MVPs Announced
It was a near-clean sweep for the #1 and #2 teams in the NL this year. The Giants and Reds had the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd best pitchers, the top rookie, and, as we shall see, the 1st and 3rd most valuable players. Brad Box was the NL MVP this year. This is the 2nd straight year he's won the award, and he did it in grand fashion, setting a new major league baseball record for RBIs with 151. Although his team finished below .500, you just can't ignore the incredible work with both the stick and the glove of CF Charles Payne of the Philadelphia Phillies. His gaudy numbers were inflated by the Baker Bowl, but they're still insane. 3B Emory Jefferson perhaps should have won the MVP outright but New York writers split between him and teammate Erik Conn.
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Batting Stats
Year/Team/League Age G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB AVG OBP SLG
Brad Box, RF CIN 27 154 612 138 224 41 10 28 151 111 13 8 .366 .459 .603
Charles Payne, CF PHN 35 150 566 152 190 46 7 38 130 122 39 19 .336 .452 .643
Emory Jefferson, 3B NYG 27 139 555 123 193 26 5 37 133 78 39 0 .348 .425 .613
Lester Archie flirted with .400 all season long and while he eventually came up short, his performance was still good enough to win the AL MVP. The big question with him is that that award now makes him far too expensive for the St. Louis Browns to afford. Where is he going to end up? A large possibility always remains New York and the Yankees, which is where the #2 MVP votee Carter Keeton resided this year. Archie's former teammate would have won the award for sure if he hadn't missed the last month of the season. The #3 award-getter was Gustavo Pena of the Philadelphia Athletics. The 35-year old Venezuelan raised his average 68 points from the year before.
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Batting Stats
Year/Team/League Age G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB AVG OBP SLG
Lester Archie, SS, STB 25 154 646 108 249 44 6 17 114 81 31 0 .385 .456 .551
Carter Keeton, LF, NYY 26 127 464 115 155 25 10 22 115 103 52 3 .334 .458 .573
Gustavo Pena, 3B, PHA 35 150 609 103 203 40 13 10 87 103 34 16 .333 .433 .491