Monday, November 15, 2004
The Joy of Seven
Around this time last year I wrote an article called The Joy of Six, looking at Barry Bonds' sixth MVP season. Now that Bonds has won a seventh, let's look at the numbers again.
Since 1990, Barry has won 7 MVPs, the rest of the NL 8; and the Pendleton and Kent MVPs are sometimes held as suspect. With 7 MVPs in 19 years, Bonds has spent more than a third of his career as MVP. A chart we published last season puts this into perspective, showing MVPs and second, third, fourth and fifth place finishes:
Name 1 2 3 4 5 Comments Bonds 7 2 0 1 2 Gwynn 0 0 1 0 0 Too many bad Padres teams McGwire 0 1 0 1 1 Writers gave his MVP to Sammy Sosa 1 1 0 0 0 Might catch Barry in homers, no chance in MVPs Griffey 1 1 0 2 1 Used to be a good argument - "Junior vs. Barry" A-Rod 1 2 1 0 0 Finally! Thomas 2 1 2 0 0 Easy to forget how good Frank once was Pete Rose 1 1 0 2 1 No Cooperstown either
Last season was more dramatic: he spent most of his time at the hospital with his ailing father, and had a series of game-winning hits when he returned from family leave. Although the Giants fell in the playoffs, they were playing in October. This year was walk after walk, with the playoffs disappearing for the Giants in inning 9 of game 161. However, the stats were more impressive this year than last:
OBP
1 Bonds 2004 .609 2 Bonds 2002 .582 3 Williams 1941 .553 4 Ruth 1923 .545 5 Ruth 1920 .532 6 Bonds 2003 .529 7 Williams 1957 .523 8 Ruth 1926 .516 9 Bonds 2001 .515 10 Ruth 1924 .513
Barry became the first player to break the .600 barrier. He was over 50 points higher than Ted Williams' old record. The top ten chart has 4 Bonds, 4 Ruths and 2 Williams. That's some company.
Slugging:
1 Bonds 2001 .864 2 Ruth 1920 .847 3 Ruth 1921 .846 4 Bonds 2004 .812 5 Bonds 2002 .799 6 Ruth 1927 .772 7 Gehrig 1927 .765 8 Ruth 1923 .764 9 Hornsby 1925 .756 10 McGwire 1998 .753
Barry posted the #4 slugging season, his 2003 gets pushed to #12.
In combination we get:
OPS
1 Bonds 2004 1.422 2 Bonds 2002 1.380 3 Ruth 1920 1.379 4 Bonds 2001 1.379 5 Ruth 1921 1.359 6 Ruth 1923 1.309 7 Williams 1941 1.287 8 Bonds 2003 1.278 9 Ruth 1927 1.258 10 Williams 1957 1.257
Barry takes the record by over 40 points. Note that like OBP, this is a chart with only three names.
Finally, we look at IBBs. Here's his 2004 and all of the non-Barry seasons that were over a quarter
of his year (note the gaps):
1. Barry Bonds 120 2004 4. Willie McCovey 45 1969 6. Willie McCovey 40 1970 7. Sammy Sosa 37 2001 10 John Olerud 33 1993 10 Ted Williams 33 1957 12 Vladimir Guerrero 32 2002 12 Kevin Mitchell 32 1989 15. George Brett 31 1985
posted by David 8:25 AM
