Remembering an MVP Vote for the Ages

During the late 90s and early 2000s, offensive numbers across baseball reached record highs in what is now known as the PED era of the MLB, buoyed by Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa’s home run race in 1998. Looking back, the peak of that era offensively may have to be considered 2001, where records fell yet again, and the National League produce an MVP ballot that may have been the deepest in baseball history from a production standpoint.

Consider this; of the 28 players to receive MVP votes in the National League in 1998.

-Twelve players had a 6.5+ WAR, seven over 7.5 WAR, four over 8.5 WAR, three over 9.5, two over 10.0 WAR, and one over 11.0 WAR (although two of those players, Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, were pitchers)

-Seventeen players hit over 30 home runs, five hit over 40, three hit over 50, two hit over 60, and one hit a record 73 home runs.

-Fifteen players scored over 100 runs, thirteen over 110, seven over 120, two over 130, and one over 140 runs.

-Sixteen players drove in over 100 runs, eleven drove in over 110+ runs, ten drove in over 120 runs, six drove in over 130 runs, three over 140 runs, and one over 160 runs.

-Nine players walked over 90 times, five walked over 100 times, two walked over 110 times, and one walked over 170 times.

-Sixteen players hit over .300, twelve hit over .310, eleven hit .320+, five hit .330+, and one player hit .350.

-Nine players had an on base percentage over .400, seven over .420, five .430+, two over .440, and one over .500.

-Nineteen players slugged over .500, seventeen over .550, eight over .600, five over .650, two over .700, and one over .850.

-Ten players had an OPS over .900, eight had .950+, four over 1.000, and one over 1.100.

At the top of the MVP ballot was Barry Bonds, who had arguably the greatest offensive season in baseball history with his record-breaking 73 home runs, and deservedly won his fourth MVP award, the first of four straight in San Francisco. In 2001, he also set the single-season record by slugging .836, walking a then record 177 times, and posting an 11.9 WAR, the sixth-best in baseball history. Bonds’ 259 OPS+ in 2001 is the third-highest mark of all-time in a single-season, and his 1.3785 OPS is fourth. Without question, it was the 2001 season where Bonds completed his transformation from five-tool superstar to the greatest power hitter of all-time.

Sammy Sosa had one of the best offensive (and overlooked) seasons of all-time in 2001, hitting .328/.437/.737 with 64 home runs, 116 walks, and a league leading 146 runs, 160 RBI, and 425 total bases. For context, this was one of eight 60 home run seasons in baseball history, and Sosa’s third, yet remarkably, he did not the lead the league in home runs in any of those years, but did with 50 homers in 2000. In any other season, Sosa is the runaway, unanimous MVP, yet thanks to Bonds offensive heroics, he finished a distant second in the MVP vote. However, there were two voters that though highly enough of Sosa’s numbers that they put him first on their ballots, preventing Bonds from being a unanimous MVP.

Throughout his entire career, Luis Gonzalez received MVP votes in three seasons; 1999, when he finished 18th, and 2003, when he finished 25th, and 2001, when he finished third. Heading into 2001, Gonzalez was an All-Star caliber player, having hit .323/.397/.546 in 1999 and 2000, with two 100 RBI seasons, and a career high 31 home runs in 2000. If there’s anyone that exemplifies the ridiculousness of the 2001 NL MVP vote, it is Gonzo, who blew away his previous career highs with 57 HR, 142 RBI, 128 runs scored, 198 hits, 100 walks, and a .325/.429/.688 slash line for the World Champion Diamondbacks, yet finished third in the vote. Further down the ballot, Shawn Green finished sixth in the voting on the back of a career best season, hitting .297/.372/.598 with 49 HR, 125 RBI, 121 R, and 20 SB, remarkably not even making the All-Star team in the National League. In a normal season, career best years are the narratives that voters love to reward come award season, but in 2001, neither Gonzalez nor Green even came close to sniffing the MVP award.

Every Hall of Fame career has to start somewhere, and 2001 saw the debuts of Ichiro Suzuki and Albert Pujols in the MLB. In the American League, Ichiro went on to become the second player after Fred Lynn to win the MVP and Rookie of the Year in the same season, but in the national league, Pujols was no slouch himself. Pujols burst onto the scene by hitting .329/.403/.610 in 161 games for the Cardinals, adding all-around excellence with 112 runs, 194 hits, 47 doubles, 37 home runs, and 130 RBI, and finishing in the top-ten in the NL in WAR for position players, batting average, slugging, OPS, hits, total bases, doubles, runs batted in, extra base hits, times on base, and OPS+. What his reward for a historic rookie season? A fourth-place MVP finish, the first of ten top-ten MVP finishes for Pujols, which include his three NL MVP seasons.

If I showed you the following numbers in a vacuum, I guarantee you would think the player won the MVP that season, or at a minimum, finished in the top-three of the voting. Plain and simple, it was an incredible offensive display in every category, with 49 HR, 116 RBI, .336/.432/.685, 132 R, 197 H, 54 2B, 98 BB, 168 OPS+, and 7.8 WAR. Now I’m sure him playing at Coors Field and the resulting bias had something to do with the outcome, but Todd Helton didn’t just not win the MVP award with these numbers, but he finished ninth in the voting. I can confidently say that any player approaching Helton’s numbers wins the NL MVP in today’s offensive era, but for added context, here are the 2019 numbers for Juan Soto, who finished 9th in the NL MVP voting that season: 34 HR, 110 RBI, .282/.401/.548, 110 R, 153 H, 32 2B, 108 BB, 141 OPS+, and 4.6 WAR. This just goes to show, when a season like this barely cracks the top-ten of the voting, just how special the offensive output was in the National League in 2001.

Even though the likes of Trevor Story, Francisco Lindor, Corey Seager, and Fernando Tatis Jr. have bucked the trend in recent years, it’s always hard for me to picture shortstop as a premium offensive position power wise. To me, Alex Rodriguez notwithstanding, the shortstop position will always be the guys who are the best fielders on the team, consistently put the ball in play, and either hit at the very top, or very bottom of the lineup. In his only All-Star season in 2001, Rich Aurilia lived up to that description of a shortstop, hitting .324 with a .360 OBP, which would be a nice season, except it also came with 114 runs, 206 hits, 37 HR, and 97 RBI, fantastic offensive production for the position that landed him at a whopping 12th on the MVP ballot. Unbelievable.

The further you go down the ballot, the more ridiculous the voting becomes. Bobby Abreu had a 30–30 season, scored and drove in over 100 runs, had a .936 OPS, and finished 15th in the MVP vote. Phil Nevin hit .306 with 41 HR, 126 RBI, and a .976 OPS, and finished 21st. Vladimir Guerrero had a 30–30 season of his own, hit .307, and like Abreu, scored and drove in over 100 runs, but finished tied for 24th in the voting with one tenth-place vote. One of the players tied with Guerrero at the very bottom of the ballot was Larry Walker, who won his third batting title with a .350 average, hit 38 home runs, and had 123 RBI, and still only managed a single tenth-place vote.

Below is the complete ballot, where you can see even more great offensive outputs from players such as Hall of Famers Jeff Bagwell and Chipper Jones that completely get lost in the shuffle, further proving that for my money, the 2001 NL MVP ballot is unmatched by any other.