NL Triple Crown and MVP Races

Pete and I were working together this past Thursday evening when he asked me who I thought was going to win the NL Triple Crown. He caught me off guard by his question. Then I realized that I never noticed the NL Triple Crown race. Back in July I highlighted the possible AL Triple Crown winners in my post called Possible AL Triple Crown and NL ERA Dominance, which to be honest none of the players I profiled will win this year's Triple Crown. On the other hand, the NL is another story. It would be the first time in 73 years that a National League player has won the Triple Crown since Joe Medwick achieved the feat for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1937. Let's see who's who in the NL Triple Crown race.

- Carlos Gonzalez
The man affectionately known as "CarGo" in Denver seems to have come out of nowhere for the Colorado Rockies this season. In his first full season (he played in 85 games with the Oakland A's in 2008 and 89 games with the Rockies in 2009), Gonzalez has exploded at the plate. He leads the NL with a .332 batting average, is currently fifth in hommers with 31 (four behind leader Albert Pujols) and is third with 93 RBI (four behind the leader Joey Votto). Having watched some of the Rockies games while at work, I can tell you that Carlos Gonzalez is an amazing player. Not only has he emerged as a potential Triple Crown winner, but he has also played himself into potential MVP consideration.

- Joey Votto
Building upon the success of the last two seasons, Votto has shown that he is only getting better with each passing year. In his fourth season Votto is currently second in batting with a .325 average (seven points behind Carlos Gonzalez), tied for third in homers with 32 (three behind Albert Pujols) and is the league leader with 97 RBI. Votto is one of the main reasons why the Cincinnati Reds are the NL Central Division leaders with an eight game lead over the St. Louis Cardinals.

- Albert Pujols
Perennial NL MVP is the odds on favorite to qualify for the Triple Crown each season though I have to say that he is the longshot to win the award. Pujols is currently fifth in league batting .313 average (nineteen points behind leader Carlos Gonzalez), he leads the league with 35 homers and is second in the league with 95 RBI (two behind Joey Votto). Though it would take Pujols to go on a major tear to reach both Gonzalez and Votto in terms of average. It can be done. Pujols is like a machine when it comes to his at-bats and he is only getting better as he enters his prime years.

I believe that one of these three players will also win the NL MVP. Maybe whomever wins the Triple Crown will take both awards home. September will prove to be an interesting month in Baseball.

FH

Curious Trivia Questions from Last Night

There weren't many game on last night and I saw two trivia questions that I found real curious and interesting. Here goes.

1. Which pitcher has the most wins for one franchise
The answer is Walter Perry "Big Train" Johnson. In 20 seasons with the Washington Senators (1907-1927), Johnson compiled a 417-279 record with a 2.17 ERA (WOW!!!!!!), 4913 Hits, 1363 BB, 3509 K's and a WHIP of 1.061. To make his numbers look even more astonishing, Johnson appeared in 802 games of which he started 666 and completed 531 of those games with 110 of those games being shutouts. Johnson had 10 consecutive seasons of 20 or more win seasons with his best being in 1913 when he was 36-7 with a 1.14 ERA with 232 Hits in 346 innings pitched. Johnson walked only 38 with 243 K's. Johnson started 48 games, completed 29 and threw 11 shutouts. Not surprisingly, Johnson won the first of his two MVP awards (1913 and 1924). Johnson is second in total wins just being Cy Young. Johnson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in the inaugural class of 1936. His performance was truly amazing since in the 20 years he played in Washington, the Senators finished in 1st twice (1924/1925), in 2nd twice (1912/1913) and won only one World Series in two attempts (1924 against the New York Giants). Truly amazing.

2. Aside from the Arizona Diamonbacks, there are 4 other franchises that have not had a player win the regular season MVP award, who are they.
Myron and I sat there trying to guess who the teams were. I had guessed that at least two of the remaining four had to be part of the recent expansion teams. I chose the Florida Marlins and the Tampa Bay Rays. I also figured the Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals have never had an MVP and then I was stumped. I thought maybe San Diego or maybe the Milwaukee Brewers didn't have an MVP, but the answer truly surprised me: The New York Mets. The Mets have never had a regular season MVP.

Now I was a bit taken aback at that since I was sure that at the very least, the Mets would have had an MVP either in 1969 or 1986. But researching the MVP winners list, Willie McCovey won the award in 1969 and Mike Schmidt had won the award in 1986. Truly surprising indeed.