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.