1993 American League

Toronto won their second straight pennant and World Series with a little player turnover (Molitor at DH instead of Winfield, Tony Fernandez taking shortstop) and Joe Carter providing only the second walk-off home run in Series history. The pitching staff lost Jimmy Key to the Yankees and saw Jack Morris collapse, but came through regardless. The Blue Jays won 95 to outpace New York by seven games, while Baltimore and Detroit tied for third with 85 victories. Boston was 5th, Cleveland 6th, and Milwaukee last with 93 losses. The White Sox won the West with 94 victories, while Texas was second with 86. Kansas City was third with 84 victories, Seattle 4th with 82. California and Minnesota tied for 5th with 91 losses, and Oakland collapsed to last with 94 losses. John Olerud led the league in batting average, doubles, on-base, runs created and OPS. It was a very impressive season that somehow didn't get a lot of attention from the awards voters. Olerud hit .363, with teammates Paul Molitor at .332 and Roberto Alomar at .326. He hit 54 doubles. Rafael Palmeiro had 124 runs, Molitor 211 hits, Lance Johnson 14 triples, Kenny Lofton 70 steals. Juan Gonzalez had 46 homers, edging Ken Griffey at 45 with Frank Thomas at 41. Albert Belle edged Thomas 129 to 128 in RBI. Joe Carter was third with 121. Thomas won the MVP award. Jack McDowell led in wins with 22. Randy Johnson and Pat Hentgen were next with 19. Kevin Appier led in ERA with a 2.56 mark; Wilson Alvarez was second at 2.95. Randy Johnson led in strikeouts with 308; no one else even had 200, as second place was Mark Langston with 196. Jeff Montgomery and Duane Ward tied in saves with 45 each. Chuck Finley had 13 complete games, and McDowell four shutouts. McDowell won the Cy Young. Win Shares leaders, players: John Olerud (Toronto) 37, Frank Thomas (Chicago) 32, Juan Gonzalez and Rafael Palmeiro (Texas) 31, Roberto Alomar (Toronto) 30, Ken Griffey Jr. (Seattle) and Paul Molitor (Toronto) 29, Carlos Baerga (Cleveland) and Travis Fryman (Detroit) 28, Albert Belle (Cleveland) 27, Chris Hoiles (Baltimore) 26, Kenny Lofton (Cleveland), Tony Phillips (Detroit) and Rickey Henderson (Oakland/Toronto) 25, Tim Salmon (California), Mickey Tettleton (Detroit) and Mike Stanley (New York) 24, Greg Vaughn (Milwaukee) and Jay Buhner (Seattle) 22, Lance Johnson and Robin Ventura (Chicago) and Danny Tartabull (New York) 21. Win Shares leaders, pitchers: Kevin Appier (Kansas City) 27, Jeff Montgomery (Kansas City) and Randy Johnson (Seattle) 22, Jack McDowell (Chicago), David Cone (Kansas City) and Jimmy Key (New York) 21, Danny Darwin (Boston), Mark Langston (California) and Alex Fernandez (Chicago) 20, Chuck Finley (California) 19, Wilson Alvarez (Chicago) 18, Ben McDonald (Baltimore) and Duane Ward (Toronto) 17. WARP3 scores: Olerud 8.8 (best year), Griffey 7.8, Hoiles 7.6 (best year), Alomar 7.4, Gonzalez 7.3 (best year), Thomas 7.1, Salmon 6.8 (rookie), Henderson 6.6, Palmeiro (best year), Baerga, and Phillips 6.4, Fryman (best year) and Devon White (Toronto) 6.0, Belle 5.8, Lou Whitaker (Detroit) 5.7, Stanley 5.4 (best year), Molitor 5.3, Johnson and Ventura 5.2. Pitchers, Appier 7.2 (best year), Montgomery 6.7 (best year), Johnson 6.6 (breakout year), Langston 6.4 (best year), Fernandez 5.8, McDowell 5.7, Key 5.4, Ward 5.3 (last good year), Darwin 5.2, Cone and Finley 5.1, Alvarez 5.0. WAR leaders, position players: Griffey 9.0, Olerud 8.4, Hoiles and Lofton 7.3, Thomas 6.7, Palmeiro 6.6, Alomar 6.1, Gonzalez 6.0, Ventura 5.9, White 5.7, Phillips 5.6, G. Vaughn 5.4, Belle and Valentin 5.3, Molitor 5.2, Henderson and Johnson 5.1, Salmon 5.0, Fryman 4.9, Baerga 4.7. WAR leaders, pitchers: Appier 7.4, Johnson 7.1, Langston 5.7, Finley 