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.