1996 National League

Atlanta was the best team in the league, with 96 regular season wins and a pennant for winning two rounds of playoffs. The Braves finished eight games ahead of Montreal in the East, while St. Louis won 88 games to take the Central, six ahead of Houston and seven ahead of Cincinnati. San Diego won the West with 91 victories, while Los Angeles took the Wild Card with 90 wins. Philadelphia had the worst record, losing 95 games. Tony Gwynn won the batting title, even though he did not have enough plate appearances to qualify. He batted .353, still ahead of Ellis Burks at .344 even with extra ABs added to reach the PA threshhold. Andres Galarraga led in HR and RBI with a Coors-aided 47 and 150. Gary Sheffield and Barry Bonds tied for second in homers with 42, Dante Bichette was second in RBI with 141. Eric Young led in steals with 53, ahead of Lance Johnson at 50. Ellis Burks led in slugging, Gary Sheffield in on-base and OPS. Jeff Bagwell had 48 doubles, Lance Johnson 227 hits. Sheffield edged Barry Bonds in OPS+. Ken Caminiti won the MVP for a strong performance, which he later admitted was at least partly attributable to steroid use. John Smoltz won the MVP with his lead in wins (24) and strikeouts (276). Kevin Brown led in ERA with a 1.89 mark, with Gary Maddux second at 2.72. Andy Benes was second in wins with 18. Jeff Brantley and Todd Worrell tied for the saves lead with 44. Smoltz led in innings with 254. Curt Schilling had 8 complete games and Brown three shutouts. Win Shares leaders, players; Jeff Bagwell (Houston) 41, Barry Bonds (San Francisco) 39, Ken Caminiti (San Diego) 38, Gary Sheffield (Florida) 34, Mike Piazza (Los Angeles) 33, Craig Biggio (Houston) 32, Barry Larkin (Cincinnati) 31, Bernard Gilkey (New York) 30, Ellis Burks (Colorado) 28, Steve Finley (San Diego) and Brian Jordan (St. Louis) 27, Chipper Jones (Atlanta) and Lance Johnson (New York) 26, Andres Galarraga (Colorado), Raul Mondesi (Los Angeles) and Ray Lankford (St. Louis) 25, Marquis Grissom (Atlanta) and Todd Hundley (New York) 24, Vinny Castilla (Colorado) 23, Eric Davis (Cincinnati) and Jeff King (Pittsburgh) 22. Win Shares leaders, pitchers; John Smoltz (Atlanta) 27, Kevin Brown (Florida) 26, Greg Maddux (Atlanta) 23, Tom Glavine (Atlanta) 22, Trevor Hoffman (San Diego) 20, Al Leiter and Robb Nen (Florida) 19, Jeff Fassero and Mel Rojas (Montreal) 18, Denny Neagle (Pittsburgh/Atlanta) 17, Hideo Nomo and Ismael Valdes (Los Angeles) 16. WAR (Wins Against Replacement) scores: Bonds 10.8, Bagwell 8.3, Gilkey 8.1 (career year), Caminiti 7.9 (career year), Burks 7.6 (best year), Larkin 7.4, Johnson 6.8 (best year), Sheffield and Piazza 6.1, Jordan and Jones 6.0, Sammy Sosa (Chicago) 5.9, Finley 5.8 (best year), Lankford 5.4, Biggio 5.1, Hundley 5.0 (career year), Mark Grace (Chicago) 4.9, Mondesi 4.7, Brian McRae (Chicago) 4.6, Grissom 3.9, Galarraga tied for 21st at 3.8. Runs were cheap in Coors. Pitchers, Brown 7.5 (career year), Maddux 6.3, Smoltz 6.1 (best year), Glavine 5.6, Fassero 5.2, Leiter and Neagle 5.1, Nomo 4.4, Curt Schilling (Philadelphia) 4.3, Pedro Astacio (Los Angeles) 4.2, Valdes 4.1, Hoffman and John Smiley (Cincinnati) 4.0. WAR leaders, position players: Bonds 9.1, Bagwell 7.7, Caminiti and Gilkey 7.6, Burks 7.2, Larkin 6.8, Piazza 6.6, L. Johnson and Sheffield 6.5, C. Jones 6.4, Lankford 5.5, Finley and Sosa 5.4, Jordan 5.3, Hundley 4.8, Biggio 4.7, Grissom 4.6, Conine 4.4, Mondesi 4.2. WAR leaders, pitchers: Smoltz 8.4, Maddux 7.8, Brown 6.8, Fassero 6.0, Reynolds 5.6, Glavine 5.3, P. Martinez 5.2, Schilling 4.9, Smiley 4.6, Kyle, Neagle, Nomo, and Valdez 3.8, Clark 3.6. 