1995 National League

Atlanta won 90 games, and went on to win the only World Series of their 1990s dynasty. The Braves ripped through the NL East, winning by 21 games. Cincinnati took the NL Central by 9 games over Houston and 12 over Chicago, while Los Angeles took the NL West by a game over Colorado, which took the Wild Card. Pittsburgh was the worst team in the league with 86 losses. Tony Gwynn won the batting title at .368 and tied for the lead in hits with 197, while Dante Bichette tied Gwynn for hits and led in HR (40) and RBI (128) as well as total bases. Mike Piazza was second in average at .346, Bichette third at .340. Quilvio Veras led in steals with 56, followed by Barry Larkin at 51. Craig Biggio scored 123 runs, Mark Grace had 51 doubles, Eric Young and Brett Butler tied with 9 triples. Sammy Sosa and Larry Walked tied for second in homers with 36, while Sosa was second in RBI with 119. Barry Bonds edged Piazza in OPS. Piazza had the edge in OPS+. Greg Maddux led in wins with 19 and ERA at 1.63. Pete Schourek was second in wins with 18, Ramon Martinez third with 17. Hideo Nomo led in strikeouts with 236, and was second in ERA at 2.54. Randy Myers led in saves with 38, followed by Tom Henke with 36. Win Shares leaders, players; Barry Bonds (San Francisco) 36, Barry Larkin (Cincinnati) 30, Craig Biggio (Houston) 29, Reggie Sanders (Cincinnati) and Mike Piazza (Los Angeles) 27, Sammy Sosa (Chicago) and Eric Karros (Los Angeles) 25, Ken Caminiti (San Diego) 24, Mark Grace (Chicago), Dante Bichette (Colorado) and Tony Gwynn (San Diego) 23, Raul Mondesi (Los Angeles) and Ray Lankford (St. Louis) 22, Ron Gant (Cincinnati) 21, Chipper Jones and Fred McGriff (Atlanta), Jeff Conine (Florida), Jeff Bagwell (Houston) and Matt Williams (San Francisco) 20, David Justice (Atlanta) and Steve Finley (San Diego) 19. Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Greg Maddux (Atlanta) 30, Tom Glavine (Atlanta) 20, John Smoltz (Atlanta) and Hideo Nomo (Los Angeles) 17, Mark Wohlers (Atlanta), Pete Schourek (Cincinnati) and Denny Neagle (Pittsburgh) 16, Jaime Navarro (Chicago) and Ismael Valdez (Los Angeles) 15, Curtis Leskanic (Colorado), Todd Worrell (Los Angeles), Pedro Martinez (Montreal) and Andy Ashby (San Diego) 14. WARP3 scores: Bonds 9.4, Biggio 8.2, Piazza 7.3, Caminiti 7.1, Larkin 6.8, Sanders 6.0 (peak season), Karros 5.9, Williams 5.6, Bagwell 5.4, Gwynn and Jose Vizcaino (New York) 5.3, Mondesi 5.2, Grace 4.6, Delino DeShields (Los Angeles) 4.5, Jim Eisenreich (Philadelphia) 4.3, Gant 4.2 (returning from broken leg), Sosa, Conine, and Jose Offerman (Los Angeles) 4.1. Pitchers, Maddux 10.8, Glavine 5.3, Neagle 5.1, Wohlers 4.8 (peak season), Tom Henke (St. Louis) 4.5, Worrell and Kevin Ritz (Colorado) 4.1, Schourek 4.0 (career year), P. Martinez 3.7, Smoltz and Navarro 3.6, Nomo (rookie), Leskanic, Steve Reed (Colorado) and Chris Hammond (Florida) 3.3. WAR leaders, position players: Bonds 7.7, Sanders 6.6, Biggio 6.2, Piazza 6.0, Larkin 5.3, Sosa 5.2, Grace 4.7, Karros and Walker 4.6, Bagwell, Jordan, and Williams 4.5, Lankford 4.3, Mondesi 4.1, Caminiti and White 3.7, Justice and McRae 3.6. WAR leaders, pitchers: Maddux 8.0, Reynolds 5.0, Nomo 4.9, Smoltz 4.7, Neagle 4.6, Glavine and Smiley 4.4, Schourek 4.3, Ritz 4.0, Fassero 3.8, Navarro and Valdez 3.5, P. Martinez 3.3, Leskanic 3.2, Ashby 3.0. 