22 September 2008

1957 American League

The Yankees won their third straight pennant, but lost the World Series. New York's 98 wins placed them well ahead of Chicago's 90, and Boston's 82. Detroit was 4th, Baltimore 5th, and Cleveland 6th, all around .500. It was a big rise for the Orioles, and a big drop for the Indians that signalled three decades of decline. Kansas City and Washington brought up the rear. Gold Gloves were awarded for the first time, with a combined award for both leagues like the Cy Young.

Ted Williams was a virtual one-man gang for the Red Sox, leading the league in OPS, winning the batting title with a .388 mark, and finishing 2nd in homers. Roy Sievers led the league in home runs with 42 and RBI with 118. Luis Aparicio led in steals with 28. Mickey Mantle scored 121 runs, Nellie Fox had 196 hits, Billy Gardner and Minnie Minoso had 36 doubles, and the three-way tie with nine triples included Hank Bauer, Gil McDougald, and Harry Simpson.

Jim Bunning and Billy Pierce tied for the league lead with 20 wins, while no one else had more than 16. Bobby Shantz led in ERA with a 2.45 mark, besting Tom Sturdivant's 2.54. Early Wynn led in strikeouts with 184 to Bunning's 182. Bob Grim had 19 saves.

Win Shares leaders, players; Mickey Mantle (New York) 51, Ted Williams (Boston) 38, Nellie Fox (Chicago) and Roy Sievers (Washington) 32, Gil McDougald (New York) 27, Minnie Minoso (Chicago) 26, Gene Woodling (Cleveland) 25, Vic Wertz (Cleveland) 24, Yogi Berra (New York) 23, Charlie Maxwell (Detroit) 22, Billy Gardner (Baltimore) and Al Kaline (Detroit) 20, Bob Boyd (Baltimore) and Jimmy Piersall (Boston) 19.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Jim Bunning (Detroit) 26, Frank Sullivan (Boston) 23, Dick Donovan and Billy Pierce (Chicago) and Paul Foytack (Detroit) 18, Tom Brewer (Boston) and Tom Sturdivant (New York) 16.

WARP3 leaders, position players: Mantle 12.9, McDougald 10.3, Williams 9.3, Fox 8.2, Maxwell 7.4, Minoso 5.8, Sievers 5.0, Gus Triandos (Baltimore) 4.7, Woodling 4.4, Gardner 4.2, Berra and Larry Doby (Chicago) 4.0, Kaline 3.9.

WARP3 leaders, pitchers: Sullivan 10.3, Bunning 8.2, Cal McLish (Cleveland) 5.3, Foytack 5.2, Brewer 5.1, Willard Nixon (Boston) 4.5, Donovan 4.3, Virgil Trucks (Kansas City) 4.0.

WAR leaders, position players (fWAR): Mantle 12.0, Williams 10.3, Fox 7.7, McDougald 6.8, Minoso 5.9, Maxwell 5.5, Kaline and Sievers 5.4, Woodling 5.0, Gardner 4.4, Colavito 4.0. Pitchers (bWAR): Sullivan 6.3, Bunning 6.1, Donovan and Foytack 4.1, Pierce and Sturdivant 3.9, Hoeft 3.5, Shantz 3.2, Johnson 3.1, Maas 2.9.

Actual award winners:

MVP voting| 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 Mickey Mantle NYY 6 233 336 0.69 | 474 173 34 .365 1.177 16|
2 Ted Williams BOS 5 209 336 0.62 | 420 163 38 .388 1.257 0|
3 Roy Sievers WSH 4 205 336 0.61 | 572 172 42 .301 .967 1|
4 Nellie Fox CHW 5 193 336 0.57 | 619 196 6 .317 .818 5|
5 Gil McDougald NYY 4 165 336 0.49 | 539 156 13 .289 .804 2|
6 Vic Wertz CLE 0 61 336 0.18 | 515 145 28 .282 .857 2|
7 Frank Malzone BOS 0 58 336 0.17 | 634 185 15 .292 .751 2|
8 Minnie Minoso CHW 0 55 336 0.16 | 568 176 12 .310 .862 18|
9 Jim Bunning DET 0 46 336 0.14 | 94 20 1 .213 .540 0| 20-8 267 2.69 1.070 182 1
10 Al Kaline DET 0 40 336 0.12 | 577 170 23 .295 .821 11|
11 Billy Pierce CHW 0 35 336 0.10 | 99 17 0 .172 .370 0| 20-12 257 3.26 1.163 171 2
12 Billy Gardner BAL 0 22 336 0.07 | 644 169 6 .262 .681 10|
13 Dick Donovan CHW 0 19 336 0.06 | 83 12 3 .145 .485 0| 16-6 221 2.77 1.124 88
14 Yogi Berra NYY 0 18 336 0.05 | 482 121 24 .251 .767 1|
15 Gene Woodling CLE 0 13 336 0.04 | 430 138 19 .321 .929 0|
16 Bob Boyd BAL 0 9 336 0.03 | 485 154 4 .318 .796 2|
16 Bob Grim NYY 0 9 336 0.03 | 9 1 1 .111 .644 0| 12-8 72 2.62 1.333 52 19
18 Charlie Maxwell DET 0 5 336 0.01 | 492 136 24 .276 .858 3|
19 Whitey Ford NYY 0 4 336 0.01 | 42 6 0 .143 .343 0| 11-5 129 2.58 1.292 84
19 Woodie Held TOT 0 4 336 0.01 | +327 78 20 .239 .803 4|
21 Vic Power KCA 0 3 336 0.01 | 467 121 14 .259 .676 3|
22 Harvey Kuenn DET 0 2 336 0.01 | 624 173 9 .277 .715 5|
22 Sherm Lollar CHW 0 2 336 0.01 | 351 90 11 .256 .736 2|
22 Jim Piersall BOS 0 2 336 0.01 | 609 159 19 .261 .746 14|
22 Bill Skowron NYY 0 2 336 0.01 | 457 139 17 .304 .818 3|
26 Tony Kubek NYY 0 1 336 0.00 | 431 128 3 .297 .716 6|
26 Bobby Shantz NYY 0 1 336 0.00 | 56 10 0 .179 .513 0| 11-5 173 2.45 1.139 72 5

A five-way battle, with a deserving winner.

Cy Young: Dick Donovan got one vote, while the NL's Warren Spahn got the rest.

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 Tony Kubek NYY 23 23 24 0.96 | 431 128 3 .297 .716 6|
2 Frank Malzone BOS 1 1 24 0.04 | 634 185 15 .292 .751 2|

Top player: Mickey Mantle. He didn't lead the league in a Triple Crown category, after wearing that crown in 1956, but he batted .365 (2nd) with 34 HR (3rd) and 94 RBI (6th), with 146 walks (1st) and 16 steals (4th), was 2nd in on-base, slugging, and OPS as well as OPS+, and played a good CF, while Williams played a poor LF.
#1 Mickey Mantle, #2 Ted Williams, #3 Nellie Fox, #4 Roy Sievers, #5 Gil McDougald, #6 Minnie Minoso.

Top pitcher: Jim Bunning was the best in the league in his first full season. He was 3rd in ERA and 2nd in strikeouts as well as tied for first in wins.
#1 Jim Bunning, #2 Frank Sullivan, #3 Billy Pierce, #4 Dick Donovan, #5 Paul Foytack.

Top rookie: Tony Kubek, by a slim margin over Frank Malzone based on defense.

Top manager: Paul Richards got the Orioles to respectability.

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