1989 National League

Chicago won its second division title of the decade, but again fell short in the NLCS. The Cubs took 93 victories to best the Mets by six games. St. Louis was one behind that. Montreal was at .500, Pittsburgh lost 88, and Philadelphia lost 95. San Francisco won the pennant after winning the West with 92 victories, with San Diego at 89 and Houston at 86. Los Angeles lost 83, Cincinnati 87, and Atlanta 97. Tony Gwynn edged Will Clark for the batting title .336 to .333, and also led in hits with 203 to Clark's 196. Clark led in walks (132) and tied Howard Johnson and Ryne Sandberg for the lead in runs (104). Kevin Mitchell led in HR (47), RBI (125), slugging, and OPS. Pedro Guerrero and Tim Wallach had 42 doubles, Robby Thompson 11 triples. Vince Coleman led in steals with 65. Mike Scott led in wins with 20, followed by Greg Maddux at 19. Scott Garrelts led in ERA with a 2.28 mark that was just ahead of Orel Hershiser at 2.31. Jose DeLeon led in strikeouts with 201 to edge Tim Belcher at 200 and Sid Fernandez at 198. Mark Davis led in saves with 44. Belcher threw 8 shutouts, and Hershiser led in innings with 257. Win Shares leaders, players; Will Clark (San Francisco) 44, Howard Johnson (New York) and Kevin Mitchell (San Francisco) 38, Jack Clark (San Diego) 31, Glenn Davis (Houston), Pedro Guerrero (St. Louis) and Tony Gwynn (San Diego) 30, Bobby Bonilla (Pittsburgh) 29, Ryne Sandberg (Chicago) 28, Lonnie Smith (Atlanta) 27, Eric Davis (Cincinnati) 26, Mark Grace (Chicago), Ken Caminiti (Houston), Tim Raines (Montreal) and Von Hayes (Philadelphia) 25, Barry Bonds (Pittsburgh) and Roberto Alomar (San Diego) 23, Jose Oquendo (St. Louis) 22, Eddie Murray (Los Angeles) and Kevin McReynolds (New York) 21. Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Orel Hershiser (Los Angeles) 21, Greg Maddux (Chicago) 20, Mark Davis (San Diego) 19, Bruce Hurst and Ed Whitson (San Diego) and Joe Magrane (St. Louis) 18, Tim Burke (Montreal) 17, Mike Bielecki (Chicago), Jay Howell (Los Angeles), Dennis Martinez (Montreal) and Sid Fernandez (New York) 16. WARP3: Mitchell 10.7, W. Clark 10.3, Bonilla 8.9, Johnson 8.7, L. Smith 7.7 (last big year), Sandberg 6.9, Gwynn 6.7, Bonds 6.6, Oquendo 6.2 (career year), J. Clark 6.1, Hayes 6.0 (last big year), Raines and Brett Butler San Francisco) 5.9, Ozzie Smith (St. Louis) 5.7, G. Davis 5.5, E. Davis 5.4, Guerrero 5.3 (last good year), Grace, Milt Thompson (St. Louis) and Kevin Elster (New York) 4.9. Pitchers, Hershiser 8.1, Maddux and Howell 5.4, M. Davis 5.2, Jim Deshaies (Houston) and Doug Drabek (Pittsburgh) 5.1, John Smoltz (Atlanta) 5.0, Fernandez and Bryn Smith (Montreal) 4.8, Hurst, Whitson, Mark Langston (Montreal), Danny Darwin (Houston) and Rob Dibble (Cincinnati) 4.7, Martinez, Burke, and Mike Scott (Houston) 4.6, Magrane 4.3. WAR leaders, position players: L, Smith 8.4, W. Clark 8.3, Bonds and Johnson 7.3, Mitchell 7.1, O. Smith 6.9, Oquendo and Sandberg 5.9, Thompson 5.6, Hayes 5.1, Davis 5.0, Caminiti 4.7, Thompson 4.6, Bonilla and Strawberry 4.5, J. Clark, Pendleton, and Wallach 4.4, Raines 4.3. Pitchers: Hershiser 5.5, DeLeon, Hurst, and Magrane 4.9, Smoltz 4.3, Maddux and Sutcliffe 4.0, Howell 3.8, Dibble and Perez 3.7, Garrelts 3.5, Bielecki 3.4, Belcher and Cone 3.2, Fernandez 3.1, Mahler and Smith 3.0. Actual Award winners: MVP: 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 Kevin Mitchell SFG 20 314 336 0.93 | 543 158 47 .291 1.023 3 2 Will Clark SFG 3 225 336 0.67 | 588 196 23 .333 .953 8 3 Pedro Guerrero STL 1 190 336 0.57 | 570 177 17 .311 .868 2 4 Ryne Sandberg CHC 0 157 336 0.47 | 606 176 30 .290 .853 15 5 Howard Johnson NYM 0 153 336 0.46 | 571 164 36 .287 .928 41 6 Mark Davis SDP 0 76 336 0.23 | 13 0 0 .000 .000 0| 4-3 93 1.85 1.05 92 44 7 Glenn Davis HOU 0 64 336 0.19 | 581 156 34 .269 .842 4 8 Tony Gwynn SDP 0 57 336 0.17 | 604 203 4 .336 .813 40 9 Eric Davis CIN 0 44 336 0.13 | 462 130 34 .281 .908 21 10 Mitch Williams CHC 0 41 336 0.12 | 5 1 1 .200 1.000 0| 4-4 82 2.76 1.51 67 36 11 Lonnie Smith ATL 0 34 336 0.10 | 482 152 21 .315 .948 25 12 Jack Clark SDP 0 16 336 0.05 | 455 110 26 .242 .869 6 13 Jerome Walton CHC 0 14 336 0.04 | 475 139 5 .293 .721 24 14 Mark Grace CHC 0 9 336 0.03 | 510 160 13 .314 .862 14 15 Mike Scott HOU 0 6 336 0.02 | 75 10 1 .133 .327 0| 20-10 229 3.10 1.06 172 16 Bobby Bonilla PIT 0 5 336 0.01 | 616 173 24 .281 .848 8 17 Brett Butler SFG 0 3 336 0.01 | 594 168 4 .283 .703 31 17 Tim Raines MON 0 3 336 0.01 | 517 148 9 .286 .813 41 17 Milt Thompson STL 0 3 336 0.01 | 545 158 4 .290 .733 27 20 Scott Garrelts SFG 0 2 336 0.01 | 66 9 0 .136 .371 1| 14-5 193 2.28 1.01 119 They picked the wrong teammate on the pennant winner. Cy Young: Season Results Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+ 1 Mark Davis SDP 19 107 120 0.89 | 4-3 93 1.85 1.05 92 44 2 Mike Scott HOU 4 65 120 0.54 | 20-10 229 3.10 1.06 172 3 Greg Maddux CHC 0 17 120 0.14 | 19-12 238 2.95 1.28 135 4 Orel Hershiser LAD 1 7 120 0.06 | 15-15 257 2.31 1.18 178 4 Joe Magrane STL 0 7 120 0.06 | 18-9 235 2.91 1.24 127 6 Tim Belcher LAD 0 4 120 0.03 | 15-12 230 2.82 1.14 200 1 6 Scott Garrelts SFG 0 4 120 0.03 | 14-5 193 2.28 1.01 119 8 Rick Reuschel SFG 0 3 120 0.02 | 17-8 208 2.94 1.20 111 9 Mike Bielecki CHC 0 1 120 0.01 | 18-7 212 3.14 1.26 147 9 Mitch Williams CHC 0 1 120 0.01 | 4-4 82 2.76 1.51 67 36 I can see why the writers were confused enough to choose Davis. There was no true standout. Rookie: 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 Jerome Walton CHC 22 116 120 0.97 | 475 139 5 .293 .721 24 2 Dwight Smith CHC 2 68 120 0.57 | 343 111 9 .324 .875 9 3 Gregg Jefferies NYM 0 18 120 0.15 | 508 131 12 .258 .706 21 4 Derek Lilliquist ATL 0 6 120 0.05 | 63 12 0 .190 .397 0| 8-10 166 3.97 1.42 79 5 Andy Benes SDP 0 3 120 0.02 | 24 6 1 .250 .625 0| 6-3 67 3.51 1.23 66 5 Charlie Hayes TOT 0 3 120 0.02 | +304 78 8 .257 .671 3 7 Greg Harris SDP 0 2 120 0.02 | 19 1 0 .053 .195 0| 8-9 135 2.60 1.17 106 6 Manager: Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share | W-L Rank +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+------+---------+-----+ 1 Don Zimmer CHC 23 118 120 0.98 | 93-69 1 2 Roger Craig SFG 1 62 120 0.52 | 92-70 1 3 Whitey Herzog STL 0 31 120 0.26 | 86-76 3 4 Art Howe HOU 0 4 120 0.03 | 86-76 3 5 Jack McKeon SDP 0 1 120 0.01 | 89-73 2 Top Player: Will Clark. "The Natural" was the best player in the league, and on the top team, but a teammate led the league in RBI. That usually pulls voters' focus. Clark's Hall of Fame argument would be helped if he had rightfully won this award. #1 Will Clark, #2 Kevin Mitchell, #3 Howard Johnson, #4 Lonnie Smith, #5 Ozzie Smith, #6 Ryne Sandberg. Top pitcher: Orel Hershiser. By my count, this should be his 3rd in a row. That would help his Hall of Fame case, too. #1 Orel Hershiser, #2 Greg Maddux, #3 Mark Davis, #4 Mike Scott, #5 Joe Magrane. Top rookie: Jerome Walton. Not a good group, overall, partly because Craig Biggio had just a few too many ABs the year before. Top manager: Roger Craig. Got the Giants to the pennant.

1989 American League

It was the year of the "Earthquake Series," the only World Championship of the A's mini-dynasty. The Canseco/McGwire version of the Oakland team took 99 victories, seven more than Kansas City and eight more than California. Texas was 4th with 83 wins, Minnesota was 5th, Seattle lost 89 and Chicago lost 92. Toronto won the East, the second playoff appearance in franchise history as Cito Gaston took over for Jimy Williams in mid-season. Toronto edged resurgent Baltimore by two games, as the Orioles improved by 33 wins. Boston was 3rd with 83 wins and Milwaukee 4th at .500. New York lost 87, Cleveland 89, and Detroit 103. Robin Yount won an unusual MVP, in that he did not lead in any offensive categories and his team did not place first in any standings. Kirby Puckett edged Carney Lansford in batting average .339 to .336. Wade Boggs led in on-base, Ruben Sierra in slugging, Fred McGriff in OPS. Boggs and Rickey Henderson tied for the runs lead at 113. Kirby Puckett had 215 hits. Boggs had 51 doubles. McGriff led with 36 home runs, just ahead of Joe Carter's 35. Ruben Sierra led in triples with 14, and in RBI with 119, ahead of Don Mattingly at 113. Henderson had 77 steals. Bret Saberhagen led in wins with 23 and ERA with a 2.16 mark. Dave Stewart won 21, while Chuck Finley was second in ERA at 2.57 followed by Mike Moore at 2.61. Nolan Ryan led with 301 strikeouts and Roger Clemens was second with 230. Jeff Russell was tops with 38 saves. Saberhagen had 12 complete games, while Bert Blyleven had 5 shutouts. Win Shares leaders, players; Robin Yount (Milwaukee) and Ruben Sierra (Texas) 34, Rickey Henderson (New York/Oakland), Julio Franco (Texas) and Fred McGriff (Toronto) 30, Wade Boggs (Boston) 29, Paul Molitor (Milwaukee) and Kirby Puckett (Minnesota) 27, Cal Ripken (Baltimore), Don Mattingly (New York) and Alvin Davis (Seattle) 26, Lou Whitaker (Detroit) 25, Nick Esasky (Boston) 24, Chili Davis (California), Kevin Seitzer (Kansas City) and George Bell (Toronto) 22, Dwight Evans (Boston), Jim Eisenreich (Kansas City), Steve Sax (New York), Carney Lansford and Mark McGwire (Oakland) 21. Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Bret Saberhagen (Kansas City) 28, Bert Blyleven (California) 22, Chuck Finley (California), Mark Gubicza and Jeff Montgomery (Kansas City) and Mike Moore (Oakland) 19, Gregg Olson (Baltimore), Roger Clemens (Boston), Kirk McCaskill (California) and Nolan Ryan (Texas) 18, Chris Bosio (Milwaukee) 17. WARP3 scores: Boggs 8.0, Ripken 6.6, McGriff 6.4, Sierra 6.1, Molitor 5.9, Yount 5.8, Henderson 5.6, Puckett 5.3, Tony Fernandez (Toronto) 5.4, Franco 5.1, Harold Reynolds (Seattle) and Mickey Tettleton (Baltimore) 4.8, A. Davis 4.7, Evans (last big year) and Kelly Gruber (Toronto) 4.6, Sax and Ellis Burks (Boston) 4.3. Pitchers, Saberhagen 9.4 (best year), Montgomery 5.9, Clemens 5.6, Blyleven 5.5 (last big year), Gubicza and Bosio 5.4, Moore, Olson (rookie), and Tom Henke (Toronto) 5.4, Doug Jones (Cleveland) 4.9, Finley 4.8, McCaskill and Tom Candiotti (Cleveland) 4.7, Jeff Russell (Texas) 4.6, Dennis Eckersley (Oakland) 4.4, Dan Plesac (Milwaukee) 4.3, Ryan 4.1. WAR leaders, position players: Henderson 8.9, Boggs 8.8, McGriff 6.9, Ripken 6.3, Sierra 6.0, Franco 5.9, Yount 5.8, Molitor 5.6, Whitaker 5.5, Puckett 5.2, Lansford 4.9, Sax 4.8, McGwire 4.7, Esasky, D. Henderson, and Reynolds 4.6, Barfield and Davis 4.5. WAR leaders, pitchers: Saberhagen 8.4, Ryan 7.6, Gubicza 7.2, Bosio 6.2, Clemens 6.0, Blyleven 5.4, Candiotti 5.0, Key 4.9, Moore 4.7, Black 4.1, Bankhead, Farrell, Swindell, and Viola 3.9, Finley 3.8, Boddicker and Henke 3.7. 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 Robin Yount MIL 8 256 392 0.65 | 614 195 21 .318 .896 19 2 Ruben Sierra TEX 6 228 392 0.58 | 634 194 29 .306 .889 8 3 Cal Ripken BAL 6 216 392 0.55 | 646 166 21 .257 .718 3 4 George Bell TOR 4 205 392 0.52 | 613 182 18 .297 .788 4 5 Dennis Eckersley OAK 3 116 392 0.30 | | 4-0 58 1.56 0.61 55 33 6 Fred McGriff TOR 0 96 392 0.24 | 551 148 36 .269 .924 7 7 Kirby Puckett MIN 0 84 392 0.21 | 635 215 9 .339 .843 11 8 Bret Saberhagen KCR 0 82 392 0.21 | | 23-6 262 2.16 0.96 193 9 Rickey Henderson TOT 0 67 392 0.17 | +541 148 12 .274 .810 77 10 Bo Jackson KCR 0 46 392 0.12 | 515 132 32 .256 .805 26 11 Dave Parker OAK 0 44 392 0.11 | 553 146 22 .264 .741 0 12 Gregg Olson BAL 0 35 392 0.09 | | 5-2 85 1.69 1.21 90 27 13 Bert Blyleven CAL 0 32 392 0.08 | | 17-5 241 2.73 1.12 131 14 Dave Stewart OAK 0 30 392 0.08 | | 21-9 258 3.32 1.28 155 15 Don Mattingly NYY 0 25 392 0.06 | 631 191 23 .303 .828 3 16 Joe Carter CLE 0 23 392 0.06 | 651 158 35 .243 .757 13 17 Carney Lansford OAK 1 20 392 0.05 | 551 185 2 .336 .803 37 18 Nick Esasky BOS 0 19 392 0.05 | 564 156 30 .277 .855 1 19 Tony Fernandez TOR 0 9 392 0.02 | 573 147 11 .257 .680 22 20 Mike Moore OAK 0 6 392 0.02 | | 19-11 242 2.61 1.14 172 A very divided election, with six players getting first-place votes, including one for Carney Lansford. Well, at least he won the batting title. Cy Young (top 5): Season Results Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+ 1 Bret Saberhagen KCR 27 138 140 0.99 | 23-6 262 2.16 0.96 193 2 Dave Stewart OAK 1 80 140 0.57 | 21-9 258 3.32 1.28 155 3 Mike Moore OAK 0 10 140 0.07 | 19-11 242 2.61 1.14 172 4 Bert Blyleven CAL 0 9 140 0.06 | 17-5 241 2.73 1.12 131 5 Nolan Ryan TEX 0 5 140 0.04 | 16-10 239 3.20 1.09 301 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 Gregg Olson BAL 26 136 140 0.97 | | 5-2 85 1.69 1.21 90 27 2 Tom Gordon KCR 1 67 140 0.48 | | 17-9 163 3.64 1.28 153 1 3 Ken Griffey SEA 1 21 140 0.15 | 455 120 16 .264 .748 16 4 Craig Worthington BAL 0 16 140 0.11 | 497 123 15 .247 .718 1 5 Jim Abbott CAL 0 10 140 0.07 | | 12-12 181 3.92 1.46 115 6 Kevin Brown TEX 0 2 140 0.01 | | 12-9 191 3.35 1.24 104 Manager: Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share | W-L Rank +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+------+---------+-----+ 1 Frank Robinson BAL 23 125 140 0.89 | 87-75 2 2 Cito Gaston TOR 3 62 140 0.44 | 77-49 1 3 Tony LaRussa OAK 2 51 140 0.36 | 99-63 1 4 Doug Rader CAL 0 13 140 0.09 | 91-71 3 5 John Wathan KCR 0 1 140 0.01 | 92-70 2 Top player: Robin Yount. Another great season to spice up his career. Yount had a very broad range of skills. #1 Robin Yount, #2 Ruben Sierra, #3 Fred McGriff, #4 Wade Boggs, #5 Cal Ripken, #6 Rickey Henderson. Top pitcher: Bret Saberhagen at his peak. The odd/even paradox was mostly because they would wear him out during the good odd-numbered years, leaving him hurt for the even numbers. #1 Bret Saberhagen, #2 Mike Moore, #3 Bert Blyleven, #4 Nolan Ryan, #5 Chris Bosio. Rookie: Gregg Olson had an outstanding season, but hindsight shouldn't be required to see that the class of this class would be Junior Griffey. Manager: Frank Robinson's Orioles managed a tremendous comeback.

