It was the year of the home run chase in the NL, as Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa waged war on Roger Maris' single-season home run record. McGwire finished with 70, and Sosa with 66, as both surpassed the record. The Padres won the pennant, although they had the least victories of any division winner, but that total was still 98. It served as a capstone for Tony Gwynn's career. Atlanta won 106 games to take the East, Houston won 102 to claim the Central, and the Chicago Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants in a one-game playoff to claim the Wild Card spot when both finished the regular schedule with 89 wins. The Mets won 88. Meanwhile, the stripped Florida Marlins lost 108 games, the new Arizona Diamondbacks lost 97, as did the Expos, and the new (to the NL) Brewers were also-rans in the Central.
The big story, of course, was the assault on the home run record, with Mark McGwire's 70 and Sammy Sosa's 66 both topping the all-time mark of 61. Steroids were barely a whisper, but would become a shout a few years later. Greg Vaughn was third in homers with 50.
In other categories, to which scant attention was paid at the time, Larry Walker won the batting title with a .363 mark while John Olerud hit .354. Third was Dante Bichette at .331. Sosa led with 134 runs, McGwire had 130, Jeff Bagwell 124. Bichette had 219 hits, Craig Biggio 210. Biggio had 51 doubles, Bichette and Dmitri Young 48. David Delucci had 12 triples and Barry Larkin 10. Sosa posted 158 RBI, McGwire 147, Vinny Castilla 144. Tony Womack had 58 steals, Biggio 50.
Tom Glavine was the sole 20-game winner, Shane Reynolds and Kevin Tapani won 19, Kevin Brown and Greg Maddux won 18 each. Maddux led with a 2.22 ERA followed by Brown at 2.38 then Glavine and Al Leiter at 2.47. Curt Schilling had 300 strikeouts, Brown 257 and Kerry Wood 233. Trevor Hoffman set the pace with 53 saves and Rod Beck had 51.
Win Shares leaders, players; Mark McGwire (St. Louis) 41, Sammy Sosa (Chicago) and Craig Biggio (Houston) 35, John Olerud (New York) and Barry Bonds (San Francisco) 34, Mike Piazza (Los Angeles/Florida/New York) 33, Fernando Vina (Milwaukee), Scott Rolen (Philadelphia) and Greg Vaughn (San Diego) 30, Chipper Jones (Atlanta), Moises Alou and Jeff Bagwell (Houston) and Vladimir Guerrero (Montreal) 29, Andres Galarraga (Atlanta), Mark Grace (Chicago) and Ray Lankford (St. Louis) 27, Andruw Jones (Atlanta), Jeff Cirillo (Milwaukee), Bobby Abreu (Philadelphia) and Jason Kendall (Pittsburgh) 26, Javier Lopez (Atlanta), Barry Larkin (Cincinnati) and Jeff Kent (San Francisco) 25.
Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Kevin Brown (San Diego) 26, Greg Maddux (Atlanta) 25, Tom Glavine (Atlanta) 23, Curt Schilling (Philadelphia) 22, Al Leiter (New York) 21, Trevor Hoffman (San Diego) 20, Robb Nen (San Francisco) 19, Ugueth Urbina (Montreal) 17, John Smoltz (Atlanta), Pete Harnisch (Cincinnati), Shane Reynolds (Houston) and Rick Reed (New York) 16.
WARP3 scores: McGwire 11.5 (best season), Sosa 9.6, Biggio 9.6, Olerud 10.9, Bonds 12.5, Piazza 9.4, Vina 8.3 (best season), Rolen 10.1, Vaughn 9.9 (career year), C. Jones 8.7, Alou 9.0 (best season), Bagwell 9.3, Guerrero 6.7, Galarraga 6.1 (last big year), Grace 7.9, Lankford 7.5 (last big year), A. Jones 9.1, Cirillo 9.3 (best year), Abreu 6.7, Kendall 9.3 (best year), Lopez 8.3, Larkin 7.7, Kent 7.3.
Pitchers, Brown 9.8, Maddux 10.6, Glavine 9.9, Schilling 8.8, Leiter 8.0 (best season), Hoffman 8.2, Nen 8.3 (best season), Urbina 8.0, Smoltz 6.1, Harnisch 6.1, Reynolds 5.7, Reed 6.1.
WAR leaders, position players: Bonds and McGwire 8.8, Olerud 8.4, C. Jones and Sosa 7.4, A. Jones and Rolen 7.3, Brian Jordan (Atlanta) 7.2, Alou 7.1, Bagwell and Guerrero 7.0, Piazza 6.8, Biggio, Cirillo, and Abreu 6.7, Lankford 6.5, Larkin 6.2, Kendall and Vaughn 6.1, Bell 6.0, Galarraga 5.3, Walker 5.2.
WAR leaders, pitchers: Brown 9.3, Schilling 8.6, Maddux 7.6, Smoltz 5.3, Glavine 4.9, Leiter 4.7, Reynolds 4.6, Darryl Kile (Colorado) and Kerry Wood (Chicago) 4.4, Mark Clark (Chicago) 4.1, Dreifort 3.8, Daal 3.7, Cordova and Tomko 3.6, Benes and Perez 3.5, Johnson, Millwood, Nen, and Thomson 3.4. RJ was 10-1 down the stretch for the Astros.