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 Barry Larkin CIN 11 281 392 0.72 | 496 158 15 .319 .886 51 2 Dante Bichette COL 6 251 392 0.64 | 579 197 40 .340 .984 13 3 Greg Maddux ATL 7 249 392 0.64 | 72 11 0 .153 .367 0| 19-2 210 1.63 0.81 181 4 Mike Piazza LAD 3 214 392 0.55 | 434 150 32 .346 1.006 1 5 Eric Karros LAD 0 135 392 0.34 | 551 164 32 .298 .905 4 6 Reggie Sanders CIN 0 120 392 0.31 | 484 148 28 .306 .975 36 7 Larry Walker COL 0 88 392 0.22 | 494 151 36 .306 .988 16 8 Sammy Sosa CHC 0 81 392 0.21 | 564 151 36 .268 .840 34 9 Tony Gwynn SDP 0 72 392 0.18 | 535 197 9 .368 .888 17 10 Craig Biggio HOU 0 58 392 0.15 | 553 167 22 .302 .889 33 11 Ron Gant CIN 1 31 392 0.08 | 410 113 29 .276 .940 23 12 Barry Bonds SFG 0 21 392 0.05 | 506 149 33 .294 1.009 31 13 Mark Grace CHC 0 14 392 0.04 | 552 180 16 .326 .911 6 14 Derek Bell HOU 0 12 392 0.03 | 452 151 8 .334 .827 27 15 Jeff Bagwell HOU 0 5 392 0.01 | 448 130 21 .290 .894 12 A close vote....with Barry Bonds 12th? Maddux almost won, and this would have been a good season to give it to the pitcher. Cy Young: | Season Results Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+ 1 Greg Maddux ATL 28 140 140 1.00 | 19-2 210 1.63 0.81 181 2 Pete Schourek CIN 0 55 140 0.39 | 18-7 190 3.22 1.07 160 3 Tom Glavine ATL 0 30 140 0.21 | 16-7 199 3.08 1.25 127 4 Hideo Nomo LAD 0 29 140 0.21 | 13-6 191 2.54 1.06 236 5 Ramon Martinez LAD 0 8 140 0.06 | 17-7 206 3.66 1.25 138 Rookie: (top 6)| 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 Hideo Nomo LAD 18 118 140 0.84 | 66 6 0 .091 .180 0| 13-6 191 2.54 1.06 236 2 Chipper Jones ATL 10 104 140 0.74 | 524 139 23 .265 .803 8 3 Quilvio Veras FLA 0 14 140 0.10 | 440 115 5 .261 .757 56 4 Jason Isringhausen NYM 0 4 140 0.03 | 27 4 0 .148 .419 0| 9-2 93 2.81 1.28 55 4 John Mabry STL 0 4 140 0.03 | 388 119 5 .307 .752 0 4 Carlos Perez MON 0 4 140 0.03 | 45 6 1 .133 .471 0| 10-8 141 3.69 1.20 106 Manager: Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share | W-L Rank +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+------+---------+-----+ 1 Don Baylor COL 19 122 140 0.87 | 77-67 2 2 Davey Johnson CIN 8 89 140 0.64 | 85-59 1 3 Bobby Cox ATL 1 20 140 0.14 | 90-54 1 4 Terry Collins HOU 0 11 140 0.08 | 76-68 2 5 Jim Riggleman CHC 0 6 140 0.04 | 73-71 3 6 Dallas Green NYM 0 3 140 0.02 | 69-75 2 7 Bruce Bochy SDP 0 1 140 0.01 | 70-74 3 Top player: Barry Larkin. It's a homer vote, as Bonds and Piazza both rank as better: but not so much better that I can't make the case, much as the writers did. And Larkin clearly had a spectacular year for a surprise Reds team. #1 Barry Larkin, #2 Barry Bonds, #3 Mike Piazza, #4 Craig Biggio, #5 Ken Caminiti, #6 Reggie Sanders. Top pitcher: Greg Maddux, and it's not even close. It's easy to see the domination of the Braves' staff by this time. #1 Greg Maddux, #2 Tom Glavine, #3 Pete Schourek, #4 Denny Neagle, #5 Mark Wohlers. Top rookie: Hideo Nomo. The choice is between Nomo, who clearly had the better season, and Chipper Jones, who would almost certainly have the better career. I'll take Nomo this time. Top manager: Davey Johnson, guiding the Reds in to the Central crown.