1993 National League

The Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies were added as expansion teams, the first new teams since 1977 and first in the NL since 1969. The ability to sign free agents made these teams a bit better than many previous expansion squads, and both managed to avoid last place in their inaugural campaigns. This also added the most extreme hitters' park in baseball, perhaps in its history, with the thin air of Denver coming to the majors. Atlanta and San Francisco staged a huge battle for the NL West division, with the Braves defeating the Giants by one game with 104 victories to 103. Some people even complained that the Giants, after their terrific season, did not make the postseason. It was all moot when the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Braves in the NLCS. The Phillies pulled off a surprise season to outdistance Montreal by three wins, 97 to 94. St. Louis was third with 87 wins, Chicago fourth with 85, while Pittsburgh lost 87, new team Florida lost 98, and the Mets lost 103. Houston was third in the West with 85 wins, LA finished at exactly .500, Cincinnati lost 89, the newbies in Colorado lost 95, and San Diego lost 101. Andres Galarraga won the batting title with a thin air-aided .370, Tony Gwynn was second at .358 and Gregg Jefferies hit .342. Lenny Dykstra had 193 hits while Mark Grace had 192, Charlie Hayes had 45 doubles, Steve Finley 13 triples, Chuck Carr 58 steals. In his first year with the Giants, Barry Bonds led the league with 46 homers and 123 RBI, as well as topping the percentage categories. David Justice was secodn with 40 homers and the runner-up with 120 RBI. John Burkett and Tom Glavine tied for the lead in wins with 22 each. Bill Swift won 21 and Greg Maddux 20. Maddux led in ERA with a 2.36 mark, follwed by Jose Rijo at 2.48. Rijo led in strikeouts with 227, trailed by John Smoltz at 208. Randy Myers led in saves with 53. Maddux won the Cy Young. Win Shares leaders, players; Barry Bonds (San Francisco) 47, Len Dykstra (Philadelphia) 32, Mike Piazza (Los Angeles) 31, Marquis Grissom (Montreal) 30, Jeff Blauser and David Justice (Atlanta) and Darren Daulton (Philadelphia) 29, Rick Wilkins (Chicago), Matt Williams (San Francisco) and Gregg Jefferies (St. Louis) 28, Craig Biggio (Houston), Jay Bell (Pittsburgh) and Robby Thompson (San Francisco) 26, Ron Gant (Atlanta) and John Kruk (Philadelphia) 25, Larry Walker (Montreal) 24, Mark Grace (Chicago), Andres Galarraga (Colorado) and Brett Butler (Los Angeles) 23, Jeff Bagwell (Houston) 22. Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Jose Rijo (Cincinnati) 26, Greg Maddux (Atlanta) 25, John Wetteland (Montreal) 21, Tom Glavine (Atlanta) 20, Steve Avery (Atlanta), Mark Portugal (Houston) and Billy Swift (San Francisco) 19, Bryan Harvey (Florida) 18, Greg McMichael (Atlanta) 17, John Smoltz (Atlanta), Tommy Greene (Philadelphia) and Rod Beck (San Francisco) 16. 22-game winner John Burkett had 14 Win Shares for the Giants. WARP3 scores: Bonds 12.4, Dykstra 8.2, Piazza 8.1 (rookie), Bell 7.8 (peak), Williams 7.5 (peak), Thompson 7.4 (peak, last good season), Daulton (end of peak) and Wilkins (career year) 7.2, Luis Gonzalez (Houston) 6.6, Justice 6.3, Bagwell 6.2, Biggio 6.1, Grissom (peak) and Blauser 5.8, Orlando Merced (Pittsburgh) 5.7, Delino DeShields (Montreal) 5.5, Walker 5.1, Kruk 4.9 (last good season), Grace 4.7, Ozzie Smith (St. Louis) 4.6, Jefferies, Jeff King (Pittsburgh) and Barry Larkin (Cincinnati) 4.5. Pitchers, Rijo 9.6 (peak), Wetteland 7.0 (peak), Maddux 6.4, Harvey 6.1 (peak, last good year), Portugal 4.8 (career year), Dwight Gooden (New York) 4.6, Swift 4.5 (peak), Armando Reynoso (Colorado) 4.4, Avery (peak) and Jim Gott (Los Angeles) 4.1, Beck 3.9, Glavine and Greene (end of peak) 3.8. WAR leaders, position players: Bonds 10.6, Piazza 7.6, Dykstra 6.9, Bell 6.6, Thompson 6.2, Grissom and Williams 6.0, Gant 5.9, Bagwell and Blauser 5.6, L.Gonzalez and Jefferies 5.5, Daulton and Justice 5.3, Walker 5.1, Grace 5.0, DeShields and Kruk 4.9, Biggio 4.8, McGriff 4.7, Sosa 4.6. WAR leaders, pitchers: Maddux 7.9, Rijo 7.2, Avery 5.4, Greene 5.2, Schilling 5.1, Tewksbury 4.5, Burkett, Drabek, and Swift 4.4, Smoltz 4.3, Candiotti 4.2, Gooden 3.9, Jackson 3.7, Glavine and Portugal 3.6, Benes, Harnisch, and Wetteland 3.4. 