2003 National League

The Florida Marlins won the second World Championship in their history, and the second as a Wild Card team.  The firing of Jeff Torborg in midseason, in favor of Jack McKeon, seemed to ignite the team and the pitching was fearsome down the stretch.  Atlanta won the NL East with 101 victories, San Francisco won the West with 100, and Chicago took the Central with 88 while Florida won 91.  The Central was a close race as Houston won 87 and St. Louis 85.  Philadelphia won 86, Los Angeles 85, Arizona 84 and Montreal a surprising 83.  San Diego had the most losses at 98.

Barry Bonds again won the MVP.  He led the league in walks, and was 2nd in homers.  He also led in on-base, slugging and OPS.  Albert Pujols led in average, hits, runs, doubles, and total bases.  Pujols hit .359 and Todd Helton .358.  Bonds hit .341.  Pujols had 137 runs to Helton's 135 and Rafael Furcal's 130.  Pujols had 212 hits, Helton 209.  Pujols also had 51 doubles, Furcal and Steve Finley 10 triples.  Preston Wilson led in RBI with 141, followed by Gary Sheffield at 132 and Jim Thome at 131.  Thome led in HR with 47, Bonds and Richie Sexson had 45, Pujols and Javy Lopez 43.  Juan Pierre led in steals with 63.  

Eric Gagne led with 55 saves and won the Cy Young.  Russ Ortiz led in wins with 21, Matt Prior and Woody Williams had 18.  Kerry Wood led in strikeouts with 266, Prior had 245 and Javier Vazquez 241.  Jason Schmidt posted a 2.34 ERA, , Kevin Brown 2.39, Prior 2.43.

Win Shares leaders, players; Albert Pujols (St. Louis) 41, Barry Bonds (San Francisco) 39, Gary Sheffield (Atlanta) 35, Todd Helton (Colorado) 34, Javy Lopez (Atlanta) and Jim Thome (Philadelphia) 30, Marcus Giles (Atlanta) and Bobby Abreu (Philadelphia) 28, Chipper Jones (Atlanta) and Richie Sexson (Milwaukee) 26, Rafael Furcal (Atlanta), Derrek Lee (Florida), Lance Berkman (Houston), Brian Giles (Pittsburgh/San Diego) and Edgar Renteria and Scott Rolen (St. Louis) 25, Luis Gonzalez (Arizona) and Mark Loretta (San Diego) 24, Andruw Jones (Atlanta), Mike Lowell and Ivan Rodriguez (Florida) 23.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Eric Gagne (Los Angeles) 25, Mark Prior (Chicago), Livan Hernandez (Montreal) and Jason Schmidt (San Francisco) 22, Javier Vazquez (Montreal) 21, Kevin Brown (Los Angeles) 20, Billy Wagner (Houston) 19, Kerry Wood and Carlos Zambrano (Chicago) 18, Brandon Webb (Arizona) and Hideo Nomo (Los Angeles) 17.

WARP3 leaders: Pujols 11.9, Bonds 12.7, Sheffield 10.5, Helton 12.4, Lopez 10.2, Thome 7.8, M. Giles 10.3, Abreu 7.9, C. Jones 6.3, Sexson 9.8, Furcal 5.9, Lee 8.5, Berkman 7.9, B. Giles 8.3, Renteria 9.5, Rolen 9.3, Gonzalez 8.7, Loretta 7.6, A. Jones 8.9, Lowell 6.7, Rodriguez 8.6.  Pitchers, Gagne 9.4, Prior 9.4, Hernandez 8.5, Schmidt 8.3, Vazquez 7.9, Brown 8.5, Wagner 7.7, Wood 8.3, Zambrano 8.1, Webb 7.3 (rookie), Nomo 8.0.

WAR leaders, position players:  Bonds 10.5, Pujols 10.1, Sheffield 8.0, Helton 7.2, Giles and Lopez 7.0, Renteria 6.9, Rolen 6.7, Berkman 6.6, Edmonds 6.5, Hidalgo 6.2, A. Jones 5.9, Abreu 5.8, Castillo 5.3, Loretta 5.0.  Pitchers:  Prior 7.6, Schmidt 6.7, Brown and Vazquez 6.0, Schilling 5.9, Zambrano 4.9, Webb 4.8, Batista 4.6, Gagne, Hernandez, and Millwood 4.5, Williams and Wood 4.2, Beckett and Maddux 3.9.