1988 National League

The LA Dodgers won one of the most improbable World Series ever, with seemingly half their roster out with injuries. The world did not reckon with the heroics of Kirk Gibson, the incredible season of Orel Hershiser, and the unstoppable force that was.....Mickey Hatcher? At any rate, the Dodgers took the West with 94 victories, seven more than the Reds (who were getting tired of finishing second), San Diego, San Francisco and Houston all just over .500, and Atlanta at 106 losses. New York won the East with 100 victories, 15 ahead of the Pirates. Montreal, Chicago, St. Louis and Philadelphia straggled behind. No one gave the Dodgers much chance in the NLCS, but they beat the Mets in 7 games. They were seriously overmatched against the powerful young A's in the World Series....but won in 5 games. It was a year of destiny for the Dodgers. Tony Gwynn won the batting title with an unimpressive mark of .313. Rafael Palmeiro was second at .307. Darryl Strawberry led in HR (39) and OPS. Will Clark led in walks and RBI (109). Vince Coleman led in steals (81). Andres Galarraga led in hits, doubles and total bases. Brett Butler led in runs. Kirk Gibson won a "leadership" MVP. Hershiser and Danny Jackson tied with 23 victories. David Cone won 20. Nolan Ryan led in strikeouts (228), followed by Cone with 213 and Jose DeLeon with 208. Joe Magrane topped the ERA list at 2.18, Cone was at 2.22, Hershiser 2.26 with his record-breaking scoreless innings streak. Hershiser had 8 shutouts and tied Jackson with 15 complete games. John Franco led in saves with 39. Hershiser took the Cy Young. The Win Shares envelope, please: Players; Will Clark (San Francisco) 37, Kirk Gibson (Los Angeles), Kevin McReynolds (New York) and Bobby Bonilla (Pittsburgh) 31, Darryl Strawberry (New York) 30, Barry Larkin (Cincinnati) and Andy Van Slyke (Pittsburgh) 28, Eric Davis (Cincinnati) and Brett Butler (San Francisco) 27, Kal Daniels (Cincinnati) and Barry Bonds (Pittsburgh) 26, Andres Galarraga (Montreal) 25, Steve Sax (Los Angeles) 24, Glenn Davis (Houston) and Tony Gwynn (San Diego) 23, Ryne Sandberg (Chicago), Roberto Alomar (San Diego) and Ozzie Smith (St. Louis) 22, Gerald Young (Houston) and Howard Johnson (New York) 21. Pitchers; Orel Hershiser (Los Angeles) 25, Danny Jackson (Cincinnati) 22, Greg Maddux (Chicago) and John Franco (Cincinnati) 20, David Cone (New York) and Mark Davis (San Diego) 19, Tim Leary (Los Angeles) 17, Tom Browning (Cincinnati) 16, Jose Rijo (Cincinnati), Dennis Martinez (Montreal), Doug Drabek (Pittsburgh), Rick Reuschel (San Francisco) and Todd Worrell (St. Louis) 15 each. WARP3: Gibson 8.9, Clark, Strawberry, and Van Slyke 8.7, Butler 8.3, Bonds 7.3, Larkin 7.2, O. Smith 7.2, Bonilla 6.7, Galarraga 6.5, Daniels 6.1, E. Davis 6.0, Chris Sabo (Cincinnati) 5.5, G. Davis 5.3, McReynolds and Sandberg 5.2, Alomar, Johnson, Bill Doran (Houston) and Tom Brunansky (St. Louis) 4.9. Pitchers: Hershiser 9.2, Franco 6.5, Cone 6.1, Maddux 6.0, Davis 5.9, Jackson 5.4, Randy Myers (New York) 4.8, Leary and Rick Sutcliffe (Chicago) 4.6, Kevin Gross (Philadelphia) 4.4, Rijo 4.3, Jamie Moyer (Chicago) and Mike Scott (Houston) 4.2. WAR, position players: Larkin and Van Slyke 6.5, Gibson 6.3, Butler and Smith 6.0, Clark 5.9, Galarraga 5.8, Bonds 5.5, Strawberry 5.4, Bonilla 5.3, Daniels 5.2, Sabo 4.9, Davis, Dawson, and Sandberg 4.4, McReynolds 4.1, Alomar and Davis 4.0. Pitchers: Gooden 5.9, Jackson 5.3, Cone 5.2, DeLeon and Ojeda 5.0, Leary 4.7, Mahler 4.6, Maddux 4.2, Belcher 4.1, Hershiser 4.0, Scott 3.9, Rijo and Ryan 3.8, Reuschel 3.7, Sutcliffe 3.6, Smith 3.5. Actual award voting: MVP (top 13) Place Name Team 1st Place Points 1 Kirk Gibson LAD 13 272 2 Darryl Strawberry NYM 7 236 3 Kevin McReynolds NYM 4 162 4 Andy Van Slyke PIT 0 160 5 Will Clark SFG 0 135 6 Orel Hershiser LAD 0 111 7 Andres Galarraga MON 0 105 8 Glenn Davis HOU 0 72 9 Danny Jackson CIN 0 41 10 David Cone NYM 0 37 11 Tony Gwynn SDP 0 29 12 John Franco CIN 0 23 13 Eric Davis CIN 0 14 Cy Young Place Name Team 1st Place Points 1 Orel Hershiser LAD 24 120 2 Danny Jackson CIN 0 54 3 David Cone NYM 0 42 Rookie Place Name Team 1st Place Points 1 Chris Sabo CIN 11 79 2 Mark Grace CHC 7 61 3 Tim Belcher LAD 3 35 4 Ron Gant ATL 1 22 5 Roberto Alomar SDP 2 11 6 Damon Berryhill CHC 0 3 6 Gregg Jefferies NYM 0 3 8 Ricky Jordan PHI 0 2 Best Player: the voting gave Gibson a narrow margin over Strawberry; WS likes Clark, and WARP gives Gibson a small advantage. Kirk Gibson was who I thought at the time, and he was 3rd in OPS+ behind Strawberry and Clark. I'll go with the "inspirational leader." #1 Kirk Gibson, #2 Will Clark, #3 Darryl Strawberry, #4 Andy Van Slyke, #5 Brett Butler, #6 Barry Larkin. Best Pitcher: Hershiser by a mile. It is hard to be more dominating. #1 Orel Hershiser, #2 Danny Jackson, #3 David Cone, #4 Greg Maddux, #5 Tim Leary. Best Rookie: Roberto Alomar led rookies with 22 Win Shares, based on his defensive prowess. Best Manager: Tommy LaSorda. Got to be.

1988 American League

1988 was the first of three straight pennants for the Oakland A's. The A's won 104 games and were the talk of the baseball world. "The Bash Brothers" were the biggest thing in baseball, and Jose Canseco won the MVP with a 40-40 season: 40 HR and 40 SB. If we had known then what we know now..... The A's beat Minnesota for the West by 13 games, even though Minnesota won more games than the year before, when they won the pennant. Kansas City was third at 84 wins. Following were California, Chicago, Texas and Seattle. The East featured a superb race to the finish, with Boston winning 89 to edge Detroit by one game, Milwaukee and Toronto by two, and New York by 3.5. Cleveland was 6th, and Baltimore lost 107 games, the first 21 in a row. That's in spite of having two Hall of Famers in their primes on the roster. Wade Boggs won another batting title with a .366 average, followed by Kirby Puckett at .356. Boggs also led in on-base and OPS, as well as runs with 128 and doubles with 45. Jose Canseco led in home runs with 42 and RBI with 124, was second in runs with 120, and led in slugging and OPS+. Tougher hitting home park for Jose. Puckett had 234 hits, Rickey Henderson 93 steals, and there was a three-way tie for triples. Frank Viola had 24 wins, Dave Stewart 21 and Mark Gubicza 20. Allan Anderson edged Teddy Higuera by a fraction of a point of ERA, both registering at 2.45. Viola was third at 2.64. Roger Clemens led with 291 strikeouts, followed by Mark Langston at 235. Dennis Eckersley had 45 saves and Jeff Reardon 42. Stewart and Clemens had 14 complete games each, Clemens eight shutouts. This Win Shares news just in: Players; Jose Canseco (Oakland) 39, Kirby Puckett (Minnesota) 32, Wade Boggs (Boston), Robin Yount (Milwaukee) and Dave Winfield (New York) 31, Mike Greenwell (Boston) 30, Rickey Henderson (New York) and Mark McGwire (Oakland) 28, Paul Molitor (Milwaukee) 27, Joe Carter (Cleveland), George Brett (Kansas City) and Dave Henderson (Oakland) 26, Cal Ripken (Baltimore) and Tony Fernandez (Toronto) 25, Ellis Burks (Boston), Don Mattingly (New York) and Fred McGriff (Toronto) 24, Dwight Evans (Boston), Alan Trammell (Detroit) and Kelly Gruber (Toronto) 23. Pitchers; Frank Viola (Minnesota) 25, Mark Gubicza (Kansas City) 24, Roger Clemens (Boston) and Teddy Higuera (Milwaukee) 22, Greg Swindell (Cleveland), Allan Anderson (Minnesota) and Mark Langston (Seattle) 19, Doug Jones (Cleveland) and Dave Stewart (Oakland) 18, Tom Candiotti (Cleveland), Mike Henneman (Detroit), Charlie Leibrandt (Kansas City) and Charlie Hough (Texas) 17. WARP3: Canseco 8.7 (his career year), Boggs 8.1, Greenwell 6.8 (his career year), Gruber 6.2, Puckett and Trammell 6.0, R. Henderson and McGriff 5.9, Yount and D. Henderson 5.8 (best year), Molitor and Fernandez 5.4, Gary Gaetti (Minnesota) 5.3, Ripken 5.2, Scott Fletcher (Texas) 5.1, Brett 5.0, Kent Hrbek (Minnesota) 4.6, Eddie Murray (Baltimore) 4.5, McGwire, Terry Steinbach (Oakland) and Kevin Seitzer (Kansas City) 4.2. Pitchers, Viola 8.1, Gubicza 7.8, Clemens 7.5, Swindell 6.3 (best year), Higuera 6.2 (last big year), Anderson 5.8 (career year), Langston 5.6, Candiotti 5.5, Leibrandt 5.4, Henneman 5.0 (best year), Dave Stieb (Toronto) 4.2, Jones, Bruce Hurst (Boston) and Jeff Reardon (Minnesota) 4.1, Mike Moore (Seattle) 4.0. WAR leaders, position players: Boggs 9.3, Greenwell 8.4, Canseco 8.2, Puckett 7.7, McGriff 7.2, D. Henderson 6.9, R. Henderson and Yount 6.1, Brett and Molitor 5.9, Gruber 5.8, Burks and Trammell 5.7, Ripken 5.6, Winfield 5.5, Fernandez 5.0, Gaetti, Hrbek, and Seitzer 4.8, Fletcher 4.4. Pitchers: Clemens 10.0, Gubicza and Viola 7.1, Swindell 6.9, Higuera 6.4, Saberhagen 6.3, Stewart 5.3, Candiotti and Moore 5.0, Hurst 4.6, Langston and Witt 4.4, Anderson and Boddicker 4.3, Leibrandt 4.2, Blyleven and Morris 4.0, D.Jones 3.9. Actual award voting: MVP (top 13) Place Name Team 1st Place Points 1 Jose Canseco OAK 28 392 2 Mike Greenwell BOS 0 242 3 Kirby Puckett MIN 0 219 4 Dave Winfield NYY 0 164 5 Dennis Eckersley OAK 0 156 6 Wade Boggs BOS 0 107 7 Alan Trammell DET 0 62 8 Paul Molitor MIL 0 50 9 Dwight Evans BOS 0 49 10 Frank Viola MIN 0 39 11 Robin Yount MIL 0 34 12 George Brett KCR 0 29 13 Dave Henderson OAK 0 28 Cy Young Place Name Team 1st Place Points 1 Frank Viola MIN 27 138 2 Dennis Eckersley OAK 1 52 3 Mark Gubicza KCR 0 26 4 Dave Stewart OAK 0 16 5 Bruce Hurst BOS 0 12 6 Roger Clemens BOS 0 8 Note: Eckersley had 15 Win Shares. Rookie Place Name Team 1st Place Points 1 Walt Weiss OAK 17 103 2 Bryan Harvey CAL 3 49 3 Jody Reed BOS 6 48 4 Don August MIL 0 22 5 Dave Gallagher CHW 2 18 6 Melido Perez CHW 0 9 7 Mike Schooler SEA 0 2 Best player: Jose Canseco. Boggs has some stats that are stellar, but Canseco's are just as good and his team was a bigger surprise. Both Win Shares and WARP like him. #1 Jose Canseco, #2 Wade Boggs, #3 Kirby Puckett, #4 Mike Greenwell, #5 Dave Henderson, #6 Robin Yount. Best pitcher: Sweet Music had a stellar year. Can't see how Hurst beat out Clemens in the BBWAA voting, though. #1 Frank Viola, #2 Mark Gubicza, #3 Roger Clemens, #4 Teddy Higuera, #5 Greg Swindell. Best rookie: No clear favorite. Weiss won since he was a regular for a winner. I'll go with Walt too. Best manager: Tony LaRussa, who brought home the top team in the league.