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 Barry Bonds SFG 24 372 392 0.95 | 539 181 46 .336 1.136 29 2 Lenny Dykstra PHI 4 267 392 0.68 | 637 194 19 .305 .902 37 3 David Justice ATL 0 183 392 0.47 | 585 158 40 .270 .871 3 4 Fred McGriff TOT 0 177 392 0.45 | +557 162 37 .291 .924 5 5 Ron Gant ATL 0 176 392 0.45 | 606 166 36 .274 .854 26 6 Matt Williams SFG 0 103 392 0.26 | 579 170 38 .294 .886 1 7 Darren Daulton PHI 0 79 392 0.20 | 510 131 24 .257 .875 5 8 Marquis Grissom MON 0 66 392 0.17 | 630 188 19 .298 .789 53 9 Mike Piazza LAD 0 49 392 0.12 | 547 174 35 .318 .932 3 10 Andres Galarraga COL 0 45 392 0.11 | 470 174 22 .370 1.005 2 11 Gregg Jefferies STL 0 28 392 0.07 | 544 186 16 .342 .894 46 12 Rod Beck SFG 0 23 392 0.06 | 4 0 0 .000 .000 0| 3-1 79 2.16 0.88 86 48 13 Greg Maddux ATL 0 17 392 0.04 | 91 15 0 .165 .350 0| 20-10 267 2.36 1.05 197 14 Bryan Harvey FLA 0 14 392 0.04 | | 1-5 69 1.70 0.84 73 45 15 Robby Thompson SFG 0 11 392 0.03 | 494 154 19 .312 .870 10 Cy Young (top 5): | Season Results Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+ 1 Greg Maddux ATL 22 119 140 0.85 | 20-10 267 2.36 1.05 197 2 Bill Swift SFG 2 61 140 0.44 | 21-8 233 2.82 1.07 157 3 Tom Glavine ATL 4 49 140 0.35 | 22-6 239 3.20 1.36 120 4 John Burkett SFG 0 9 140 0.06 | 22-7 232 3.65 1.14 145 5 Jose Rijo CIN 0 8 140 0.06 | 14-9 257 2.48 1.09 227 Burkett finished behind Swift, although he had won more games. Intelligence on the part of BBWAA voters? Remarkable! Rookie (top 10):| 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 Piazza LAD 28 140 140 1.00 | 547 174 35 .318 .932 3 2 Greg McMichael ATL 0 40 140 0.29 | 4 0 0 .000 .000 0| 2-3 92 2.06 1.06 89 19 3 Jeff Conine FLA 0 31 140 0.22 | 595 174 12 .292 .754 2 4 Chuck Carr FLA 0 18 140 0.13 | 551 147 4 .267 .657 58 5 Al Martin PIT 0 6 140 0.04 | 480 135 18 .281 .820 16 6 Kevin Stocker PHI 0 4 140 0.03 | 259 84 2 .324 .826 5 7 Wil Cordero MON 0 3 140 0.02 | 475 118 10 .248 .695 12 7 Kirk Rueter MON 0 3 140 0.02 | 26 2 0 .077 .249 0| 8-0 86 2.73 1.20 31 9 Carlos Garcia PIT 0 2 140 0.01 | 546 147 12 .269 .716 18 9 Pedro Martinez LAD 0 2 140 0.01 | 4 0 0 .000 .000 0| 10-5 107 2.61 1.24 119 2 Showed ten in order to get Pedro on the list. Manager: Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share | W-L Rank +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+------+---------+-----+ 1 Dusty Baker SFG 15 105 140 0.75 | 103-59 2 2 Jim Fregosi PHI 11 92 140 0.66 | 97-65 1 3 Felipe Alou MON 2 27 140 0.19 | 94-68 2 3 Bobby Cox ATL 0 27 140 0.19 | 104-58 1 5 Don Baylor COL 0 1 140 0.01 | 67-95 6 Top player: Barry Bonds. This will get somewhat monotonous, but Bonds was the league's best for a long time, as befits one of the greatest of the game. #1 Barry Bonds, #2 Lenny Dykstra, #3 Mike Piazza, #4 Darren Daulton, #5 David Justice, #6 Jay Bell. Top pitcher: Greg Maddux. Jose Rijo turned in an excellent year for a lesser team. #1 Greg Maddux, #2 Jose Rijo, #3 John Wetteland, #4 Billy Swift, #5 Steve Avery. Top rookie: Mike Piazza, in a runaway. Top manager: Dusty Baker. I will agree with the BBWAA here. A lot of it was riding Barry Bonds, but you have to keep the secondary talent ready as well. Baker did that.