 

Actual award winners:

MVP (top 15):        Season Results
Rk Name      Team 1^st Place Points Max Points Share|   AB  H  HR   BA    OPS  SB|  W-L   IP  ERA   WHIP  SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+--+-----+-----+---+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
  1 Barry Bonds       SFG   28    426    448  0.95 |  390 133 45  .341 1.278   7|                           
  2 Albert Pujols     STL    3    303    448  0.68 |  591 212 43  .359 1.106   5|                           
  3 Gary Sheffield    ATL    1    247    448  0.55 |  576 190 39  .330 1.023  18|                           
  4 Jim Thome         PHI    0    203    448  0.45 |  578 154 47  .266  .958   0|                           
  5 Javy Lopez        ATL    0    159    448  0.35 |  457 150 43  .328 1.065   0|                           
  6 Eric Gagne        LAD    0    143    448  0.32 |                            |  2-3   82  1.20  0.69 137 55
  7 Todd Helton       COL    0     75    448  0.17 |  583 209 33  .358 1.088   0|                           
  8 Sammy Sosa        CHC    0     53    448  0.12 |  517 144 40  .279  .911   0|                           
  9 Mark Prior        CHC    0     44    448  0.10 |   72  18  1  .250  .617   0| 18-6  211  2.43  1.10 245  
10 Juan Pierre       FLA    0     39    448  0.09 |  668 204  1  .305  .734  65|                           
11 Mike Lowell       FLA    0     30    448  0.07 |  492 136 32  .276  .881   3|                           
12 Richie Sexson     MIL    0     21    448  0.05 |  606 165 45  .272  .927   2|                           
13 Andruw Jones      ATL    0     15    448  0.03 |  595 165 36  .277  .851   4|                           
14 Jeff Bagwell      HOU    0     14    448  0.03 |  605 168 39  .278  .897  11|                           
15 Edgar Renteria    STL    0     13    448  0.03 |  587 194 13  .330  .874  34|                           
Concentration at the top, but a big spread at the bottom as 34 players received votes.  Everyone trying to get in a favorite, it seems.

Cy Young:    Season Results
Rk Name     Team 1^st Place Points Max Points Share|  W-L   IP  ERA   WHIP  SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
  1 Eric Gagne        LAD   28    146    160  0.91 |  2-3   82  1.20  0.69 137 55
  2 Jason Schmidt     SFG    2     73    160  0.46 | 17-5  208  2.34  0.95 208  
  3 Mark Prior        CHC    2     60    160  0.38 | 18-6  211  2.43  1.10 245  
  4 Russ Ortiz        ATL    0      9    160  0.06 | 21-7  212  3.81  1.31 149 

Rookie:     Season Results
Rk Name    Team 1^st Place Points Max Points Share|   AB  H  HR   BA    OPS  SB|  W-L   IP  ERA   WHIP  SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+--+-----+-----+---+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
  1 Dontrelle Willis  FLA   17    118    160  0.74 |   58  14  1  .241  .606   0| 14-6  161  3.30  1.28 142  
  2 Scott Podsednik   MIL    8     81    160  0.51 |  558 175  9  .314  .822  43|                           
  3 Brandon Webb      ARI    7     73    160  0.46 |   50   5  0  .100  .255   0| 10-9  181  2.84  1.15 172  
  4 Marlon Byrd       PHI    0      6    160  0.04 |  495 150  7  .303  .784  11|                           
  5 Miguel Cabrera    FLA    0      3    160  0.02 |  314  84 12  .268  .793   0|                           
  5 Brad Lidge        HOU    0      3    160  0.02 |    4   0  0  .000  .000   0|  6-3   85  3.60  1.20  97  1
  7 Jeriome Robertson HOU    0      2    160  0.01 |   52   8  0  .154  .362   0| 15-9  161  5.10  1.52  99  
  8 Jose Reyes        NYM    0      1    160  0.01 |  274  84  5  .307  .769  13|                           
  8 Ty Wigginton      NYM    0      1    160  0.01 |  573 146 11  .255  .714  12| 

Manager:
Rk Name   Team 1^st Place Points Max Points Share |    W-L    Rank
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+------+---------+-----+
  1 Jack McKeon       FLA   19    116    160   0.72 |   75-49     2
  2 Dusty Baker       CHC    2     62    160   0.39 |   88-74     1
  3 Bobby Cox         ATL    6     56    160   0.35 |  101-61     1
  4 Felipe Alou       SFG    5     51    160   0.32 |  100-61     1
  5 Frank Robinson    MON    0      3    160   0.02 |   83-79     4

Top player:  Albert Pujols.  It's a tough choice, because how do you pick against Barry Bonds?  But Pujols had more Win Shares in this season, and the WARP was close.  Close enough to swing me over to Albert.  Both played for contenders, although Barry's team won a division and Albert's didn't.  But I'll go with WS this time.

#1 Albert Pujols, #2 Barry Bonds, #3 Gary Sheffield, #4 Todd Helton, #5 Javy Lopez, #6 Marcus Giles.

Top pitcher:  Eric Gagne.  If there was ever a year to give this to a reliever, this is it.  Gagne was extremely dominating, and no starter was.  The top starters pitched just over 200 innings to Gagne's 82, but he was more impressive in his time.  Win Shares has Gagne ahead, WARP has him tied with Prior.

#1 Eric Gagne, #2 Mark Prior, #3 Livan Hernandez, #4 Jason Schmidt, #5 Kevin Brown.

Top rookie:  Brandon Webb.  Dontrelle got more press, but Webb pitched better.

Top manager:  Jack McKeon, for a miracle with the Marlins.