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.