03 January 2009

1965 National League

A wild race to the finish had the Dodgers finish just 2 games ahead of the Giants, with Pittsburgh 3rd and Cincinnati 4th, Milwaukee 5th and Philadelphia 6th. It was the Braves' last year in Milwaukee, their honeymoon over. Defending champs St. Louis fell to 7th, just below .500. All seven teams were still in the race until into September, and fell off one by one. Chicago finished 8th, Houston 9th, and the Mets lost 112 games for last. The pennant race was a match between Cincy's offense, LA's pitching (magnified by their home park) and the better balance displayed by the other teams. The Dodgers are regarded as one of the weakest hitting teams to win a World Series, but they actually had a good offense held down by Dodger Stadium. LA was fourth in runs scored on the road, .02 runs from second, but 8th overall.

Roberto Clemente won the batting title with a .329 average, and Hank Aaron ran second at .318. Deron Johnson leading in RBI with 130, followed by Frank Robinson at 113. Maury Wills led in steals with 94. Aaron had 40 doubles, Pete Rose 209 hits, Johnny Callison 16 triples, Tommy Harper 126 runs. Meanwhile, Willie Mays led in HR, on-base, slugging and OPS. Mays also won the MVP.

Sandy Koufax won the pitching triple crown, leading with 26 wins, a 2.04 ERA and a new 20th century record 382 strikeouts. Tony Cloninger was second with 24 wins, Don Drysdale had 23, Sammy Ellis and Juan Marichal 22 each. Marichal was second with a 2.13 ERA, followed by Vern Law at 2.15. Bob Veale was second with 276 strikeouts. Ted Abernathy led in saves with 31. Koufax led with 336 innings and 27 complete games. Marichal had 10 shutouts.

Win Shares leaders, players; Willie Mays (San Francisco) 43, Billy Williams (Chicago) and Dick Allen (Philadelphia) 33, Ron Santo (Chicago) 32, Jim Wynn (Houston) and Hank Aaron (Milwaukee) 31, Joe Morgan (Houston) 30, Willie McCovey (San Francisco) 29, Maury Wills (Los Angeles) and Johnny Callison (Philadelphia) 28, Pete Rose (Cincinnati) and Roberto Clemente (Pittsburgh) 27, Frank Robinson (Cincinnati) and Ron Fairly (Los Angeles) 26, Jim Ray Hart (San Francisco) 25, Vada Pinson (Cincinnati) and Curt Flood (St. Louis) 24.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Sandy Koufax (Los Angeles) 33, Juan Marichal (San Francisco) 30, Don Drysdale (Los Angeles) and Jim Bunning (Philadelphia) 27, Bob Gibson (St. Louis) 26, Chris Short (Philadelphia) 24, Jim Maloney (Cincinnati) 23, Vern Law (Pittsburgh) 21, Tony Cloninger (Milwaukee) and Bob Shaw (San Francisco) 19, Ted Abernathy (Chicago), Claude Osteen (Los Angeles) and Bob Veale (Pittsburgh) 18.

WARP3 leaders, position players: Mays 11.7, Wills 9.9, Rose 9.1, Aaron 8.6, Wynn 8.3, Santo 8.0, Robinson and Pinson 7.8, Allen 7.5, Joe Torre (Milwaukee) 7.2, Clemente 6.9, Leo Cardenas (Cincinnati) 6.8, Bill White (St. Louis) 6.5, Williams and Johnny Edwards (Cincinnati) 6.1, Morgan and Felipe Alou (Milwaukee) 5.9.

WARP3 leaders, pitchers: Marichal 11.6, Koufax 8.6, Bunning 8.2, Gibson 7.5, Maloney 7.4, Short 7.0, Drysdale and Bob Bolin (San Francisco) 5.5.