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 Ken Caminiti SDP 28 392 392 1.00 | 546 178 40 .326 1.028 11 2 Mike Piazza LAD 0 237 392 0.60 | 547 184 36 .336 .985 0 3 Ellis Burks COL 0 186 392 0.47 | 613 211 40 .344 1.047 32 4 Chipper Jones ATL 0 158 392 0.40 | 598 185 30 .309 .923 14 5 Barry Bonds SFG 0 132 392 0.34 | 517 159 42 .308 1.076 40 6 Andres Galarraga COL 0 112 392 0.29 | 626 190 47 .304 .958 18 6 Gary Sheffield FLA 0 112 392 0.29 | 519 163 42 .314 1.090 16 8 Brian Jordan STL 0 69 392 0.18 | 513 159 17 .310 .833 22 9 Jeff Bagwell HOU 0 59 392 0.15 | 568 179 31 .315 1.021 21 10 Steve Finley SDP 0 38 392 0.10 | 655 195 30 .298 .885 22 11 John Smoltz ATL 0 33 392 0.08 | 78 17 1 .218 .548 0| 24-8 254 2.94 1.00 276 12 Barry Larkin CIN 0 29 392 0.07 | 517 154 33 .298 .977 36 13 Marquis Grissom ATL 0 23 392 0.06 | 671 207 23 .308 .838 28 14 Bernard Gilkey NYM 0 13 392 0.03 | 571 181 30 .317 .955 17 15 Sammy Sosa CHC 0 12 392 0.03 | 498 136 40 .273 .888 18 Cy Young: | Season Results Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO Sv +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+ 1 John Smoltz ATL 26 136 140 0.97 | 24-8 254 2.94 1.00 276 2 Kevin Brown FLA 2 88 140 0.63 | 17-11 233 1.89 0.94 159 3 Andy Benes STL 0 9 140 0.06 | 18-10 230 3.83 1.27 160 1 4 Hideo Nomo LAD 0 5 140 0.04 | 16-11 228 3.19 1.16 234 5 Trevor Hoffman SDP 0 4 140 0.03 | 9-5 88 2.25 0.92 111 42 5 Greg Maddux ATL 0 4 140 0.03 | 15-11 245 2.72 1.03 172 5 Todd Worrell LAD 0 4 140 0.03 | 4-6 65 3.03 1.30 66 44 8 Denny Neagle TOT 0 2 140 0.01 |+16-9 221 3.50 1.24 149 9 Jeff Fassero MON 0 1 140 0.01 | 15-11 232 3.30 1.17 222 9 Al Leiter FLA 0 1 140 0.01 | 16-12 215 2.93 1.26 200 9 Shane Reynolds HOU 0 1 140 0.01 | 16-10 239 3.65 1.13 204 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 Todd Hollandsworth LAD 15 105 140 0.75 | 478 139 12 .291 .785 21 2 Edgar Renteria FLA 10 84 140 0.60 | 431 133 5 .309 .757 16 3 Jason Kendall PIT 1 30 140 0.21 | 414 124 3 .300 .773 5 4 F.P. Santangelo MON 1 15 140 0.11 | 393 109 7 .277 .776 5 5 Rey Ordonez NYM 1 7 140 0.05 | 502 129 1 .257 .592 1 6 Jermaine Dye ATL 0 6 140 0.04 | 292 82 12 .281 .763 1 7 Alan Benes STL 0 5 140 0.04 | 61 9 0 .148 .371 0| 13-10 191 4.90 1.46 131 Manager: Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share | W-L Rank +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+------+---------+-----+ 1 Bruce Bochy SDP 10 76 140 0.54 | 91-71 1 2 Felipe Alou MON 8 74 140 0.53 | 88-74 2 3 Tony LaRussa STL 7 69 140 0.49 | 88-74 1 4 Bobby Cox ATL 3 24 140 0.17 | 96-66 1 5 Bill Russell LAD 0 6 140 0.04 | 49-37 2 6 Terry Collins HOU 0 3 140 0.02 | 82-80 2 Top player: The two best in the league by Win Shares and WAR were Jeff Bagwell and Barry Bonds. Bonds' team finished last, Bagwell's was second. Ken Caminiti won the MVP with a team that won its division. It's a tough choice, but I will take Bagwell as a compromise choice. #1 Barry Bonds, #2 Jeff Bagwell, #3 Ken Caminiti, #4 Barry Larkin, #5 Gary Sheffield, #6 Mike Piazza. Top pitcher: The best year for John Smoltz. Kevin Brown was terrific too, and Greg Maddux the usual. #1 John Smoltz, #2 Kevin Brown, #3 Greg Maddux, #4 Tom Glavine, #5 Jeff Fassero. Top rookie: Edgar Renteria, who combined offensive value with a key defensive position. Top manager: Bruce Bochy got the Padres to the division title.