1987 National League

The St. Louis Cardinals won their third division title and third pennant of the 1980s with their familiar brand of "Whiteyball," a run-and-gun offense styled by manager and de facto GM Whitey Herzog. Whitey had first say over all player moves, and something was working. In their big park, the Cardinals went for speed and defense, with one power hitter on hand, in this case Jack Clark. Clark would have been the hands-down MVP, but he was hurt and missed the last month. That may have helped lead to some of the oddest award choices ever seen. The Cardinals outlasted their two rivals, New York and Montreal, for the division flag. St. Louis won 95 games, the Mets 92, and the Expos 91. It was a good race all year. The Phillies and Pirates were just under .500 in a tie for fourth, and the Cubs last with 85 losses, mediocre but not bad. The bad teams were in the West. San Francisco won the division with 90 victories, and the Reds were second with just 84. Houston ran third but posted 86 losses, more than any Eastern team. LA lost 89, Atlanta 92, and San Diego, just three years removed from their 1984 pennant, lost 97. Tony Gwynn won the batting title for the last-place Padres with a .370 average. Pedro Guerrero was second at .338. Jack Clark, his season truncated, still led in on-base and slugging and, of course, OPS. Tim Raines led with 123 runs, followed by Vince Coleman at 121. Gwynn had 218 hits. Tim Wallach had 42 doubles, Juan Samuel 15 triples. Andre Dawson led with 49 HR and 137 RBI. Dale Murphy was next in homers with 44, Wallach next in RBI with 123. Coleman stole 109 bases. Murphy and Gwynn tied for the lead in runs created. No pitcher won 20 games; Rick Sutcliffe led with 18, and Shane Rawley won 17. Nolan Ryan led with 270 strikeouts and a 2.76 ERA, though his record was just 8-16. It was a weird year. Mike Dunne (yes, Mike Dunne) was second in ERA at 3.03. Mike Scott was second in strikeouts at 233. Steve Bedrosian led with 40 saves and ended up taking the Cy Young. Orel Hershiser led with 265 innings, Fernando Valenzuela and Rick Reuschel tied with 12 complete games. Win Shares leaderboard: Players; Tim Raines (Montreal) 34, Jack Clark and Ozzie Smith (St. Louis) 33, Eric Davis (Cincinnati) and Darryl Strawberry (New York) 30, Dale Murphy (Atlanta) and Tony Gwynn (San Diego) 29, Pedro Guerrero (Los Angeles) and Tim Wallach (Montreal) 28, Mike Schmidt (Philadelphia) 26. Andre Dawson had 20 WS. Pitchers; Orel Hershiser (Los Angeles) 21, Tim Burke (Montreal) 20, Rick Sutcliffe (Chicago) and Bob Welch (Los Angeles) 19, Mike Scott (Houston) 18, Todd Worrell (St. Louis) 17, Andy McGaffigan (Montreal) and Steve Bedrosian (Philadelphia) 16, Lee Smith (Chicago), John Franco (Cincinnati), Nolan Ryan and Dave Smith (Houston), and Rick Reuschel (Pittsburgh) 15 each. WARP3 scores: Gwynn 9.4, Davis 8.8, Ozzie 8.5, Murphy 8.4, Raines 7.7, Schmidt 7.6, Strawberry 6.5, Randy Ready (San Diego, career year) 6.3, Clark, Barry Bonds and Andy Van Slyke (both Pittsburgh) 6.2, Juan Samuel (Philadelphia) 5.6, Guerrero and Wallach 5.4, Bill Doran (Houston) 5.3, Benito Santiago (San Diego) 5.2, Will Clark (San Francisco) 4.9. Pitchers; Hershiser 7.1, Sutcliffe 6.8, Welch 6.6, Scott 5.6, Ryan 5.0, Burke and Worrell 4.8, L, Smith 4.6, Franco 4.4, D. Smith 4.1, Dwight Gooden (New York) 4.0, Fernando Valenzuela (Los Angeles) 3.5, Bedrosian 3.4. WAR leaders, position players: Gwynn 7.6, Murphy 7.3, Davis 7.2, Raines 6.9, Smith 6.4, Schmidt 6.2, Clark 5.8, Strawberry 5.6, Bonds 5.5, Van Slyke 5.3, Guerrero 5.1, Doran and Johnson 4.4, Clark and Wallach 4.3, Hayes 4.0. Pitchers: Ryan 6.8, Scott 5.9, Hershiser 5.6, Reuschel 4.9, Welch 4.5, Gooden 4.4, Z. Smith 4.1, Sutcliffe 3.9, Sebra 3.7, Magrane 3.2, Downs 3.1, Darwin and L. Smith 3.0. Actual award voting: MVP (top 15): Place Name Team 1st place Points 1 Andre Dawson CHC 11 269 2 Ozzie Smith STL 9 193 3 Jack Clark STL 3 186 4 Tim Wallach MON 1 165 5 Will Clark SFG 0 128 6 Darryl Strawberry NYM 0 95 7 Tim Raines MON 0 80 8 Tony Gwynn SDP 0 75 9 Eric Davis CIN 0 73 10 Howard Johnson NYM 0 42 11 Dale Murphy ATL 0 34 12 Vince Coleman STL 0 20 13 Juan Samuel PHI 0 19 14 Mike Schmidt PHI 0 13 15 Pedro Guerrero LAD 0 12 Oy vey. Cy Young: Place Name Team 1st Place Points 1 Steve Bedrosian PHI 9 57 2 Rick Sutcliffe CHC 4 55 3 Rick Reuschel TOT 8 54 4 Orel Hershiser LAD 2 14 5 Dwight Gooden NYM 1 12 5 Nolan Ryan HOU 0 12 7 Mike Scott HOU 0 9 8 Bob Welch LAD 0 3 Double oy vey. Rookie (top 5) Place Name Team 1st place Points 1 Benito Santiago SDP 24 120 2 Mike Dunne PIT 0 66 3 Joe Magrane STL 0 10 4 Casey Candaele MON 0 9 5 Gerald Young HOU 0 7 A unanimous pick here. Best Player: Ozzie Smith. I thought Ozzie deserved the MVP at the time, and I still do today. Raines tops the Win Shares, Gwynn the WARP3, but Ozzie does well both places and he played for the winners. Dawson was a big whiff by the BBWAA, one of the worst selections ever. 1. Ozzie Smith; 2. Tony Gwynn; 3. Tim Raines; 4. Eric Davis; 5. Darryl Strawberry; 6. Jack Clark. Best Pitcher: Orel Hershiser, although "none of the above" might be fitting here. Hershiser was 16-16 on the eve of his monster season, but was 3rd in wins, 3rd in ERA, 4th in strikeouts, 1st in innings. It's easy to see how Bedrosian snuck in and stole this award. 1. Orel Hershiser; 2. Bob Welch; 3. Nolan Ryan; 4. Mike Scott; 5. Dwight Gooden. Best rookie: Benito Santiago, although this was his best season. Best manager: Whitey Herzog of the Cardinals, rebounding from a below .500 season to win the pennant.

1987 American League

The AL East put on a marvelous race, with Toronto leading most of the way only to fold at the end as Detroit won the division, taking 98 victories to Toronto's 96. Milwaukee was close behind with 91, while New York had 89. Boston lost 84, Baltimore 95, and Cleveland 101. The West division was ho-hum, with everyone struggling just to stay above .500. But like 1985, when Kansas City trudged through the season only to win it all at the end, Minnesota came up big in the postseason. The Twins won 85 games to take a close race with the Royals by two games. Oakland, at .500, was 4 games out. Seattle lost 84, Chicago 85, Texas and California 87 as the Angels slid to last one year after winning the West. Toronto led the league in pitching, Detroit in offense, both were good the other way too, while Minnesota was middle-of-the-pack all over. But they were obviously clutch. Wade Boggs won the batting title at .363, followed by Paul Molitor at .353 and Alan Trammell at .343. Boggs also led in on-base and OPS. Molitor scored 114 runs, followed by George Bell at 111, while Kevin Seitzer and Kirby Puckett tied at 207 hits closely followed by Trammell at 205. Molitor had 41 doubles, Willie Wilson 15 triples, and rookie Mark McGwire swatted 49 home runs and led the league in slugging. Bell led in RBI with 134 and won the MVP in spite of Toronto's late collapse. Dwight Evans was second in RBI at 123. Bell was second in homers at 47. Harold Reynolds led with 60 steals, one ahead of Wilson. Dave Stewart and Roger Clemens each won 20 games, followed by Mark Langston at 19. Langston led with 262 strikeouts and Clemens was second with 256. Jimmy Key paced the loop with a 2.76 ERA and Frank Viola was second at 2.90, with Clemens third at 2.97. Tom Henke led with 34 saves, followed by Dave Righetti and Jeff Reardon with 31. Charlie Hough led with 285 innings, while Clemens had 18 complete games and seven shutouts. Win Shares leaderboard: Players; Alan Trammell (Detroit) 35, Wade Boggs (Boston) 32, Mark McGwire (Oakland) 30, Paul Molitor (Milwaukee) and Kirby Puckett (Minnesota) 29, Don Mattingly (New York) 27, Robin Yount (Milwaukee) and George Bell (Toronto) 26, Dwight Evans (Boston) and Kent Hrbek (Minnesota) 25, Danny Tartabull (Kansas City) and Tony Fernandez (Toronto) 24, Brian Downing (California), Kevin Seitzer (Kansas City) and Carney Lansford (Oakland) 23, Wally Joyner (California), Brook Jacoby (Cleveland), Darrell Evans (Detroit), Willie Randolph (New York) and Lloyd Moseby (Toronto) 22. Pitchers; Roger Clemens (Boston) 28, Frank Viola (Minnesota) 24, Bret Saberhagen (Kansas City) and Jimmy Key (Toronto) 23, Jack Morris (Detroit) and Mark Langston (Seattle) 21, Charlie Leibrandt (Kansas City) and Teddy Higuera (Milwaukee) 20, Bert Blyleven (Minnesota) and Tom Henke (Toronto) 18, Floyd Bannister (Chicago), Dave Stewart (Oakland), Charlie Hough (Texas) and Jim Clancy (Toronto) 17. WARP3, players: Trammell 10.0, Boggs 7.6, Fernandez 7.3, McGwire 5.6, Molitor 5.5, Bell 5.4, Randolph 5.3, Rickey Henderson (New York) and Ernie Whitt (Toronto) 4.8, Lansford, Mattingly, and Jesse Barfield (Toronto) 4.7, Jacoby 4.4. WARP3, pitchers: Clemens 9.7, Viola 7.1, Saberhagen 6.9, Liebrandt and Higuera 5.7, Key 5.5, Morris and Mark Gubicza (Kansas City) 5.0, Langston and Bruce Hurst (Boston) 4.9, Stewart 4.7, Blyleven 4.6. WAR position players: Boggs 9.2, Trammell 7.9, Molitor 6.3, Bell and Mattingly 5.6, McGwire 5.4, Seitzer 5.3, Evans and Fernandez 5.1, Randolph 5.0, Jacoby, Lansford, and White 4.9, Evans 4.8, Barfield 4.6, Murray 4.4. Pitchers: Clemens 9.3, Higuera 7.4, Langston 6.5, Viola 6.2, Key 6.1, Saberhagen 5.8, Clancy 5.4, Leibrandt 5.0, Jackson and Stewart 4.9, Gubicza 4.4, Hurst 4.3, Hough 4.2, Bosio 4.1. Actual voting: MVP (top 10): Place Name Team 1st place Points: 1 George Bell TOR 16 332 2 Alan Trammell DET 12 311 3 Kirby Puckett MIN 0 201 4 Dwight Evans BOS 0 127 5 Paul Molitor MIL 0 125 6 Mark McGwire OAK 0 109 7 Don Mattingly NYY 0 92 8 Tony Fernandez TOR 0 79 9 Wade Boggs BOS 0 64 10 Gary Gaetti MIN 0 47 Cy Young: Place Name Team 1st Place Points 1 Roger Clemens BOS 21 124 2 Jimmy Key TOR 4 64 3 Dave Stewart OAK 2 32 4 Doyle Alexander TOT 1 8 5 Mark Langston SEA 0 7 6 Teddy Higuera MIL 0 5 6 Frank Viola MIN 0 5 8 Jeff Reardon MIN 0 4 9 Jack Morris DET 0 3 Rookie: Place Name Team 1st place Points 1 Mark McGwire OAK 28 140 2 Kevin Seitzer KCR 0 64 3 Matt Nokes DET 0 32 4 Mike Greenwell BOS 0 9 5 Devon White CAL 0 5 6 Mike Henneman DET 0 1 6 Nelson Liriano TOR 0 1 Best Player: It was obvious to everyone at the time, except 16 members of the BBWAA and RBI numnuts, that Alan Trammell was the top player, MVP, and whatever else. Wade Boggs might have outplayed him a bit, but for me; 1. Alan Trammell; 2. Wade Boggs; 3. Paul Molitor; 4. Mark McGwire; 5. George Bell; 6. Tony Fernandez. Best Pitcher: Roger Clemens. Another great Rocket year. Not quite as dominating as other seasons, but still ahead of the crowd. 1. Roger Clemens; 2. Frank Viola; 3. Bret Saberhagen; 4. Jimmy Key; 5. Teddy Higuera. Best rookie: Mark McGwire, easily. 49 homers! Seitzer a solid second. Best manager: props to Sparky Anderson.