WAR leaders, position players (fWAR): Mays 11.5, Santo 8.5, Aaron 8.4, Williams 7.9, Allen and Wynn 7.2, Clemente 6.7, McCovey 6.5, Pinson 6.2, Rose 6.1, Morgan, Robinson, and Wills 6.0, Mathews and Torre 5.9, Alou and Callison 5.8. Pitchers (bWAR): Marichal 9.2, Bunning 8.3, Koufax 8.2, Maloney 8.0, Short 7.6, Gibson 6.4, Shaw 5.2, Law and Osteen 4.5, Veale 4.1, Ellis 4.0, Bolin 3.6, Drysdale and Linzy 3.3.

Actual award winners;
MVP (top 20): 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 Willie Mays SFG 9 224 280 0.80 | 558 177 52 .317 1.043 9
2 Sandy Koufax LAD 6 177 280 0.63 | 113 20 0 .177 .437 0| 26-8 336 2.04 0.855 382 2
3 Maury Wills LAD 5 164 280 0.59 | 650 186 0 .286 .660 94
4 Deron Johnson CIN 0 108 280 0.39 | 616 177 32 .287 .854 0
5 Don Drysdale LAD 0 77 280 0.28 | 130 39 7 .300 .839 0| 23-12 308 2.77 1.090 210 1
6 Pete Rose CIN 0 67 280 0.24 | 670 209 11 .312 .828 8
7 Hank Aaron MLN 0 58 280 0.21 | 570 181 32 .318 .938
8 Roberto Clemente PIT 0 56 280 0.20 | 589 194 10 .329 .842 8
9 Juan Marichal SFG 0 26 280 0.09 | 98 17 0 .173 .384 0| 22-13 295 2.13 0.914 240 1
10 Willie McCovey SFG 0 25 280 0.09 | 540 149 39 .276 .920 0
11 Joe Torre MLN 0 23 280 0.08 | 523 152 27 .291 .862 0
12 Billy Williams CHC 0 21 280 0.08 | 645 203 34 .315 .929 10
13 Frank Linzy SFG 0 16 280 0.06 | 18 4 1 .222 .611 0| 9-3 82 1.43 1.212 35 21
14 Willie Stargell PIT 0 15 280 0.05 | 533 145 27 .272 .829 1
15 Curt Flood STL 0 13 280 0.05 | 617 191 11 .310 .788 9
15 Jim Ray Hart SFG 0 13 280 0.05 | 591 177 23 .299 .837 6
17 Vern Law PIT 0 12 280 0.04 | 82 20 1 .244 .524 0| 17-9 217 2.15 0.999 101
18 Frank Robinson CIN 0 11 280 0.04 | 582 172 33 .296 .925 13
18 Ron Santo CHC 0 11 280 0.04 | 608 173 33 .285 .888 3
20 Eddie Mathews MLN 0 8 280 0.03 | 546 137 32 .251 .810 1
Mays, Koufax and Wills with a clear though small margin for Mays.

Koufax was the unanimous Cy Young winner.

Rookie: | 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 Jim Lefebvre LAD 14 13 20 0.65 | 544 136 12 .250 .706 3
2 Joe Morgan HOU 4 4 20 0.20 | 601 163 14 .271 .791 20
3 Frank Linzy SFG 3 3 20 0.15 | 18 4 1 .222 .611 0| 9-3 82 1.43 1.212 35 21

Top player: Willie Mays. Mays was not head-and-shoulders ahead, but he was clearly the best. It was a great year for a great player, but not quite enough to push his team to victory.
#1 Willie Mays, #2 Ron Santo, #3 Hank Aaron, #4 Jim Wynn, #5 Billy Williams, #6 Roberto Clemente.

Top pitcher: Sandy Koufax. I am tempted to commit sacrilege and name Marichal here, but the Triple Crown, even park-aided, is too much to ignore. Marichal's ERA was just .09 runs higher, even though he pitched in a tougher park for pitchers. But not this time.
#1 Sandy Koufax, #2 Juan Marichal, #3 Jim Bunning, #4 Jim Maloney, #5 Bob Gibson.

Top rookie: Joe Morgan was robbed by his home park, the Astrodome, but had a great season.

Top manager: Walter Alston won, so that makes him the candidate here.

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