5.3, Key 5.2, McDowell 5.1, Hanson 4.9, Tapani 4.8, Brown and Cone 4.6, Guzman and McDonald 4.5, Clemens 4.4, Fernandez 3.9, Erickson 3.8, Darwin and Rogers 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 Frank Thomas CHW 28 392 392 1.00 | 549 174 41 .317 1.033 4 2 Paul Molitor TOR 0 209 392 0.53 | 636 211 22 .332 .911 22 3 John Olerud TOR 0 198 392 0.51 | 551 200 24 .363 1.072 0 4 Juan Gonzalez TEX 0 185 392 0.47 | 536 166 46 .310 1.000 4 5 Ken Griffey SEA 0 182 392 0.46 | 582 180 45 .309 1.025 17 6 Roberto Alomar TOR 0 102 392 0.26 | 589 192 17 .326 .900 55 7 Albert Belle CLE 0 81 392 0.21 | 594 172 38 .290 .922 23 8 Rafael Palmeiro TEX 0 52 392 0.13 | 597 176 37 .295 .926 22 9 Jack McDowell CHW 0 51 392 0.13 | | 22-10 257 3.37 1.29 158 10 Carlos Baerga CLE 0 50 392 0.13 | 624 200 21 .321 .840 15 11 Jimmy Key NYY 0 29 392 0.07 | | 18-6 237 3.00 1.11 173 12 Joe Carter TOR 0 25 392 0.06 | 603 153 33 .254 .802 8 13 Jeff Montgomery KCR 0 15 392 0.04 | | 7-5 87 2.27 1.01 66 45 13 Mike Stanley NYY 0 15 392 0.04 | 423 129 26 .305 .923 1 15 Kenny Lofton CLE 0 11 392 0.03 | 569 185 1 .325 .815 70 16 Chris Hoiles BAL 0 10 392 0.03 | 419 130 29 .310 1.001 1 16 Tony Phillips DET 0 10 392 0.03 | 566 177 7 .313 .841 16 18 Mo Vaughn BOS 0 8 392 0.02 | 539 160 29 .297 .915 4 19 Don Mattingly NYY 0 7 392 0.02 | 530 154 17 .291 .809 0 19 Cal Ripken BAL 0 7 392 0.02 | 641 165 24 .257 .748 1 The Big Hurt won a unanimous and undeserved MVP. There were several others better. Cy Young: | Season Results Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO Sv +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+ 1 Jack McDowell CHW 21 124 140 0.89 | 22-10 257 3.37 1.29 158 2 Randy Johnson SEA 6 75 140 0.54 | 19-8 255 3.24 1.11 308 1 3 Kevin Appier KCR 1 30 140 0.21 | 18-8 239 2.56 1.11 186 4 Jimmy Key NYY 0 14 140 0.10 | 18-6 237 3.00 1.11 173 5 Duane Ward TOR 0 5 140 0.04 | 2-3 72 2.13 1.03 97 45 6 Pat Hentgen TOR 0 3 140 0.02 | 19-9 216 3.87 1.34 122 7 Juan Guzman TOR 0 1 140 0.01 | 14-3 221 3.99 1.45 194 Again the best was missed. 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 Tim Salmon CAL 28 140 140 1.00 | 515 146 31 .283 .918 5 2 Jason Bere CHW 0 59 140 0.42 | | 12-5 143 3.47 1.33 129 3 Aaron Sele BOS 0 19 140 0.14 | | 7-2 112 2.74 1.33 93 4 Wayne Kirby CLE 0 12 140 0.09 | 458 123 6 .269 .695 17 5 Rich Amaral SEA 0 8 140 0.06 | 373 108 1 .290 .715 19 6 Brent Gates OAK 0 7 140 0.05 | 535 155 7 .290 .747 7 7 Troy Neel OAK 0 5 140 0.04 | 427 124 19 .290 .840 3 8 Jerry Dipoto CLE 0 1 140 0.01 | | 4-4 56 2.40 1.54 41 11 8 David Hulse TEX 0 1 140 0.01 | 407 118 1 .290 .701 29 This one the BBWAA got right. Manager: Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share | W-L Rank +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+------+---------+-----+ 1 Gene Lamont CHW 8 72 140 0.51 | 94-68 1 2 Buck Showalter NYY 7 63 140 0.45 | 88-74 2 3 Cito Gaston TOR 6 49 140 0.35 | 95-67 1 4 Kevin Kennedy TEX 3 28 140 0.20 | 86-76 2 5 Lou Piniella SEA 3 24 140 0.17 | 82-80 4 6 Mike Hargrove CLE 1 10 140 0.07 | 76-86 6 7 Johnny Oates BAL 0 5 140 0.04 | 85-77 3 8 Butch Hobson BOS 0 1 140 0.01 | 80-82 5 Top player: John Olerud. The batting champion used to get more respect, but not in this season. You bat .363, play excellent defense, and still get no respect. Well, here's some, belatedly. #1 John Olerud, #2 Ken Griffey, Jr., #3 Juan Gonzalez, #4 Roberto Alomar, #5 Frank Thomas, #6 Chris Hoiles. Top pitcher: Kevin Appier. The BBWAA never learns: the ERA leader is almost always a better choice than the wins leader. #1 Kevin Appier, #2 Randy Johnson, #3 Mark Langston, #4 Jack McDowell, #5 Jimmy Key. Top rookie: Tim Salmon, easily. Top manager: Gene LaMont, who got the White Sox to the top of the division.