1986 National League

Meet the Mets, meet the Mets. A talented team broke through and won the NL East, then the NLCS and finally a 7-game Series against the Red Sox. The Mets won 108 games, while second-place Philadelphia won 86. St. Louis dropped from the pennant to 82 losses, Montreal lost 83, Chicago lost 90, and Pittsburgh was last with 98 losses. Houston's Astros took the West with 96 wins, and went to Game 6 of the NLCS. Cincinnati was second with 86 wins, San Francisco third with 83 wins, while San Diego lost 88, Los Angeles lost 89, and Atlanta the same but with one less win. Tim Raines edged Steve Sax and Tony Gwynn for the batting title, as Raines batted .334, Sax .332, and Gwynn .329. Vince Coleman had triple-digit steals again, swiping 107 followed by Eric Davis with 80. Mike Schmidt won the MVP by leading in HR, RBI and OPS. Schmidt's 37 HR were followed by Glenn Davis and Dave Parker at 31, while his 119 RBI were trailed by Parker at 116 and Gary Carter at 105. Gwynn led in hits with 211 and tied with Von Hayes in runs at 107. Hayes had 46 doubles, Mitch Webster 13 triples. Fernando Valenzuela led in wins with 21, and Mike Krukow had 20. Mike Scott in ERA and strikeouts (and won the Cy Young). Scott's 2.22 ERA was trailed by Bobby Ojeda at 2.57 and Ron Darling at 2.81. Scott at 306 strikeouts was followed by Valenzuela at 242. Todd Worrell edged Jeff Reardon in saves 36 to 35. Valenzuela pitched 20 complete games. Win Shares leaders, players; Tim Raines (Montreal) 32, Steve Sax (Los Angeles) and Mike Schmidt (Philadelphia) 31, Keith Hernandez (New York) and Tony Gwynn (San Diego) 29, Kevin Bass (Houston) 27, Von Hayes (Philadelphia) and Kevin McReynolds (New York) 26, Eric Davis (Cincinnati) and Darryl Strawberry (New York) 25, Glenn Davis (Houston) 24, Buddy Bell (Cincinnati), Gary Carter and Lenny Dykstra (New York) and Ozzie Smith (St. Louis) 23, Dale Murphy (Atlanta) and Mitch Webster (Montreal) 22, Chili Davis (San Francisco) 21, Ryne Sandberg (Chicago), Dave Parker (Cincinnati) and Bob Brenly (San Francisco) 20. Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Mike Scott (Houston) 27, Fernando Valenzuela (Los Angeles) 21, Rick Rhoden (Pittsburgh) 20, Todd Worrell (St. Louis) 19, Bob Ojeda (New York) 18, Lee Smith (Chicago), Bob Knepper (Houston), Ron Darling and Dwight Gooden (New York) 17, Bill Gullickson (Cincinnati), Roger McDowell (New York), Mike Krukow (San Francisco), Bob Forsch and John Tudor (St. Louis) 16. WARP3 scores: Raines 8.6, Gwynn 8.4, Schmidt 7.4, Hernandez 6.8, Bass 6.3 (career year), Smith and Dykstra 6.0, Sax (best year) and Carter (last really big year) 5.9, Johnny Ray (Pittsburgh) 5.2, G. Davis 5.1, E. Davis, Webster (career year), and Denny Walling (Houston) 5.0, Hayes and Tony Pena (Pittsburgh) 4.9, Robby Thompson (San Francisco) 4.8, McReynolds 4.7, Strawberry 4.4, C. Davis and Mookie Wilson (New York) 4.3, Bell and Hubie Brooks (New York) 4.1. Pitchers, Rhoden 7.7, Scott 7.5, Valenzuela 7.2 (last year), Worrell 5.2 (rookie), L. Smith 4.8, Bob Welch (Los Angeles) 4.5, Gene Garber (Atlanta) 4.4, Ojeda and Lance McCullers (San Diego) 4.1, Gullickson, David Palmer (Atlanta) and Kent Tekulve (Philadelphia) 4.0. WAR leaders, position players: Gwynn 6.4, Raines 6.2, Hernandez and Schmidt 5.9, Bass 5.4, Hayes and Smith 5.0, Ray 4.7, Sax 4.6, G. Davis, J. Davis, and McReynolds 4.3, Webster 4.2, Pena 4.1, Davis 4.0, Carter 3.9. Pitchers: Scott 8.9, Valenzuela 6.3, Welch 5.6, Gooden 4.8, Rhoden 4.7, Ojeda 4.2, Eckersley, Fernandez, and Krukow 4.0, Knepper 3.8, Hershiser and Smith 3.7, Cox, Gullickson, and Yeomans 3.5. Actual award winners: MVP (top 15): | 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 Mike Schmidt PHI 15 287 336 0.85 | 552 160 37 .290 .937 1 2 Glenn Davis HOU 6 231 336 0.69 | 574 152 31 .265 .837 3 3 Gary Carter NYM 1 181 336 0.54 | 490 125 24 .255 .776 1 4 Keith Hernandez NYM 2 179 336 0.53 | 551 171 13 .310 .859 2 5 Dave Parker CIN 0 144 336 0.43 | 637 174 31 .273 .807 1 6 Tim Raines MON 0 99 336 0.29 | 580 194 9 .334 .889 70 7 Kevin Bass HOU 0 73 336 0.22 | 591 184 20 .311 .842 22 8 Von Hayes PHI 0 41 336 0.12 | 610 186 19 .305 .859 24 9 Tony Gwynn SDP 0 34 336 0.10 | 642 211 14 .329 .848 37 10 Mike Scott HOU 0 33 336 0.10 | 95 12 0 .126 .292 0| 18-10 275 2.22 0.92 306 11 Bill Doran HOU 0 32 336 0.10 | 550 152 6 .276 .741 42 12 Eric Davis CIN 0 21 336 0.06 | 415 115 27 .277 .901 80 13 Steve Sax LAD 0 13 336 0.04 | 633 210 6 .332 .830 40 14 Ray Knight NYM 0 9 336 0.03 | 486 145 11 .298 .775 2 15 Mike Krukow SFG 0 8 336 0.02 | 82 12 0 .146 .345 1| 20-9 245 3.05 1.06 178 Schmidt won a close race with no clear front-runner. Cy Young: | Season Results Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+ 1 Mike Scott HOU 15 98 120 0.82 | 18-10 275 2.22 0.92 306 2 Fernando Valenzuela LAD 9 88 120 0.73 | 21-11 269 3.14 1.15 242 3 Mike Krukow SFG 0 15 120 0.12 | 20-9 245 3.05 1.06 178 4 Bob Ojeda NYM 0 9 120 0.08 | 18-5 217 2.57 1.09 148 5 Ron Darling NYM 0 2 120 0.02 | 15-6 237 2.81 1.20 184 5 Rick Rhoden PIT 0 2 120 0.02 | 15-12 254 2.84 1.13 159 7 Sid Fernandez NYM 0 1 120 0.01 | 16-6 204 3.52 1.23 200 1 7 Dwight Gooden NYM 0 1 120 0.01 | 17-6 250 2.84 1.11 200 Scott edged Fernando. 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 Todd Worrell STL 23 118 120 0.98 | 7 1 0 .143 .571 0| 9-10 104 2.08 1.23 73 36 2 Robby Thompson SFG 0 46 120 0.38 | 549 149 7 .271 .698 12 3 Kevin Mitchell NYM 1 22 120 0.18 | 328 91 12 .277 .811 3 4 Charlie Kerfeld HOU 0 17 120 0.14 | 9 1 0 .111 .311 0| 11-2 94 2.69 1.21 77 7 5 Will Clark SFG 0 5 120 0.04 | 408 117 11 .287 .787 4 6 Barry Bonds PIT 0 4 120 0.03 | 413 92 16 .223 .746 36 7 Jim Deshaies HOU 0 1 120 0.01 | 43 2 0 .047 .210 0| 12-5 144 3.25 1.27 128 7 John Kruk SDP 0 1 120 0.01 | 278 86 4 .309 .828 2 7 Barry Larkin CIN 0 1 120 0.01 | 159 45 3 .283 .722 8 7 Bruce Ruffin PHI 0 1 120 0.01 | 55 4 0 .073 .164 0| 9-4 146 2.46 1.24 70 Worrell was a clear winner, but it was a talented field. There are two or three Hall of Famers here. Manager: Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share | W-L Rank +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+------+---------+-----+ 1 Hal Lanier HOU 19 108 120 0.90 | 96-66 1 2 Davey Johnson NYM 3 62 120 0.52 | 108-54 1 3 Roger Craig SFG 2 42 120 0.35 | 83-79 3 4 John Felske PHI 0 3 120 0.02 | 86-75 2 5 Jim Leyland PIT 0 1 120 0.01 | 64-98 6 Top player: Tim Raines. There are three clear favorites based on performance, and neither played for a winner. The award could go to either Raines, Schmidt or Gwynn, all are deserving. I'll bypass Schmidt because he's won before, and take Raines over Gwynn. #1 Tim Raines, #2 Tony Gwynn, #3 Mike Schmidt, #4 Keith Hernandez, #5 Kevin Bass, #6 Ozzie Smith. Top pitcher: Mike Scott was clearly the best, although having 18 wins vs. Fernando's 21 almost cost him the writers' vote. #1 Mike Scott, #2 Fernando Valenzuela, #3 Bobby Ojeda, #4 Mike Krukow, #5 Dwight Gooden. Top rookie: Todd Worrell, although others would have better careers. Top manager: Dave Johnson, guiding the contentious Mets to the World Series.

