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3fbrown · 07-10-2020, 01:02 AM

By far the story of 1997 was Cincinnati rookie David Ortiz. He wasn't just good, he completely dominated baseball. He won the MLB Triple Crown, leading all of baseball with a .347/55/154 line. In fact, by the time the All-Star game came around, the only question was whether he could win the batting title, because he was so far ahead in HR and RBI. And that was tight - Joe Randa led most of the way, but fell of hard late in the season. Ortiz and Rusty Greer then both battled for the title, and both ended up at .347, with Ortiz winning .34733 to .34730.

By OPS, the next two best hitters in baseball were also rookies with little defensive value - Todd Helton and Ben Grieve. Something they had in common with Ortiz was that none of their teams (Helton with Colorado and Grieve with the White Sox) were good, despite the big boost from their rookie sluggers.

I run my rookie draft with a lottery system that advantages teams that with worse records, but not overwhelmingly. And for the first time, the first pick of the 1997 draft went to the World Series champion Padres. (They chose Chris Carpenter.) Despite being the reigning champions AND having the top pick in the draft, the Padres were not good - they ended up 79-83. But despite that, the Padres and Giants played Game 162 against each other tied for 1st place in the NL West. The Giants won, so they took the west with am 80-82 record, the first time I ever had a division winner with a losing record.

The Giants are an interesting team. The lineup has one superstar - Gary Sheffield (at SS!) - and nothing else at all. Sheffield has generally been the best player in the NL despite his poor defense, though he has some injuries in recent years. The rest of the lineup is terrible - 2nd year catcher Jason Kendall is now pretty good, but past that the best player is probably Alex Gonzalez (the Blue Jays one, not Sea Bass), who has to play 3B for Sheffield. On the other hand, the rotation has long been pretty good, led by Jason Schmidt, Paul Quantrill, and Frank Castillo (until he was traded in July for the roughly equivalent Andy Benes). In any case, they weren't very good either.

Who was good? In the NL, the Pirates were as usual. I won't bore you with a recap of their roster, but Johnny Damon broke out with a 6.7 WAR year. Also good: The Expos. Piazza and Giles were great of course, and the pitching staff was still very good, but there was also the career year from Lyle Mouton. Also good: the NY Mets, as always. Their big hitters seemed to all have slightly down years and/or injury, but they were still good enough to take the Wild Card.

The Astros were right behind the Mets, even though Greg Maddux was only "regular" good. Their offense is loading up with real life Red Sox - Nomar, Manny, Mo Vaughn for starts. Brief Red Sox Mark Loretta was also excellent at 2B, as was Tony Batista, who has improved his hitting skill since arriving in the league. Manny though, his offense dipped a bit, and his defense is bad enough that he isn't that great.

In the AL, the big hitting Mariners once again led the way with Byrd, Bagwell, Bonds, and Salmon. Bagwell and Salmon were 2/3 in OPS behind Grieve. Cleveland won the central with Andruw Jones leading the way, supported by a strong pitching staff with lesser names - Salomon Torres and Derek Lilliquist being the best ones. In the east, Boston and Toronto were tied for first on the last day, but since the loser won the wild card it wasn't that important. Boston had star rookie Kevin Millwood and a strong middle infield of John Valentin and Fernando Vina. Toronto's outfield I have discussed before, but the big story there was the breakout season from Andy Ashby, who led the majors in ERA by more than a third of a run.

The AL playoffs were boring - Cleveland swept Toronto and easily beat the Mariners to take the pennant. In the NL the Expos swept the Mets but the one good LDS was the Pirates beating the Giants in 6, needing several big comebacks to do it. In the NLCS, the Pirates needed big 9th inning comebacks in games 5 and 7 to win the pennant. The World Series was rather boring - the Pirates won 5-2 (I have 9 game series). Pedro Astacio threw two shutouts for Pittsburgh, but John Olerud still won MVP.

Which brings us to the last big story of the season - Pittsburgh's championship. This was their first one since 1903! This was only their 4th pennant, and their second since 1946. They have been a very weak franchise, and the 1990's have been the greatest stretch in team history. They have made the postseason in 4 of the last 5 seasons, after making it 3 times in the previous 92 years.

They aren't the least successful team though. The Senators/Twins have never made it to the World Series. In fact, they won zero pennants in Washington! They got good as soon as they moved to Minneapolis, but still never won it all. Someday...

