23 November 2012

2004 American League



Boston was flabbergasted.  The Red Sox finally won the World Series, their first world's championship since 1918.  It was quite the miracle comeback, too, as they had to overcome a 3-0 deficit, against the Yankees of all teams, in the ALCS.  Boston had won the Wild Card with the second-most wins in the league, 98, behind New York's 101 of course.  Minnesota took the Central with 92 wins, and Anaheim the West with a like 92, which was one ahead of Oakland's 91.  Texas won 89, and Cleveland was the only other AL team over .500, with a pedestrian 83 victories.  But that was far better than Kansas City, which lost 104, or Seattle, which lost 99.

Vlad Guerrero led the league in runs and total bases and won the MVP.  Ichiro Suzuki led in average and set a new record for hits in a season with 262.  Ichiro batted .372 with Melvin Mora second at .340 and Vlad third at .337.  Manny Ramirez led in home runs, slugging and OPS.  He had 43 homers, Paul Konerko and David Ortiz had 41 each.  Miguel Tejada led in RBI with 150, while Ortiz drove in 139 and Manny Ramirez 130.  Brian Roberts led in doubles with 50, Carl Crawford led in steals with 59 and triples with 19.  Travis Hafner topped the league in OPS+.  

Curt Schilling led the league in wins with 21, while Johan Santana ran second there with 20 and was first in ERA and strikeouts.  Santana had a 2.61 ERA, Schilling was second with a 3.26 mark.  Santana's 265 strikeouts were followed by Pedro Martinez with 227.  Santana won the Cy Young.  Mariano Rivera led in saves.

Win Shares leaders, players; Gary Sheffield (New York) 31, Miguel Tejada (Baltimore) and Alex Rodriguez (New York) 30, Vladimir Guerrero (Anaheim) and Hideki Matsui (New York) 29, Manny Ramirez (Boston) 28, Ichiro Suzuki (Seattle) 27, Johnny Damon (Boston), Derek Jeter (New York) and Hank Blalock (Texas) 26, Melvin Mora (Baltimore), David Ortiz (Boston), Mark Teixeira and Mike Young (Texas) 25, Carlos Lee (Chicago) and Carlos Guillen (Detroit) 24, Ivan Rodriguez (Detroit), Lew Ford (Minnesota) and Mark Kotsay (Oakland) 22, Jose Guillen (Anaheim), Mark Bellhorn (Boston), Aaron Rowand (Chicago), Travis Hafner (Cleveland), Carl Crawford and Julio Lugo (Tampa Bay) 21.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Johan Santana (Minnesota) 27, Curt Schilling (Boston) 22, Mark Buehrle (Chicago) and Brad Radke (Minnesota) 19, Jake Westbrook (Cleveland) and Ryan Drese (Texas) 17, Pedro Martinez (Boston), Joe Nathan (Minnesota), Mariano Rivera (New York), Tim Hudson (Oakland) and Ted Lilly (Toronto) 16.

WARP3 scores:  Sheffield 8.4, Tejada 11.8, A, Rodriguez 9.3, Guerrero 10.3, Matsui 7.8, Ramirez 7.8, Suzuki 9.2, Damon 8.1, Jeter 8.1, Blalock 7.6, Mora 8.0, Ortiz 7.3, Teixeira 6.5, Young 6.5, Lee 8.5, C. Guillen 10.4, I. Rodriguez 8.1, Ford 6.0 (rookie), Kotsay 8.8, J. Guillen 6.2, Bellhorn 6.0, Rowand 6.9, Hafner 7.5, Crawford 6.4, Lugo 6.7.  Pitchers, Santana 11.3, Schilling 10.2, Buehrle 7.6, Radke 7.4, Westbrook 8.1, Drese 7.2, Martinez 7.7, Nathan 7.4, Rivera 9.2, Hudson 5.9, Lilly 6.3.

WAR leaders, position players:  Suzuki 7.1, A. Rodriguez 6.8, Tejada 6.5, Guerrero 6.3, Mora 6.1, Rowand 5.9, Chavez 5.7, Guillen and Lee 5.6, Crawford and Jeter 5.1, Hafner 4.8, Huff and I. Rodriguez 4.7,  Damon and Lopez 4.6.  Pitchers:  Santana 7.7, Schilling 7.3, Martinez and Radke 5.7, Hudson 5.2, Garcia 5.0, Buehrle 4.9, Drese and Escobar 4.6, Harden 4.5, Arroyo 4.2, Rogers 4.1, Lieber and Rodriguez 4.0, Westbrook 3.9.