Actual award winners:
MVP: 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 Sammy Sosa CHC 30 438 448 0.98 | 643 198 66 .308 1.024 18|
2 Mark McGwire STL 2 272 448 0.61 | 509 152 70 .299 1.222 1|
3 Moises Alou HOU 0 215 448 0.48 | 584 182 38 .312 .981 11|
4 Greg Vaughn SDP 0 185 448 0.41 | 573 156 50 .272 .960 11|
5 Craig Biggio HOU 0 163 448 0.36 | 646 210 20 .325 .906 50|
6 Andres Galarraga ATL 0 147 448 0.33 | 555 169 44 .305 .991 7|
7 Trevor Hoffman SDP 0 117 448 0.26 | 3 0 0 .000 .000 0| 4-2 73 1.48 0.85 86 53
8 Barry Bonds SFG 0 66 448 0.15 | 552 167 37 .303 1.047 28|
9 Chipper Jones ATL 0 56 448 0.12 | 601 188 34 .313 .951 16|
9 Jeff Kent SFG 0 56 448 0.12 | 526 156 31 .297 .914 9|
11 Vinny Castilla COL 0 49 448 0.11 | 645 206 46 .319 .951 5|
12 John Olerud NYM 0 38 448 0.08 | 557 197 22 .354 .998 2|
13 Vladimir Guerrero MON 0 25 448 0.06 | 623 202 38 .324 .960 11|
14 Mike Piazza TOT 0 15 448 0.03 | +561 184 32 .328 .960 1|
15 Tony Gwynn SDP 0 11 448 0.02 | 461 148 16 .321 .865 3|
16 Kevin Brown SDP 0 8 448 0.02 | 82 17 0 .207 .488 0| 18-7 257 2.38 1.07 257
17 Larry Walker COL 0 7 448 0.02 | 454 165 23 .363 1.075 14|
18 Rod Beck CHC 0 5 448 0.01 | 1 0 0 .000 .000 0| 3-4 80 3.02 1.32 81 51
19 Jeromy Burnitz MIL 0 4 448 0.01 | 609 160 38 .263 .838 7|
20 Scott Rolen PHI 0 3 448 0.01 | 601 174 31 .290 .923 14|
21 Dante Bichette COL 0 2 448 0.00 | 662 219 22 .331 .866 14|
21 Tom Glavine ATL 0 2 448 0.00 | 71 17 0 .239 .532 0| 20-6 229 2.47 1.20 157
21 Randy Johnson TOT 0 2 448 0.00 | 32 2 0 .062 .156 0| 10-1 84 1.28 0.98 116
24 Javy Lopez ATL 0 1 448 0.00 | 489 139 34 .284 .868 5|
24 Mickey Morandini CHC 0 1 448 0.00 | 582 172 8 .296 .765 13|
Sosa easily won, probably because of the combination of RBI total and the Cubs making the postseason.
Cy Young: Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
1 Tom Glavine ATL 11 99 160 0.62 | 20-6 229 2.47 1.20 157
2 Trevor Hoffman SDP 13 88 160 0.55 | 4-2 73 1.48 0.85 86 53
3 Kevin Brown SDP 8 76 160 0.48 | 18-7 257 2.38 1.07 257
4 Greg Maddux ATL 0 10 160 0.06 | 18-9 251 2.22 0.98 204
4 John Smoltz ATL 0 10 160 0.06 | 17-3 168 2.90 1.13 173
6 Al Leiter NYM 0 3 160 0.02 | 17-6 193 2.47 1.15 174
7 Randy Johnson TOT 0 2 160 0.01 | 10-1 84 1.28 0.98 116
Interesting three-way race, but they ignored the ERA leader.
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 Kerry Wood CHC 16 128 160 0.80 | 54 7 2 .130 .386 0| 13-6 167 3.40 1.21 233
2 Todd Helton COL 15 119 160 0.74 | 530 167 25 .315 .911 3|
3 Travis Lee ARI 0 21 160 0.13 | 562 151 22 .269 .775 8|
4 Kerry Ligtenberg ATL 1 18 160 0.11 | | 3-2 73 2.71 1.03 79 30
5 Brad Fullmer MON 0 2 160 0.01 | 505 138 13 .273 .773 6|
Manager: 1st Max |
Rk Name Team Place Points Points Share | W-L Rank
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+------+---------+-----+
1 Larry Dierker HOU 16 102 160 0.64 | 102-60 1
2 Bruce Bochy SDP 5 70 160 0.44 | 98-64 1
3 Jim Riggleman CHC 5 55 160 0.34 | 90-73 2
4 Dusty Baker SFG 6 39 160 0.24 | 89-74 2
5 Bobby Cox ATL 0 17 160 0.11 | 106-56 1
6 Bobby Valentine NYM 0 5 160 0.03 | 88-74 2
Top player: Mark McGwire. I just can't ignore the 70-homer year.
#1 Mark McGwire, #2 Barry Bonds, #3 Sammy Sosa, #4 John Olerud, #5 Craig Biggio, #6 Scott Rolen.
Top pitcher: Kevin Brown in his best overall year.
#1 Kevin Brown, #2 Greg Maddux, #3 Tom Glavine, #4 Curt Schilling, #5 Robb Nen.
Top rookie: Todd Helton, over Kerry Wood. Hindsight helps here.
Top manager: Larry Dierker for me as well. Bochy, Cox and Riggelman are also good choices.
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