07-10-2020, 01:02 AM	#4
3fbrown Major Leagues Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 414	1997 Recap By far the story of 1997 was Cincinnati rookie David Ortiz. He wasn't just good, he completely dominated baseball. He won the MLB Triple Crown, leading all of baseball with a .347/55/154 line. In fact, by the time the All-Star game came around, the only question was whether he could win the batting title, because he was so far ahead in HR and RBI. And that was tight - Joe Randa led most of the way, but fell of hard late in the season. Ortiz and Rusty Greer then both battled for the title, and both ended up at .347, with Ortiz winning .34733 to .34730. By OPS, the next two best hitters in baseball were also rookies with little defensive value - Todd Helton and Ben Grieve. Something they had in common with Ortiz was that none of their teams (Helton with Colorado and Grieve with the White Sox) were good, despite the big boost from their rookie sluggers. I run my rookie draft with a lottery system that advantages teams that with worse records, but not overwhelmingly. And for the first time, the first pick of the 1997 draft went to the World Series champion Padres. (They chose Chris Carpenter.) Despite being the reigning champions AND having the top pick in the draft, the Padres were not good - they ended up 79-83. But despite that, the Padres and Giants played Game 162 against each other tied for 1st place in the NL West. The Giants won, so they took the west with am 80-82 record, the first time I ever had a division winner with a losing record. The Giants are an interesting team. The lineup has one superstar - Gary Sheffield (at SS!) - and nothing else at all. Sheffield has generally been the best player in the NL despite his poor defense, though he has some injuries in recent years. The rest of the lineup is terrible - 2nd year catcher Jason Kendall is now pretty good, but past that the best player is probably Alex Gonzalez (the Blue Jays one, not Sea Bass), who has to play 3B for Sheffield. On the other hand, the rotation has long been pretty good, led by Jason Schmidt, Paul Quantrill, and Frank Castillo (until he was traded in July for the roughly equivalent Andy Benes). In any case, they weren't very good either. Who was good? In the NL, the Pirates were as usual. I won't bore you with a recap of their roster, but Johnny Damon broke out with a 6.7 WAR year. Also good: The Expos. Piazza and Giles were great of course, and the pitching staff was still very good, but there was also the career year from Lyle Mouton. Also good: the NY Mets, as always. Their big hitters seemed to all have slightly down years and/or injury, but they were still good enough to take the Wild Card. The Astros were right behind the Mets, even though Greg Maddux was only "regular" good. Their offense is loading up with real life Red Sox - Nomar, Manny, Mo Vaughn for starts. Brief Red Sox Mark Loretta was also excellent at 2B, as was Tony Batista, who has improved his hitting skill since arriving in the league. Manny though, his offense dipped a bit, and his defense is bad enough that he isn't that great. In the AL, the big hitting Mariners once again led the way with Byrd, Bagwell, Bonds, and Salmon. Bagwell and Salmon were 2/3 in OPS behind Grieve. Cleveland won the central with Andruw Jones leading the way, supported by a strong pitching staff with lesser names - Salomon Torres and Derek Lilliquist being the best ones. In the east, Boston and Toronto were tied for first on the last day, but since the loser won the wild card it wasn't that important. Boston had star rookie Kevin Millwood and a strong middle infield of John Valentin and Fernando Vina. Toronto's outfield I have discussed before, but the big story there was the breakout season from Andy Ashby, who led the majors in ERA by more than a third of a run. The AL playoffs were boring - Cleveland swept Toronto and easily beat the Mariners to take the pennant. In the NL the Expos swept the Mets but the one good LDS was the Pirates beating the Giants in 6, needing several big comebacks to do it. In the NLCS, the Pirates needed big 9th inning comebacks in games 5 and 7 to win the pennant. The World Series was rather boring - the Pirates won 5-2 (I have 9 game series). Pedro Astacio threw two shutouts for Pittsburgh, but John Olerud still won MVP. Which brings us to the last big story of the season - Pittsburgh's championship. This was their first one since 1903! This was only their 4th pennant, and their second since 1946. They have been a very weak franchise, and the 1990's have been the greatest stretch in team history. They have made the postseason in 4 of the last 5 seasons, after making it 3 times in the previous 92 years. They aren't the least successful team though. The Senators/Twins have never made it to the World Series. In fact, they won zero pennants in Washington! They got good as soon as they moved to Minneapolis, but still never won it all. Someday...