1986 American League

Boston's Red Sox were the story of the year, winning the AL East with 95 victories, then taking 7 games to defeat the Angels in the ALCS. Boston won the division over New York at 90 victories, Detroit at 87, Toronto at 86, Cleveland at 84, and 84-loss Milwaukee and 89-loss Baltimore. It was a very strong and competitive division. California had a relatively easy time of it in the West, with only Texas joining them over .500 at 87 victories. Defending champs Kansas City lost 86 and tied for third with Oakland, Chicago lost 90, Minnesota lost 91, and Seattle lost 95. The Angels gave a surprisingly good showing in the playoffs until closer Donnie Moore's meltdown. Boston had a meltdown of their own in the World Series, blowing Game 6 and losing in 7. Wade Boggs edged out Don Mattingly for the batting title .357 to .352. Jesse Barfield led in homers with 40, followed by Dave Kingman at 35. Joe Carter led in RBI with 121, followed by Jose Canseco with 117 and Mattingly at 113. Rickey Henderson led in runs with 130, trailed by Kirby Puckett at 117, and steals with 87, followed by John Cangelosi and Gary Pettis at 50. Brett Butler had 14 triples. Mattingly led in hits, doubles, total bases and OPS. Roger Clemens won the MVP and Cy Young as he led in wins and ERA, and was 2nd in strikeouts to Mark Langston. Jack Morris was second to Clemens' 24 wins with 21, and Teddy Higuera won 20. Following Clemens in ERA at 2.48 was Higuera at 2.79 and Mike Witt at 2.84. Dave Righetti led in saves with 46. Morris tossed six shutouts, and Tom Candiotti had 17 complete games. Win Shares leaders, players; Wade Boggs (Boston) 37, Don Mattingly (New York) 34, Cal Ripken (Baltimore), Jim Rice (Boston), Joe Carter (Cleveland) and Jesse Barfield (Toronto) 28, Alan Trammell (Detroit), Kirby Puckett (Minnesota) and Rickey Henderson (New York) 26, Tony Bernazard (Cleveland) 25, Dwight Evans (Boston), Pete O'Brien (Texas) and Tony Fernandez (Toronto) 24, Brian Downing (California), Robin Yount (Milwaukee), Gary Gaetti (Minnesota) and George Bell (Toronto) 23, Marty Barrett (Boston) 22, Wally Joyner (California), Brook Jacoby (Cleveland) and Jose Canseco (Oakland) 21. Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Roger Clemens (Boston) 29, Teddy Higuera (Milwaukee) 25, Mike Witt (California) 23, Mark Eichhorn (Toronto) 21, Jack Morris (Detroit) and Dave Righetti (New York) 20, Kirk McCaskill (California) and Bert Blyleven (Minnesota) 18, Tom Candiotti (Cleveland) 17, Bruce Hurst (Boston) 16. WARP3 scores: Barfield 8.5 (best year), Mattingly and Ripken 8.3, Trammell 7.9, Boggs 7.4, Henderson 7.0, Lou Whitaker (Detroit) 5.7, Fernandez 5.6, Bernazard 5.4 (best year), Carter 5.2 (best year), Rice 5.1 (last good year), Dick Schofield (California) 5.0, Gary Pettis (California) 4.9, Gaetti 4.8 (best year), Scott Fletcher (Texas) 4.6, Frank White (Kansas City) 4.3, Tony Phillips (Oakland) and Lance Parrish (Detroit) 4.1. Pitchers, Clemens 9.0, Higuera 8.6 (career year), Eichhorn 8.1 (career year), Righetti 6.0 (career year), Witt 5.7 (career year), Blyleven and Hurst 5.4, Mike Moore (Seattle) 4.8, Candiotti and Jimmy Key (Toronto) 4.6, Oil Can Boyd (Boston) 4.5, Morris 4.2, Greg Harris (Texas) 4.1, McCaskill 4.0 (best year). WAR leaders, position players: Boggs 8.2, Barfield 7.9, Mattingly 7.7, Ripken 7.4, Henderson 6.9, Trammell 6.1, Rice 5.9, Gaetti and Puckett 5.7, Carter 5.3, Fernandez 5.0, Evans and Whitaker 4.9, O'Brien 4.7, White 4.6, Fletcher, Murray, and Pettis 4.5. Pitchers, Clemens 8.0, Witt 6.8, Higuera 5.7, McCaskill 5.6, Eichhorn 5.3, Candiotti and Hurst 4.8, Leibrandt 4.3, Langston 4.3, Key, Moore, and Morris 3.9, Blyleven and Correia 3.8, Henke and Viola 3.7, Clancy 3.5. Actual award winners: MVP (top 15): | 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 Roger Clemens BOS 19 339 392 0.86 | | 24-4 254 2.48 0.97 238 2 Don Mattingly NYY 5 258 392 0.66 | 677 238 31 .352 .967 0 3 Jim Rice BOS 4 241 392 0.61 | 618 200 20 .324 .874 0 4 George Bell TOR 0 125 392 0.32 | 641 198 31 .309 .881 7 5 Jesse Barfield TOR 0 107 392 0.27 | 589 170 40 .289 .927 8 6 Kirby Puckett MIN 0 105 392 0.27 | 680 223 31 .328 .903 20 7 Wade Boggs BOS 0 87 392 0.22 | 580 207 8 .357 .939 0 8 Wally Joyner CAL 0 74 392 0.19 | 593 172 22 .290 .805 5 9 Joe Carter CLE 0 72 392 0.18 | 663 200 29 .302 .849 29 10 Dave Righetti NYY 0 71 392 0.18 | | 8-8 107 2.45 1.15 83 46 11 Doug DeCinces CAL 0 56 392 0.14 | 512 131 26 .256 .784 2 12 Mike Witt CAL 0 34 392 0.09 | | 18-10 269 2.84 1.08 208 13 Don Baylor BOS 0 32 392 0.08 | 585 139 31 .238 .783 3 14 Tony Fernandez TOR 0 17 392 0.04 | 687 213 10 .310 .766 25 15 Teddy Higuera MIL 0 7 392 0.02 | | 20-11 248 2.79 1.21 207 Clemens a clear winner over Mattingly and Rice. Cy Young: | Season Results Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+ 1 Roger Clemens BOS 28 140 140 1.00 | 24-4 254 2.48 0.97 238 2 Teddy Higuera MIL 0 42 140 0.30 | 20-11 248 2.79 1.21 207 3 Mike Witt CAL 0 35 140 0.25 | 18-10 269 2.84 1.08 208 4 Dave Righetti NYY 0 20 140 0.14 | 8-8 107 2.45 1.15 83 46 5 Jack Morris DET 0 13 140 0.09 | 21-8 267 3.27 1.16 223 6 Mark Eichhorn TOR 0 2 140 0.01 | 14-6 157 1.72 0.96 166 10 Easy victory for Clemens here. 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 Jose Canseco OAK 16 110 140 0.79 | 600 144 33 .240 .775 15 2 Wally Joyner CAL 12 98 140 0.70 | 593 172 22 .290 .805 5 3 Mark Eichhorn TOR 0 23 140 0.16 | | 14-6 157 1.72 0.96 166 10 4 Cory Snyder CLE 0 16 140 0.11 | 416 113 24 .272 .799 2 5 Danny Tartabull SEA 0 4 140 0.03 | 511 138 25 .270 .836 4 6 Ruben Sierra TEX 0 1 140 0.01 | 382 101 16 .264 .779 7 Canseco by a slim margin over Joyner. Manager: Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share | W-L Rank +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+------+---------+-----+ 1 John McNamara BOS 13 95 140 0.68 | 95-66 1 2 Bobby Valentine TEX 12 90 140 0.64 | 87-75 2 3 Gene Mauch CAL 2 44 140 0.31 | 92-70 1 4 Pat Corrales CLE 1 18 140 0.13 | 84-78 5 5 Lou Piniella NYY 0 5 140 0.04 | 90-72 2 Top player: Wade Boggs takes the crown for the pennant winners. Mattingly had a bit more offensive value, but Boggs at 3B adds more on defense. #1 Wade Boggs, #2 Don Mattingly, #3 Jesse Barfield, #4 Cal Ripken, #5 Rickey Henderson, #6 Alan Trammell. Top pitcher: Roger Clemens. Clemens had all the stats and led a winner. #1 Roger Clemens, #2 Ted Higuera, #3 Mark Eichhorn, #4 Mike Witt, #5 Jack Morris. Top rookie: Wally Joyner was just a bit better than Jose Canseco. Top manager: John McNamara brought the Red Sox home in a tough field.

1985 National League

The St. Louis Cardinals returned to the top spot, winning 101 games and surviving a heated race with the Mets by a three-game margin. Montreal was third with 84 wins, followed by Chicago, Philadelphia, and the empty husk of Pittsburgh, as the Pirates lost 104 games in the midst of a cocaine-induced collapse. Los Angeles took the West with 95 victories, ahead of resurgent Cincinnati's 89. Houston and San Diego tied for third with 83 wins, Atlanta was 5th with 96 losses, and San Francisco last with 100 defeats. Willie McGee easily won the batting title and also led in hits and triples, and copped the MVP award. McGee hit .353 to Pedro Guerrero's and Tim Raines's .320. Dale Murphy led in HR and runs, Hitting 37 homers to Dave Parker's 34, and Parker led in doubles and RBI, with 125 to Murphy's 111 and Tom Herr's 110. Guerrero led in OPS. Vince Coleman stole 110 bases. Dwight Gooden won a pitcher's Triple Crown by leading in wins, ERA and strikeouts, easily taking the Cy Young. He did this as the second-youngest player in the league. He was actually the youngest real player, as younger Jose Gonzalez only accumulated 11 at bats. Gooden had 24 wins to 21 for Joaquin Andujar and John Tudor as Tom Browning won 20. Gooden's 1.53 ERA was followed by Tudor at 1.93 and Orel Hershiser at 2.03. Gooden had 268 strikeouts, Mario Soto 214. Jeff Reardon led with 41 saves. Win Shares leaders, players; Tim Raines (Montreal) and Willie McGee (St. Louis) 36, Pedro Guerrero (Los Angeles) 35, Gary Carter (Montreal) 33, Dale Murphy (Atlanta) 31, Tommy Herr (St. Louis) 30, Dave Parker (Cincinnati) 29, Ryne Sandberg (Chicago) and Bill Doran (Houston) 28, Keith Hernandez (New York) 27, Mike Scioscia (Los Angeles) and Mike Schmidt (Philadelphia) 26, Ozzie Smith (St. Louis) 25, Vance Law (Montreal) and Darryl Strawberry (New York) 24, Mike Marshall (Los Angeles) and Tim Wallach (Montreal) 23, Jack Clark (St. Louis) 22, Ron Oester (Cincinnati), Jose Cruz (Houston), Juan Samuel (Philadelphia) and Garry Templeton (San Diego) 21. Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Dwight Gooden (New York) 33, John Tudor (St. Louis) 27, Orel Hershiser (Los Angeles) 23, Fernando Valenzuela (Los Angeles) 21, Rick Reuschel (Pittsburgh) 20, Tom Browning (Cincinnati) 18, Rick Mahler (Atlanta), Lee Smith (Chicago) and Ron Darling (New York) 17, John Franco (Cincinnati), Bryn Smith (Montreal) and Danny Cox (St. Louis) 16. WARP3 scores: Guerrero 9.7 (best year), Raines 9.5, Smith 7.9, McGee (best year) and Carter 7.8, Scioscia 6.1 (best year), Sandberg 6.0, Wallach 5.9, Doran (best year) and Hernandez 5.8, Templeton 5.7, Schmidt and Strawberry 5.5, Herr 5.4 (best year), Marshall 5.2 (career year), Murphy 5.1, Law 5.0 (career year), Parker 4.8, Oester 4.5 (best year), Tony Gwynn (San Diego) and Andy Van Slyke (St. Louis) 4.4. Pitchers, Gooden 11.7, Tudor 7.9, Reuschel 7.8, Mahler 5.8, Hershiser 5.6, Valenzuela 5.3, Franco 4.5, Dennis Eckersley (Chicago) and Bob Welch (Los Angeles) 4.4, Kevin Gross (Philadelphia) 4.3, Shane Rawley (Philadelphia) 4.2, Tim Burke (Montreal) 4.1. WAR, position players: Guerrero 7.9, Raines 7.3, McGee 7.2, Carter 6.7, Sandberg 6.0, Scioscia and Smith 5.6, Parker 5.4, Schmidt 5.3, Herr and Wallach 5.2, Doran and Hernandez 5.1, Murphy 4.7, Gwynn 4.3. Pitchers: Gooden 9.0, Tudor 6.7, Hershiser and Valenzuela 5.4, Reuschel 5.3, Smith 5.1, Ryan 4.6, Eckersley 4.4, Gross 4.0, Cox 3.5, Andujar, Browning, Denny, and Soto 3.4, Krukow and Mahler 3.3. Actual award winners: MVP (top 15): | 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 McGee STL 14 280 336 0.83 | 612 216 10 .353 .887 56 2 Dave Parker CIN 6 220 336 0.65 | 635 198 34 .312 .916 5 3 Pedro Guerrero LAD 3 208 336 0.62 | 487 156 33 .320 .999 12 4 Dwight Gooden NYM 1 162 336 0.48 | 93 21 1 .226 .545 0| 24-4 277 1.53 0.97 268 5 Tom Herr STL 0 119 336 0.35 | 596 180 8 .302 .795 31 6 Gary Carter NYM 0 116 336 0.35 | 555 156 32 .281 .853 1 7 Dale Murphy ATL 0 63 336 0.19 | 616 185 37 .300 .927 10 8 Keith Hernandez NYM 0 61 336 0.18 | 593 183 10 .309 .814 3 8 John Tudor STL 0 61 336 0.18 | 94 13 0 .138 .395 0| 21-8 275 1.93 0.94 169 10 Jack Clark STL 0 20 336 0.06 | 442 124 22 .281 .895 1 11 Vince Coleman STL 0 16 336 0.05 | 636 170 1 .267 .655 110 12 Tim Raines MON 0 15 336 0.04 | 575 184 11 .320 .880 70 13 Ryne Sandberg CHC 0 14 336 0.04 | 609 186 26 .305 .868 54 14 Hubie Brooks MON 0 11 336 0.03 | 605 163 13 .269 .723 6 14 Mike Marshall LAD 0 11 336 0.03 | 518 152 28 .293 .857 3 McGee won a close vote. Cy Young: | Season Results Rk Name Team 1stPlace Points Max Points Share| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+ 1 Dwight Gooden NYM 24 120 120 1.00 | 24-4 277 1.53 0.97 268 2 John Tudor STL 0 65 120 0.54 | 21-8 275 1.93 0.94 169 3 Orel Hershiser LAD 0 17 120 0.14 | 19-3 240 2.03 1.03 157 4 Joaquin Andujar STL 0 6 120 0.05 | 21-12 270 3.40 1.29 112 5 Fernando Valenzuela LAD 0 4 120 0.03 | 17-10 272 2.45 1.15 208 6 Tom Browning CIN 0 3 120 0.02 | 20-9 261 3.55 1.21 155 7 Jeff Reardon MON 0 1 120 0.01 | 2-8 88 3.18 1.07 67 41 Gooden was a deserving unanimous choice, and Tudor was a clear second with a year that would have won the award most years. 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 Vince Coleman STL 24 120 120 1.00 | 636 170 1 .267 .655 110 2 Tom Browning CIN 0 72 120 0.60 | 88 17 0 .193 .467 0| 20-9 261 3.55 1.21 155 3 Mariano Duncan LAD 0 9 120 0.08 | 562 137 6 .244 .633 38 4 Chris Brown SFG 0 7 120 0.06 | 432 117 16 .271 .787 2 5 Glenn Davis HOU 0 3 120 0.02 | 350 95 20 .271 .807 0 6 Roger McDowell NYM 0 2 120 0.02 | 19 3 0 .158 .411 0| 6-5 127 2.83 1.14 70 17 6 Joe Orsulak PIT 0 2 120 0.02 | 397 119 0 .300 .707 24 8 Joe Hesketh MON 0 1 120 0.01 | 44 4 0 .091 .258 0| 10-5 155 2.49 1.09 113 Coleman was a unanimous choice with his triple-digit steals. Manager: Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share | W-L Rank +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+------+---------+-----+ 1 Whitey Herzog STL 11 86 120 0.72 | 101-61 1 2 Pete Rose CIN 10 85 120 0.71 | 89-72 2 3 Tommy Lasorda LAD 3 39 120 0.32 | 95-67 1 4 Davey Johnson NYM 0 4 120 0.03 | 98-64 2 5 Buck Rodgers MON 0 2 120 0.02 | 84-77 3 Herzog edged Rose in a virtual dead heat. Top player: Pedro Guerrero. He was the top hitter in the league, and played for a division winner. Raines could have been the pick, but the difference in the meta-stats is not statistically significant, and Guerrero's team won something. #1 Pedro Guerrero, #2 Tim Raines, #3 Willie McGee, #4 Gary Carter, #5 Dale Murphy, #6 Ryne Sandberg. Top pitcher: Dwight Gooden, with one of the best years in recent memory. Only that could relegate Tudor's great year to #2. #1 Dwight Gooden, #2 John Tudor, #3 Rick Reuschel, #4 Orel Hershiser, #5 Fernando Valenzuela. Top rookie: Tom Browning and his 20 wins, although Coleman's showy steal total for a winner took all the attention. Top manager: Whitey Herzog, guiding the Cardinals in.

