 .936 8|
8 Pee Wee Reese BRO 3 71 336 0.21 | 572 147 9 .257 .667 13|
9 Stan Musial STL 0 62 336 0.18 | 594 184 27 .310 .908 2|
10 Duke Snider BRO 1 55 336 0.16 | 542 158 43 .292 .997 3|
11 Joe Adcock MLN 0 54 336 0.16 | 454 132 38 .291 .934 1|
12 Bob Friend PIT 0 38 336 0.11 | 97 16 1 .165 .390 0| 17-17 314 3.46 1.257 166 3
13 Hersh Freeman CIN 0 25 336 0.07 | 18 1 0 .056 .302 0| 14-5 109 3.39 1.343 50 18
14 Johnny Antonelli NYG 0 18 336 0.05 | 89 14 3 .157 .468 0| 20-13 258 2.86 1.161 145 1
14 Ted Kluszewski CIN 0 18 336 0.05 | 517 156 35 .302 .898 1|
16 Jackie Robinson BRO 0 17 336 0.05 | 357 98 10 .275 .793 12|
17 Willie Mays NYG 0 14 336 0.04 | 578 171 36 .296 .926 40|
18 Ed Bailey CIN 0 13 336 0.04 | 383 115 28 .300 .936 2|
18 Bill Virdon TOT 0 13 336 0.04 | +580 185 10 .319 .806 6|
20 Stan Lopata PHI 0 11 336 0.03 | 535 143 32 .267 .888 5|
21 Carl Furillo BRO 0 9 336 0.03 | 523 151 21 .289 .824 1|
22 Lew Burdette MLN 0 8 336 0.02 | 86 16 0 .186 .406 0| 19-10 256 2.70 1.116 110 1
23 Bob Buhl MLN 0 7 336 0.02 | 73 7 0 .096 .231 0| 18-8 217 3.32 1.361 86
23 Robin Roberts PHI 0 7 336 0.02 | 100 20 1 .200 .518 0| 19-18 297 4.45 1.238 157 3
25 Brooks Lawrence CIN 0 6 336 0.02 | 70 11 0 .157 .401 0| 19-10 219 3.99 1.285 96

A very scattered vote. Snider placed 10th but got a first-place vote. Most of the vote concentrated on Dodger pitchers Newcombe and Maglie. Pitchers took three of the top four places.

Cy Young Award: | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+--------+--+
1 Don Newcombe BRO 10 10 16 0.62 | 27-7 268 3.06 0.989 139
2 Sal Maglie TOT 4 4 16 0.25 |+13-5 196 2.89 1.092 110
3 Whitey Ford NYY 1 1 16 0.06 | 19-6 226 2.47 1.201 141 1
3 Warren Spahn MLN 1 1 16 0.06 | 20-11 281 2.78 1.070 128 3

And the same here.

Rookie of the Year: | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+---+-----+
1 Frank Robinson CIN 24 24 24 1.00 | 572 166 38 .290 .936 8|
There, that was easy.

Top player: Duke Snider was the best player in the league. His love/hate relationship with the press may have cost him some hardware, but Newcombe's 27 wins were too spectacular to overcome.
#1 Duke Snider, #2 Hank Aaron, #3 Willie Mays, #4 Richie Ashburn, #5 Jim Gilliam, #6 Frank Robinson.

Top pitcher: Don Newcombe. 1st in wins, 5th in ERA, 4th in innings. You can make a lot of arguments that it wasn't him, and I don't think he was the MVP, but it's hard to put up a good case that he wasn't the best pitcher.
#1 Don Newcombe, #2 Johnny Antonelli, #3 Warren Spahn, #4 Bob Friend, #5 Ron Kline.

Top rookie: Frank Robinson is a no-brainer with one of the great rookie seasons of all time.

Top manager: Birdie Tebbetts, getting Cincinnati to within two games of the pennant.

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