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.