1985 American League

With their fine 1970s team fading, the Kansas City Royals finally won a World Championship, behind a terrific pitching staff and an offense that had George Brett and not much else. The Royals won 91 times to edge the Angels in the AL West by a game, then took the ALCS and the World Series in 7 games each. None of it was easy, but it was quite a ride. The White Sox were third in the West with 85 wins, Minnesota and Oakland tied for fourth, Seattle was 6th and Texas lost 99 times to finish last. The AL East was where the action was supposed to be, with Toronto posting 99 wins to beat New York by two games, followed by Detroit, Baltimore and Boston, with Milwaukee 6th and Cleveland bringing up the rear with 102 losses. Wade Boggs won the batting title with a .368 average and led in on-base, while George Brett was second with a .335 mark and led in slugging and OPS. Darrell Evans led in HR with 40, followed by Carlton Fisk at 37. Don Mattingly led in RBI with 145, doubles with 48 and total bases. Eddie Murray was second with 124 RBI. Rickey Henderson led in steals with 80 and runs with 146. Boggs had 240 hits and Willie Wilson 21 triples. Ron Guidry led in wins with 22 followed by Bret Saberhagen with 20. Dave Stieb led in ERA with 2.48, followed by Charlie Liebrandt at 2.69 and Saberhagen at 2.87. Bert Blyleven led in strikeouts with 206 and Floyd Bannister was second with 198. Dan Quisenberry led in saves with 37. Blyleven pitched 24 complete games and five shutouts. Win Shares leaders, players; Rickey Henderson (New York) 38, George Brett (Kansas City) 37, Don Mattingly (New York) 32, Wade Boggs (Boston) 31, Eddie Murray (Baltimore) 28, Phil Bradley (Seattle) and Jesse Barfield (Toronto) 26, Cal Ripken (Baltimore) and Harold Baines (Chicago) 25, Carlton Fisk (Chicago), Kirk Gibson and Lou Whitaker (Detroit) 24, Brett Butler (Cleveland) and Mike Davis (Oakland) 23, Alvin Davis (Seattle) 22, Dwight Evans (Boston), Brian Downing (California), Paul Molitor (Milwaukee), Dave Winfield (New York), and George Bell, Tony Fernandez, and Lloyd Moseby (Toronto) 21. Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Charlie Liebrandt and Bret Saberhagen (Kansas City) and Dave Stieb (Toronto) 24, Dan Quisenberry (Kansas City) and Bert Blyleven (Cleveland/Minnesota) 23, Bob James (Chicago) 22, Charlie Hough (Texas) 21, Donnie Moore (California) and Doyle Alexander (Toronto) 20, Willie Hernandez and Jack Morris (Detroit), Mike Moore (Seattle) and Jimmy Key (Toronto) 19. WARP3 scores: Henderson 9.7, Barfield 8.1, Brett 7.7, Boggs 7.6, Mattingly 7.3, Ripken 6.9, Fernandez 6.3, Rich Gedman (Boston) 5.9, Murray 5.8, Willie Randolph (New York) 5.7, M. Davis 5.3 (career year), Evans 4.8, Whitaker and Butler 4.5, Gibson 4.4, Lance Parrish (Detroit) 4.3, Bradley (best year), Fisk, and Alan Trammell (Detroit) 4.1. Pitchers, Saberhagen 7.5, Liebrandt 7.2 (best year), Hough 7.0 (best year), Quisenberry (best year) and Oil Can Boyd (Boston) 6.4, Moore 5.5 (career year), Tom Seaver (Chicago) 5.3, Stieb 5.1, Jay Howell (Oakland) 4.5, Morris, Dave Righetti and Ron Guidry (both New York) 4.4, Blyleven 4.2. WAR leaders, position players: Henderson 10.2, Boggs 9.4, Brett 8.8, Barfield 7.5, Mattingly 6.6, Gedman and Murray 6.0, Ripken 5.9, Gibson 5.8, Davis 5.4, Bradley 5.3, Whitaker 5.2, Randolph 4.7, Evans, Evans, and Fernandez 4.6, Harrah and Parrish 4.5. Pitchers: Blyleven 7.7, Saberhagen 6.8, Moore 6.0, Boyd 5.7, Jackson 5.2, Guidry and Stieb 5.1, Terrell 4.9, Liebrandt and Viola 4.8, Morris, Seaver, and Witt 4.7, Alexander 4.6, Burns 4.5, Hough 4.4, Black, Hurst, and Smithson 4.2. Actual award voting: MVP (top 15): | 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 Mattingly NYY 23 367 392 0.94 | 652 211 35 .324 .939 2 2 George Brett KCR 5 274 392 0.70 | 550 184 30 .335 1.022 9 3 Rickey Henderson NYY 0 174 392 0.44 | 547 172 24 .314 .934 80 4 Wade Boggs BOS 0 159 392 0.41 | 653 240 8 .368 .928 2 5 Eddie Murray BAL 0 130 392 0.33 | 583 173 31 .297 .906 5 6 Donnie Moore CAL 0 96 392 0.24 | | 8-8 103 1.92 1.09 72 31 7 Jesse Barfield TOR 0 88 392 0.22 | 539 156 27 .289 .905 22 8 George Bell TOR 0 84 392 0.21 | 607 167 28 .275 .807 21 9 Harold Baines CHW 0 49 392 0.12 | 640 198 22 .309 .815 1 10 Bret Saberhagen KCR 0 45 392 0.11 | | 20-6 235 2.87 1.06 158 11 Dan Quisenberry KCR 0 39 392 0.10 | | 8-9 129 2.37 1.22 54 37 12 Dave Winfield NYY 0 35 392 0.09 | 633 174 26 .275 .799 19 13 Carlton Fisk CHW 0 29 392 0.07 | 543 129 37 .238 .808 17 14 Darrell Evans DET 0 17 392 0.04 | 505 125 40 .248 .875 0 15 Ron Guidry NYY 0 15 392 0.04 | | 22-6 259 3.27 1.10 143 Mattingly handily won the BBWAA voting. Cy Young (top 5): | Season Results Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+ 1 Bret Saberhagen KCR 23 127 140 0.91 | 20-6 235 2.87 1.06 158 2 Ron Guidry NYY 4 88 140 0.63 | 22-6 259 3.27 1.10 143 3 Bert Blyleven TOT 1 9 140 0.06 |+17-16 294 3.16 1.15 206 3 Dan Quisenberry KCR 0 9 140 0.06 | 8-9 129 2.37 1.22 54 37 5 Charlie Leibrandt KCR 0 7 140 0.05 | 17-9 238 2.69 1.22 108 Saberhagen over Guidry in a fairly close race. 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 Ozzie Guillen CHW 16 101 140 0.72 | 491 134 1 .273 .650 7 2 Teddy Higuera MIL 9 67 140 0.48 | | 15-8 212 3.90 1.17 127 3 Ernest Riles MIL 0 29 140 0.21 | 448 128 5 .286 .717 2 4 Oddibe McDowell TEX 1 25 140 0.18 | 406 97 18 .239 .735 25 5 Stew Cliburn CAL 1 16 140 0.11 | | 9-3 99 2.09 1.14 48 6 6 Brian Fisher NYY 0 7 140 0.05 | | 4-4 98 2.38 1.08 85 14 7 Tom Henke TOR 1 5 140 0.04 | | 3-3 40 2.02 0.92 42 13 8 Mark Salas MIN 0 2 140 0.01 | 360 108 9 .300 .791 0 Guillen and Higuera led a weak field. Manager: Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share | W-L Rank +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+------+---------+-----+ 1 Bobby Cox TOR 16 104 140 0.74 | 99-62 1 2 Dick Howser KCR 4 66 140 0.47 | 91-71 1 3 Gene Mauch CAL 8 57 140 0.41 | 90-72 2 4 Billy Martin NYY 0 19 140 0.14 | 91-54 2 5 Jackie Moore OAK 0 4 140 0.03 | 77-85 5 6 Tony LaRussa CHW 0 1 140 0.01 | 85-77 3 6 John McNamara BOS 0 1 140 0.01 | 81-81 5 Top player: Rickey Henderson emerges as the best player this year. Mattingly won the MVP for his RBI, but it was Henderson giving him someone to drive in so often. #1 Rickey Henderson, #2 George Brett, #3 Don Mattingly, #4 Wade Boggs, #5 Jesse Barfield, #6 Cal Ripken. Top pitcher: Bret Saberhagen, 20-game winner for the Royals. #1 Bret Saberhagen, #2 Charlie Liebrandt, #3 Dan Quisenberry, #4 Bert Blyleven, #5 Dave Stieb. The Royals won on their pitching, which is why the top three pitchers are Royals. Top rookie: Ozzie Guillen is the right choice, by a slim margin. He had 15 Win Shares to Teddy Higuera's 14. Top manager: Bobby Cox managed Toronto to their first title of any kind. KC's Dick Howser was great too.

1984 National League

It was Ryne Sandberg's year, all year long. The Cubs hadn't won anything since the 1945 pennant, and after blowing it so big in 1969 it all seemed to fall into place...including their exceptional second baseman. Even more, Rick Sutcliffe arrived in a June 13 trade and went 16-1 the rest of the way, winning the Cy Young Award for his trouble. The Cubs won 96 games, while the Mets took second with 90 wins. St. Louis won 84, while Philadelphia was 4th at .500. Montreal was 5th, Pittsburgh last while in the throes of a drug-enduced collapse. Then the Padres won the NLCS. They had a young star of their own in Tony Gwynn, but the Chicago faithful just thought it wasn't fair. Destiny again denied the Cubbies. The Padres took the West with 92 wins, and no other team was over .500. Atlanta and Houston tied for 2nd, twelve games back. Los Angeles was 4th, Cincinnati 5th, and San Francisco last. Gwynn led the league in batting at .351 by a 30-point margin, with Lee Lacy second. Mike Schmidt led in OPS by a fraction of a point over Dale Murphy, who led in slugging. The two tied for the home run lead at 36, and Schmidt tied Gary Carter in RBI at 106. Murphy's 100 was the only other triple-digit number. Gary Matthews led in on-base, Sandberg in runs with 114, Tim Raines in steals with 75 to edge Juan Samuel at 72. Gwynn had 213 hits, Raines and Johnny Ray 38 doubles, Sandberg and Samuel 19 triples. Joaquin Andujar led the league with 20 wins (Sutcliffe won 20, but the first 4 were in the AL) while Mario Soto won 18. Alejandro Pena led in ERA with a 2.48 mark. Dwight Gooden led in strikeouts with 276 and was second in ERA at 2.60. Bruce Sutter led in saves with 45. Andujar led with 261 innings, 1/3 more than Fernando Valenzuela, and Soto pitched 13 complete games. Here's the 1984 NL Win Shares leaders: Ryne Sandberg (Chicago) 38, Tony Gwynn (San Diego) 35, Dale Murphy (Atlanta) and Keith Hernandez (New York) 33, Tim Raines (Montreal) 32, Gary Carter (Montreal) 30, Jose Cruz (Houston) 29, Mike Schmidt (Philadelphia) 26, Kevin McReynolds (San Diego) 25, Darryl Strawberry (New York) 24, Gary Matthews (Chicago), Pedro Guerrero (Los Angeles), Mookie Wilson (New York) and Alan Wiggins (San Diego) 23, Leon Durham (Chicago) 22, Hubie Brooks (New York), Von Hayes (Philadelphia), Tony Pena (Pittsburgh), Carmelo Martinez (San Diego) and Chili Davis (San Francisco) 21. For pitchers, it's Bruce Sutter (St. Louis) 23, Rick Rhoden (Pittsburgh) 20, Rick Mahler (Atlanta), Mario Soto (Cincinnati), Orel Hershiser , Alejandro Pena and Fernando Valenzuela (Los Angeles) , and Dwight Gooden (New York) all with 18, Jesse Orosco (New York) and Joaquin Andujar (St. Louis) 17, Rick Sutcliffe (Chicago) 16, Lee Smith (Chicago), Charlie Lea (Montreal) and Goose Gossage (San Diego) 15. WARP3 numbers have Sandberg and Schmidt 8.6, Cruz 8.4 (best year at age 36), Carter 7.4 in his last Montreal year, Gwynn 7.2, Hernandez 7.1, Raines 6.4, Murphy 6.0, Johnny Ray (Pittsburgh) and Bob Brenly (San Francisco) 5.6, Pena 5.5 (best year), Ozzie Smith (St. Louis) 5.3, Tim Wallach (Montreal) 5.2, Willie McGee (St. Louis) 4.9, Lee Lacy (Pittsburgh) 4.8, Wiggins 4.7 (best year), Davis 4.5 (best year), Mike Scioscia (Los Angeles) 4.3, McReynolds and Hayes 4.2, Phil Garner (Houston) 4.0. Pitchers went Sutter 7.2 (last great year), Rhoden 5.7, Hershiser and Gooden (both rookies) 5.4, Valenzuela 5.1, Pena 5.0 (best year), Mahler and Bill Dawley (Houston) 4.5, Sutcliffe 4.3 (4.6 counting Cleveland work), Rick Honeycutt (Los Angeles) 4.2, Soto and Ted Power (Cincinnati) 3.9. No wonder we went ga-ga over Gooden, the state of NL pitching at the time was pretty sad. WAR, position players: Sandberg 8.1, Carter and Schmidt 7.3, Raines 6.8, Gwynn 6.4, Hernandez 5.8, Cruz and Murphy 5.7, Pena 5.1, McReynolds 4.9, Ray 4.8, Davis 4.7, Hayes 4.3, Wallach 4.0, Brenly 3.9, Martinez 3.8, McGee 3.7, Durham 3.6, Lacy 3.5. Pitchers: Gooden 8.6, Sutcliffe 6.3, Valenzuela 5.5, Koosman 5.1, Pena 4.9, Rhoden 4.8, Carlton and Ryan 4.4, Hershiser 4.2, Mahler 3.8, Andujar and Trout 3.7, Candelaria 3.6, DeLeon, LaPoint, and McWilliams 3.4. Actual award voting: MVP (top 15): | 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 Ryne Sandberg CHC 22 326 336 0.97 | 636 200 19 .314 .887 32 2 Keith Hernandez NYM 1 195 336 0.58 | 550 171 15 .311 .859 2 3 Tony Gwynn SDP 1 184 336 0.55 | 606 213 5 .351 .853 33 4 Rick Sutcliffe TOT 0 151 336 0.45 | 56 14 0 .250 .579 0| 16-1 150 2.69 1.08 155 5 Gary Matthews CHC 0 70 336 0.21 | 491 143 14 .291 .838 17 6 Bruce Sutter STL 0 67 336 0.20 | 10 0 0 .000 .000 0| 5-7 123 1.54 1.08 77 45 7 Mike Schmidt PHI 0 55 336 0.16 | 528 146 36 .277 .919 5 8 Jose Cruz HOU 0 53 336 0.16 | 600 187 12 .312 .842 22 9 Dale Murphy ATL 0 52 336 0.15 | 607 176 36 .290 .919 19 10 Jody Davis CHC 0 49 336 0.15 | 523 134 19 .256 .736 5 11 Tim Raines MON 0 41 336 0.12 | 622 192 8 .309 .830 75 12 Leon Durham CHC 0 38 336 0.11 | 473 132 23 .279 .874 16 13 Rich Gossage SDP 0 34 336 0.10 | 22 4 0 .182 .399 0| 10-6 102 2.90 1.08 84 25 14 Gary Carter MON 0 32 336 0.10 | 596 175 27 .294 .853 2 15 Dwight Gooden NYM 0 28 336 0.08 | 70 14 0 .200 .405 0| 17-9 218 2.60 1.07 276 Sandberg wasn't unanimous, for some reason. Cy Young: 1st Max | Season Results Rk Name Team Place Points Points Share| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+ 1 Rick Sutcliffe TOT 24 120 120 1.00 | 16-1 150 2.69 1.08 155 2 Dwight Gooden NYM 0 45 120 0.38 | 17-9 218 2.60 1.07 276 3 Bruce Sutter STL 0 33 120 0.28 | 5-7 123 1.54 1.08 77 45 4 Joaquin Andujar STL 0 12 120 0.10 | 20-14 261 3.34 1.10 147 5 Rich Gossage SDP 0 3 120 0.02 | 10-6 102 2.90 1.08 84 25 6 Mario Soto CIN 0 2 120 0.02 | 18-7 237 3.53 1.13 185 Sutcliffe was unanimous, although he shouldn't have been. Rookie: 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 Dwight Gooden NYM 23 118 120 0.98 | 70 14 0 .200 .405 0| 17-9 218 2.60 1.07 276 2 Juan Samuel PHI 1 67 120 0.56 | 701 191 15 .272 .749 72 3 Orel Hershiser LAD 0 15 120 0.12 | 50 10 0 .200 .459 0| 11-8 190 2.66 1.11 150 2 4 Dan Gladden SFG 0 9 120 0.08 | 342 120 4 .351 .857 31 5 Ron Darling NYM 0 3 120 0.02 | 67 10 0 .149 .324 0| 12-9 206 3.81 1.38 136 6 Carmelo Martinez SDP 0 2 120 0.02 | 488 122 13 .250 .736 1 7 Terry Pendleton STL 0 1 120 0.01 | 262 85 1 .324 .777 20 7 Jeff Stone PHI 0 1 120 0.01 | 185 67 1 .362 .859 27| Manager: Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share | W-L Rank +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+------+---------+-----+ 1 Jim Frey CHC 16 101 120 0.84 | 96-65 1 2 Davey Johnson NYM 4 72 120 0.60 | 90-72 2 3 Dick Williams SDP 4 41 120 0.34 | 92-70 1 4 Bob Lillis HOU 1 2 120 0.02 | 80-82 2 Top player: Ryne Sandberg. You could make an argument that Murphy outplayed him, but it was clearly Sandberg's year. #1 Ryne Sandberg, #2 Tony Gwynn, #3 Keith Hernandez, #4 Mike Schmidt, #5 Jose Cruz, #6 Dale Murphy. Top pitcher: Rick Sutcliffe made a big difference in a pennant race, and Dwight Gooden looked like a star for the ages. Both were terrific. #1 Rick Sutcliffe, #2 Dwight Gooden, #3 Bruce Sutter, #4 Rick Rhoden, #5 Fernando Valenzuela. Top rookie: Dwight Gooden was very impressive. Orel Hershiser was the next best. Top manager: Dick Williams impressed me the most, although the writers gave the Cubs guys a near-sweep.