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 Vladimir Guerrero ANA   21    354    392  0.90 |  612 206 39  .337  .989  15|                           
  2 Gary Sheffield    NYY    5    254    392  0.65 |  573 166 36  .290  .927   5|                           
  3 Manny Ramirez     BOS    1    238    392  0.61 |  568 175 43  .308 1.009   2|                           
  4 David Ortiz       BOS    1    174    392  0.44 |  582 175 41  .301  .983   0|                           
  5 Miguel Tejada     BAL    0    123    392  0.31 |  653 203 34  .311  .894   4|                           
  6 Johan Santana     MIN    0    117    392  0.30 |    8   3  0  .375  .750   0| 20-6  228  2.61  0.92 265  
  7 Ichiro Suzuki     SEA    0     98    392  0.25 |  704 262  8  .372  .869  36|                           
  8 Michael Young     TEX    0     92    392  0.23 |  690 216 22  .313  .836  12|                           
  9 Mariano Rivera    NYY    0     61    392  0.16 |                            |  4-2   79  1.94  1.08  66 53
10 Ivan Rodriguez    DET    0     34    392  0.09 |  527 176 19  .334  .893   7|                           
11 Curt Schilling    BOS    0     14    392  0.04 |    7   1  0  .143  .286   0| 21-6  227  3.26  1.06 203  
12 Joe Nathan        MIN    0     12    392  0.03 |    1   0  0  .000  .000   0|  1-2   72  1.62  0.98  89 44
13 Derek Jeter       NYY    0     11    392  0.03 |  643 188 23  .292  .823  23|                           
14 Mark Kotsay       OAK    0      8    392  0.02 |  606 190 15  .314  .829   8|                           
14 Alex Rodriguez    NYY    0      8    392  0.02 |  601 172 36  .286  .888  28|                           

Cy Young:    Season Results
Rk Name     Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share|  W-L   IP  ERA   WHIP  SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
  1 Johan Santana     MIN   28    140    140  1.00 | 20-6  228  2.61  0.92 265  
  2 Curt Schilling    BOS    0     82    140  0.59 | 21-6  227  3.26  1.06 203  
  3 Mariano Rivera    NYY    0     27    140  0.19 |  4-2   79  1.94  1.08  66 53
  4 Pedro Martinez    BOS    0      1    140  0.01 | 16-9  217  3.90  1.17 227  
  4 Joe Nathan        MIN    0      1    140  0.01 |  1-2   72  1.62  0.98  89 44
  4 Francisco Rodriguez  ANA    0      1    140  0.01 |  4-1   84  1.82  1.00 123 12

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 Bobby Crosby      OAK   27    138    140  0.99 |  545 130 22  .239  .744   7|                           
  2 Shingo Takatsu    CHW    1     44    140  0.31 |                            |  6-4   62  2.31  0.98  50 19
  3 Daniel Cabrera    BAL    0     29    140  0.21 |    4   0  0  .000  .000   0| 12-8  148  5.00  1.58  76  1
  4 Zack Greinke      KCR    0     16    140  0.11 |    2   0  0  .000  .000   0|  8-11 145  3.97  1.17 100  
  5 Alexis Rios       TOR    0     12    140  0.09 |  426 122  1  .286  .720  15|                           
  6 David DeJesus     KCR    0      6    140  0.04 |  363 104  7  .287  .763   8|                           
  7 Ross Gload        CHW    0      4    140  0.03 |  234  75  7  .321  .853   0|                           
  8 John Buck         KCR    0      1    140  0.01 |  238  56 12  .235  .704   1|                           
  8 David Bush        TOR    0      1    140  0.01 |    2   0  0  .000  .000   0|  5-4   98  3.69  1.23  64  
  8 Nate Robertson    DET    0      1    140  0.01 |    3   0  0  .000  .000   0| 12-10 197  4.90  1.40 155  1

Manager:
Rk Name             Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share |    W-L    Rank
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+------+---------+-----+
  1 Buck Showalter    TEX   14    101    140   0.72 |   89-73     3
  2 Ron Gardenhire    MIN   11     91    140   0.65 |   92-70     1
  3 Mike Scioscia     ANA    2     31    140   0.22 |   92-70     1
  4 Joe Torre         NYY    1     18    140   0.13 |  101-61     1
  5 Terry Francona    BOS    0      8    140   0.06 |   98-64     2
  6 Eric Wedge        CLE    0      3    140   0.02 |   80-82     3

Top player:  Vlad Guerrero was the writers' pick, and the race is close, so I will stick with that.
#1 Vlad Guerrero, #2 Miguel Tejada, #3 Ichiro Suzuki, #4 Alex Rodriguez, #5 Melvin Mora, #6 Gary Sheffield.

Top pitcher: Johan Santana, and he had a good argument for the MVP as well.
#1 Johan Santana, #2 Curt Schilling, #3 Pedro Martinez, #4 Brad Radke, #5 Mark Buerhle.

Top rookie:  Bobby Crosby, a solid shortstop for Oakland in a less than stellar field.

Top manager:  Terry Francona, finally getting Boston over the hump.

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