1984 American League

The Tigers bolted from the gate for a 35-5 start, and ran away from the league. The West division sported only one team over .500. It was definitely Detroit's year, and a total team effort. Reliever Willie Hernandez swept the awards, winning the MVP and Cy Young after saving 32 of 32 attempts, but that was a bit over the top. He pitched 140 innings, more than today's closers, but it was too much, really. In the East behind the Tigers and their 104 wins were Toronto in 2nd, with 89 wins, New York with 87, Boston with 86, and defending champs Baltimore with 85. Cleveland was 6th while Milwaukee dropped to last. Kansas City won the West with 84 wins, and California and Minnesota tied for 2nd three games back and at .500. Oakland was 4th, Chicago and Seattle tied for 5th, and Texas last. Don Mattingly won the batting title at .343, a few points ahead of teammate Dave Winfield at .340. Tony Armas led in homers (43) and RBI (123). Dwight Evans led in OPS and runs (121). Mattingly also led in hits (207) and doubles (44), and tied Eddie Murray in OPS+. Lloyd Moseby and Dave Collins had 15 triples each. Jim Rice was second in RBI at 122. Rickey Henderson led in steals at 66. Mike Boddicker led in wins and ERA as the only 20-game winner, Mark Langston led in strikeouts and Dan Quisenberry in saves with 44. Boddicker's 2.79 ERA was trailed by Dave Stieb at 2.83 and Bert Blyleven at 2.87. Blyleven and Jack Morris won 19 each. Langston's 204 strikeouts were trailed by Stieb at 198 and Mike Witt at 196. Stieb edged Charlie Hough with 267 innings to 266. Here's the top Win Shares people: Players, Cal Ripken (Baltimore) 37, Eddie Murray (Baltimore) 33, Dwight Evans (Boston), Alan Trammell (Detroit) and Don Mattingly (New York) 29, Wade Boggs (Boston) and Rickey Henderson (Oakland) 28, Robin Yount (Milwaukee) and Alvin Davis (Seattle) 27, Kirk Gibson (Detroit), Dave Winfield (New York), Buddy Bell (Texas) and Lloyd Moseby (Toronto) 26, Carney Lansford (Oakland) 25, Harold Baines (Chicago), Chet Lemon (Detroit) and Kent Hrbek (Minnesota) 24, Mike Easler (Boston) and Willie Wilson (Kansas City) 23, Fred Lynn (California), Lou Whitaker (Detroit) and Dwayne Murphy (Oakland) 22. Skipping to pitchers, it's Dave Stieb (Toronto) 25, Willie Hernandez (Detroit) and Dan Quisenberry (Kansas City) 24, Mike Boddicker (Baltimore) and Doyle Alexander (Toronto) 23, Frank Viola (Minnesota) 22, Bert Blyleven (Cleveland) and Bud Black (Kansas City) 20, Mark Langston (Seattle) 19, Storm Davis (Baltimore), Richard Dotson (Chicago) and Mike Smithson (Minnesota) 18. Looking at WARP3, it's Ripken at 12.1, Trammell 8.4, Bell 7.4 (best year), Murray 7.0 (his top season), Mattingly 6.7, Yount and Moseby (best year) 6.4, Boggs and Lemon (best year) 6.2, Lansford 5.9 (best year), Henderson 5.8, Baines 5.4, Winfield 5.3, Tim Teufel (Minnesota) 5.2, Evans and Frank White (Kansas City) 4.7, Davis (rookie), and Easler (best year) 4.3. Pitchers, Blyleven and Jim Beattie (Seattle) 6.6, Stieb and Hernandez (career year) 6.4, Boddicker (best year), Langston (rookie), and Phil Niekro (New York) 5.4, Bill Caudill (Oakland) 5.1, Quiz, Alexander (best year), Dave Righetti (New York), Ernie Camacho (Cleveland) and Geoff Zahn (California) 4.7, Mike Witt (California) 4.6, Black (career year) and Ray Burris (Oakland) 4.5, Viola 4.3. WAR leaders, position players: Ripken 10.3, Moseby 7.5, Murray 7.4, Trammell 7.3, Bell 7.1, Lemon and Mattingly 6.6, Boggs 6.5, Henderson and Hrbek 6.0, Evans 5.9, Davis and Yount 5.8, Baines, Ward, and Winfield 5.3, Gibson 5.2, Murphy 4.7, White 4.6, Easler 4.5. Pitchers: Stieb 6.1, Witt 5.6, Alexander 5.5, Blyleven 5.2, Black 4.7, Davis 4.6, Langston 4.4, Boyd and Viola 4.3, Moore 4.2, Beattie 4.1, Butcher, Darwin, and Petry 4.0, Niekro 3.8, Morris 3.7. Here's how the actual award voting went, from baseball-reference.com. MVP Place Name Team First-place votes Total points 1 Willie Hernandez DET 16 306 2 Kent Hrbek MIN 5 247 3 Dan Quisenberry KCR 5 235 4 Eddie Murray BAL 2 197 5 Don Mattingly NYY 0 113 6 Kirk Gibson DET 0 96 7 Tony Armas BOS 0 87 8 Dave Winfield NYY 0 83 9 Alan Trammell DET 0 76 10 Willie Wilson KCR 0 61 11 Dwight Evans BOS 0 39 12 Alvin Davis SEA 0 26 13 Harold Baines CHW 0 10 13 Dave Kingman OAK 0 10 13 Jim Rice BOS 0 10 16 Lance Parrish DET 0 8 16 Willie Upshaw TOR 0 8 18 Brian Downing CAL 0 6 19 Steve Balboni KCR 0 5 19 George Bell TOR 0 5 19 Andre Thornton CLE 0 5 22 Buddy Bell TEX 0 4 22 Lloyd Moseby TOR 0 4 22 Dave Stieb TOR 0 4 25 Juan Beniquez CAL 0 2 25 Mike Boddicker BAL 0 2 27 Doyle Alexander TOR 0 1 27 Cal Ripken Jr. BAL 0 1 I put in the whole list to show you that, after a terrific season for Cal Ripken where he led the league in Win Shares, WARP, and WAR, he got exactly one tenth-place MVP vote. There were a few reasons for that: he had won the year before, the Orioles finished fifth (though they were over .500) and his main stats were not impressively big: .304 average, 27 homers, 86 RBI. In those days before meta-stats, he got overlooked. Cy Young Place Name Team First-place votes Total points 1 Willie Hernandez DET 12 88 2 Dan Quisenberry KCR 9 71 3 Bert Blyleven CLE 4 45 4 Mike Boddicker BAL 3 41 5 Dan Petry DET 0 3 6 Frank Viola MIN 0 2 7 Jack Morris DET 0 1 7 Dave Stieb TOR 0 1 Hernandez's mojo carried over into the Cy voting, with another reliever in Quisenberry second. Rookie Place Name Team First-place votes Total Points 1 Alvin Davis SEA 25 134 2 Mark Langston SEA 3 82 3 Kirby Puckett MIN 0 23 4 Tim Teufel MIN 0 5 5 Mike Young BAL 0 3 6 Roger Clemens BOS 0 2 7 Mark Gubicza KCR 0 1 7 Al Nipper BOS 0 1 7 Ron Romanick CAL 0 1 Ripken's defensive value made him the best player in the league in 1984, as well as several other years. This was so even though the Orioles did not win the division. No depth, after a terrific bench in 1983. 2. Eddie Murray, 3. Alan Trammell, 4. Don Mattingly, 5. Dwight Evans, #6 Buddy Bell. I'll go with the Win Shares and WAR and say Dave Stieb was the top pitcher, although Willie Hernandez certainly had a spectacular year. #1 Stieb, #2 Willie Hernandez, #3 Bert Blyleven, #4 Mike Boddicker, #5 Bud Black. Alvin Davis was the top rookie, with his closest competition being teammate Mark Langston. Both were superb in giving lift to the downtrodden Mariners. Top manager: Sparky Anderson, getting the Tigers out of the gate quickly and marching virtually unchallenged to the World Championship.

1983 National League

The Phillies took only the fourth pennant in their history, but couldn't repeat their only World Championship of three years earlier. They did it with the backbone of those 1980 champions, filling in with a number of grizzled veterans. The lineup often read like a 1970s All-Star team, and the Phils usually had more members of the Big Red Machine in their lineup than Cincinnati did. Philadelphia won 90, six more than second-place Pittsburgh and eight more than Montreal. St. Louis fell to fourth, Chicago was 5th and New York last. Los Angeles won the West with their own mixture of 1970s All-Stars combined with some young guns, taking 91 victories. Atlanta was three games back, Houston was third with 85 wins. San Diego was 4th at .500, with San Francisco 5th and Cincinnati last. Atlanta's Dale Murphy won his second straight MVP although the Braves fell three games short. Murphy led in RBI (121) and OPS, but he played in a good hitters' park so home run leader Mike Schmidt led in OPS+. Schmidt had 40 homers to Murphy's 36. Andre Dawson was second in RBI with 118. Bill Madlock won the batting title at .323, leading Lonnie Smith's .321. Jose Cruz and George Hendrick batted .318. Tim Raines led in steals with 90 and runs with 133. Andre Dawson and Jose Cruz had 189 hits each. Johnny Ray, Al Oliver, and Bill Buckner each had 38 doubles. Brett Butler had 13 triples. John Denny led the league in wins with 19 and was 2nd in ERA to take the Cy Young. Atlee Hammaker lead in ERA with a 2.24 mark. Denny checked in at 2.37, Bob Welch at 2.65. Steve Carlton led in strikeouts with 275, followed by Mario Soto at 242. Lee Smith led in saves with 29. Soto, Bill Gullickson, and Steve Rogers had 17 wins. Soto had 18 complete games. Win Shares leaders, players; Mike Schmidt (Philadelphia) 35, Dale Murphy (Atlanta) and Pedro Guerrero (Los Angeles) 32, Jose Cruz and Dickie Thon (Houston) 30, Tim Raines (Montreal) 29, Andre Dawson (Montreal) and Darrell Evans (San Francisco) 28, Gary Carter (Montreal) and Terry Kennedy (San Diego) 24, Bill Doran (Houston) 22, Tony Pena (Pittsburgh) 21, Eddie Milner (Cincinnati), Johnny Ray (Pittsburgh), Alan Wiggins (San Diego) and Jack Clark (San Francisco) 20, Glenn Hubbard (Atlanta), Dusty Baker and Ken Landreaux (Los Angeles), Tim Wallach (Montreal), Joe Morgan (Philadelphia), Dale Berra (Pittsburgh), Jeffery Leonard (San Francisco) and Lonnie Smith (St. Louis) 19. Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Mario Soto (Cincinnati) 25, John Denny (Philadelphia) 23, Jesse Orosco (New York) 20, Lee Smith (Chicago) 19, Steve Carlton and Al Holland (Philadelphia) 18, Steve Rogers (Montreal) and Kent Tekulve (Pittsburgh) 17, Craig McMurtry (Atlanta), Bob Welch (Los Angeles) and Rick Rhoden (Pittsburgh) 16. WARP3 scores: Thon 9.9 (career year), Schmidt 7.5, Carter 7.2, Cruz 7.1, Murphy 6.8, Raines 6.5, Guerrero 6.3, Darrell Porter (St. Louis) 5.7, Dawson, Evans, and Doran (rookie) 5.6, Pena 4.9, Ozzie Smith (St. Louis) 4.8, George Hendrick (St. Louis) 4.6, Ray and Hubbard (best year) 4.5, Kennedy 4.4, Terry Puhl (Houston) 4.3, Milner (career year), Wallach, Smith 5.4, and Ken Oberkfell (St. Louis) 4.1. Pitchers, Denny 8.9 (career year), Smith 6.9, Orosco 6.6 (best year), Carlton 6.5, Soto 6.1, Holland (best year) and Steve Howe (Los Angeles) 4.9, Atlee Hammaker (San Francisco) 4.8, Rhoden 4.7, Tekulve 4.5. WAR leaders, position players: Thon 7.5, Murphy 7.3, Schmidt 7.1, Carter 7.0, Dawson 6.7, Raines 6.3, Cruz 6.1, Guerrero and Hernandez 5.6, Doran and Ray 4.7, Evans 4.5, Kennedy and Porter 4.4, Smith 4.1, Milner and Pena 4.0. Pitchers: Carlton 7.7, Denny 6.1, Rhoden 5.2, Reuss and Soto 4.9, Candelaria and Rogers 4.7, Hammaker 4.6, McWilliams 4.5, Valenzuela 4.2, Pena and Perez 4.1, Welch 3.7. Actual award voting: MVP (top 15): | 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 Dale Murphy ATL 21 318 336 0.95 | 589 178 36 .302 .933 30 2 Andre Dawson MON 1 213 336 0.63 | 633 189 32 .299 .877 25 3 Mike Schmidt PHI 1 191 336 0.57 | 534 136 40 .255 .923 7 4 Pedro Guerrero LAD 1 182 336 0.54 | 584 174 32 .298 .904 23 5 Tim Raines MON 0 83 336 0.25 | 615 183 11 .298 .822 90 6 Jose Cruz HOU 0 76 336 0.23 | 594 189 14 .318 .848 30 7 Dickie Thon HOU 0 67 336 0.20 | 619 177 20 .286 .798 34 8 Bill Madlock PIT 0 45 336 0.13 | 473 153 12 .323 .830 3 9 Al Holland PHI 0 42 336 0.12 | 7 0 0 .000 .000 0| 8-4 92 2.26 1.01 100 25 10 Terry Kennedy SDP 0 37 336 0.11 | 549 156 17 .284 .776 1 11 George Hendrick STL 0 33 336 0.10 | 529 168 18 .318 .866 3 12 Tony Pena PIT 0 25 336 0.07 | 542 163 15 .301 .773 6 13 John Denny PHI 0 24 336 0.07 | 77 13 0 .169 .372 2| 19-6 243 2.37 1.16 139 14 Darrell Evans SFG 0 16 336 0.05 | 523 145 30 .277 .894 6 14 Mario Soto CIN 0 16 336 0.05 | 88 11 0 .125 .294 0| 17-13 274 2.70 1.10 242 Murphy was the clear choice for his second straight award. Cy Young (top 5): | Season Results Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+ 1 John Denny PHI 20 103 120 0.86 | 19-6 243 2.37 1.16 139 2 Mario Soto CIN 2 61 120 0.51 | 17-13 274 2.70 1.10 242 3 Jesse Orosco NYM 1 19 120 0.16 | 13-7 110 1.47 1.04 84 17 4 Steve Rogers MON 1 15 120 0.12 | 17-12 273 3.23 1.23 146 5 Larry McWilliams PIT 0 7 120 0.06 | 15-8 238 3.25 1.23 199 Denny, then Soto, then the rest. Not sure why it's Orosco in the Cy voting, but it was Holland for MVP. Rookie (top 5): | 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 Darryl Strawberry NYM 18 106 120 0.88 | 420 108 26 .257 .848 19 2 Craig McMurtry ATL 6 49 120 0.41 | 70 6 0 .086 .209 0| 15-9 225 3.08 1.30 105 3 Mel Hall CHC 0 32 120 0.27 | 410 116 17 .283 .840 6 4 Gary Redus CIN 0 8 120 0.07 | 453 112 17 .247 .795 39 5 Bill Doran HOU 0 7 120 0.06 | 535 145 8 .271 .736 12 Strawberry had 18 Win Shares and a WARP3 of 5.6. Top player: Dickie Thon. He got mostly overlooked in the MVP voting, but he was the best player in the league. A pitch to the eye early in 1984 nearly ended his career, and derailed his Hall of Fame track. #1 Dickie Thon, #2 Dale Murphy, #3 Mike Schmidt, #4 Tim Raines, #5 Jose Cruz, #6 Gary Carter. Top pitcher: John Denny was the best in a down year for NL pitchers. #1 John Denny, #2 Mario Soto, #3 Jesse Orosco, #4 Steve Carlton, #5 Steve Rogers. Top rookie: Bill Doran, with stats held down by the Astrodome. Strawberry got all the attention, as would continue to happen. Top manager: Tommy LaSorda, whose Dodgers led the league in victories.

1983 American League

Earl Weaver retired, and doom was predicted for the Orioles, but then that thing that often happens happens again. A team stressed by a high-pressure manager relaxes when a low-key guy (Joe Altobelli, here) takes over, and makes a seemingly effortless run at the pennant. The Orioles even won it all, for the first time since 1970. Soon, Altobelli's magic wore off, and Weaver briefly came out of retirement, but this was a sort of last hurrah for the 1970s era Birds. Detroit was 2nd, 6 games back, with New York 3rd, Toronto 4th, and Milwaukee 5th but with 87 wins off their pennant season. Five strong teams in the AL East. Boston was 6th at 78-84, and Cleveland last but with only 92 losses. The West was another story, as the White Sox won the division with 99 wins, but no one else was over .500. Kansas City was 2nd, 20 games out. Texas, Oakland, California, Minnesota, and Seattle (with 102 losses) followed in order. The Chisox, unchallenged during the season, couldn't keep up with Baltimore in the ALCS. Among individuals, Wade Boggs broke out with his first batting title, batting .361. Rod Carew followed with a .339 mark. Jim Rice led in HR with 39 and tied with Cecil Cooper in RBI with 126. Tony Armas was second with 36 homers. Rickey Henderson was over 100 steals again, and George Brett led in OPS, but Cal Ripken won the MVP as he led in runs, hits, and doubles, and played superb defense. Robin Yount had 10 triples, and Boggs edged Eddie Murray for the lead in runs created. LaMarr Hoyt won the Cy Young by leading with 24 wins. Richard Dotson won 22 and Ron Guidry 21. Rick Honeycutt led in ERA with a 2.42 mark, follwed by Mike Boddicker at 2.77. Jack Morris led in strikeouts with 232, followed by Floyd Bannister at 193. Dan Quisenberry led in saves with 45. Morris pitched 294 innings, Guidry had 21 complete games. Boddicker tossed five shutouts. Win Shares leaders, players; Cal Ripken (Baltimore) 35, Wade Boggs (Boston) 34, Robin Yount (Milwaukee) 33, Eddie Murray (Baltimore) 31, Rickey Henderson (Oakland) 30, Lou Whitaker (Detroit) 29, Carlton Fisk (Chicago) and Alan Trammell (Detroit) 26, Cecil Cooper (Milwaukee) and Lloyd Moseby (Toronto) 25, Jim Rice (Boston), Lance Parrish (Detroit) and George Brett (Kansas City) 24, Paul Molitor (Milwaukee) 23, Larry Herndon (Detroit), Dave Winfield (New York) and Willie Upshaw (Toronto) 22, Chet Lemon (Detroit), Jim Gantner (Milwaukee), John Castino (Minnesota) and Don Baylor (New York) 21. Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Dan Quisenberry (Kansas City) 28, Dave Stieb (Toronto) 24, Scott McGregor (Baltimore), Rich Dotson (Chicago) and Bob Stanley (Boston) 21, LaMarr Hoyt (Chicago) and Jack Morris (Detroit) 20, Ron Guidry (New York) 19, Charlie Hough (Texas) 18, Tippy Martinez (Baltimore) and Floyd Bannister (Chicago) 17, Mike Boddicker (Baltimore), Matt Young (Seattle), Goose Gossage (New York) and Rick Honeycutt (Texas) 16. WARP3 scores: Ripken 10.3, Trammell 7.9, Boggs and Whitaker 7.1, Yount 6.7, Henderson 6.4, Murray and Lemon 6.0, Parrish 5.5, Fisk and Herndon 4.7, Gantner 4.3 (best year), Moseby and Molitor 4,2, Ted Simmons (Milwaukee) 4.1, Cooper 4.0 (last good year), Upshaw 3.8 (best year). Pitchers, Quisenberry 6.4, Stieb 5.5, Guidry 5,4, Hough 5.3, Stanley and Young (rookie, career year) 5.2, Honeycutt 4.9 (before going to LA in a trade), Dotson 4.8 (best year), McGregor (best year) and Jim Beattie (Seattle) 4.5, Boddicker (rookie), Gossage, and Martinez (career year) 4.4, Geoff Zahn (California) 3.9, Bruce Hurst (Boston) 3.8, Hoyt and John Tudor (Boston) 3.6. WAR leaders, position players: Ripken 8.8, Boggs 8.1, Henderson 7.4, Murray 7.1, Yount 6.9, Rice 6.6, Whitaker 6.4, Moseby 6.2, Lemon and Trammell 5.9, Parrish 5.3, Fisk 5.0, Molitor and Upshaw 4.9, Bell 4.6, Brett 4.5. Pitchers: Morris 6.2, Stieb 5.9, Hoyt 5.7, Righetti 5.6, Bannister 5.4, Beattie 4.7, Smithson 4.6, Guidry 4.1, Boddicker, Davis, and McGregor 4.0, Hough 3.9, Darwin, Gossage, Sutcliffe, and Sutton 3.6. Actual award voting: 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 Cal Ripken BAL 15 322 392 0.82 | 663 211 27 .318 .888 0 2 Eddie Murray BAL 10 290 392 0.74 | 582 178 33 .306 .930 5 3 Carlton Fisk CHW 3 209 392 0.53 | 488 141 26 .289 .874 9 4 Jim Rice BOS 0 150 392 0.38 | 626 191 39 .305 .911 0 5 Cecil Cooper MIL 0 123 392 0.31 | 661 203 30 .307 .849 2 6 Dan Quisenberry KCR 0 107 392 0.27 | | 5-3 139 1.94 0.93 48 45 7 Dave Winfield NYY 0 85 392 0.22 | 598 169 32 .283 .858 15 8 Lou Whitaker DET 0 84 392 0.21 | 643 206 12 .320 .837 17 9 Lance Parrish DET 0 66 392 0.17 | 605 163 27 .269 .796 1 10 Harold Baines CHW 0 49 392 0.12 | 596 167 20 .280 .776 7 11 Willie Upshaw TOR 0 41 392 0.10 | 579 177 27 .306 .887 10 12 Wade Boggs BOS 0 25 392 0.06 | 582 210 5 .361 .931 3 13 La Marr Hoyt CHW 0 24 392 0.06 | | 24-10 261 3.66 1.02 148 14 Lloyd Moseby TOR 0 21 392 0.05 | 539 170 18 .315 .875 27 15 Bob Stanley BOS 0 11 392 0.03 | | 8-10 145 2.85 1.26 65 33 15 Alan Trammell DET 0 11 392 0.03 | 505 161 14 .319 .856 30 17 Greg Luzinski CHW 0 9 392 0.02 | 502 128 32 .255 .854 2 18 Robin Yount MIL 0 6 392 0.02 | 578 178 17 .308 .886 12 19 Ted Simmons MIL 0 4 392 0.01 | 600 185 13 .308 .799 4 20 Richard Dotson CHW 0 3 392 0.01 | | 22-7 240 3.22 1.31 137 Five good candidates for MVP, though the writers concentrated on the two Orioles. With Ripken, they chose the right one. Cy Young: | Season Results Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+ 1 La Marr Hoyt CHW 17 116 140 0.83 | 24-10 261 3.66 1.02 148 2 Dan Quisenberry KCR 9 81 140 0.58 | 5-3 139 1.94 0.93 48 45 3 Jack Morris DET 2 38 140 0.27 | 20-13 294 3.34 1.16 232 4 Richard Dotson CHW 0 9 140 0.06 | 22-7 240 3.22 1.31 137 5 Ron Guidry NYY 0 5 140 0.04 | 21-9 250 3.42 1.17 156 6 Scott McGregor BAL 0 3 140 0.02 | 18-7 260 3.18 1.22 86 Odd that Quisenberry was ahead of Hoyt in MVP voting, but behind him here. Also, Bob Stanley got MVP votes but none for Cy. Seems to indicate voters considering relievers more as everyday players. Quiz would have been a better choice. Second straight award that Quiz could have won, but went to a mediocre starter with league-leading wins total instead. 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 Ron Kittle CHW 15 104 140 0.74 | 520 132 35 .254 .818 8 2 Julio Franco CLE 8 78 140 0.56 | 560 153 8 .273 .693 32 3 Mike Boddicker BAL 5 70 140 0.50 | | 16-8 179 2.77 1.08 120 Writers went for the slow slugger over more all-around talents. Never a good choice for top rookie. Top player: Cal Ripken. After 1982's sterling rookie campaign, Ripken really burst onto the scene here. Impressive offensively and defensively. There were other excellent players this year, but Ripken was the right choice. #1 Cal Ripken, #2 Wade Boggs, #3 Robin Yount, #4 Eddie Murray, #5 Alan Trammell, #6 Rickey Henderson. Top pitcher: Quisenberry was terrific, doing things no one else was doing. His unusual delivery apparently made it hard for the writers to take him seriously. KC fans knew. #1 Dan Quisenberry, #2 Dave Stieb, #3 Ron Guidry, #4 Jack Morris, #5 Lamarr Hoyt. Top rookie: Matt Young was the best, followed by Mike Boddicker. Julio Franco would be the best player over time. Kittle, a 32-year old in a 25-year old body, was a bad choice. Top manager: Joe Altobelli, guiding the Orioles through a tough pennant race and to the World Series crown.