One True Outcome: January 17

I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but every report that’s come out in the recent days, well, it doesn’t show a lot of promise for a quick agreement. The end of the lockout is not on the horizon and with that, we continue with our weekly segment of baseball trivia.

We covered the illustrious Triple Crown last week and we’ll remain focused on individual accolades, but this time talking about the Most Valuable Player award.

1. In the 21st century, more than half of all teams have at least one MVP and every division has multiple teams with an MVP winner. However, there are only two divisions in all of baseball in which every single one of its teams had at least one MVP winner. Which two?

• (A) AL West and NL East
• (B) NL West and NL Central
• (C ) NL East and AL East.
• (D) AL East and AL Central
• (E) NL Central and AL West

2. It’s been nearly 30 years since the last time a reliever won the MVP award (Dennis Eckersley in 1992). Since then who is the worst Most Valuable Player according to bWAR?

• (A) Justin Morneau - 2006
• (B) Mo Vaughn - 1995
• (C ) Ryan Howard - 2006
• (D) Juan Gonzalez - 1996
• (E) Juan Gonzalez - 1998

3. From 2001 until 2004, Barry Bonds had the three highest seasons in terms of slugging percentage for any MVP winner. 10 players have surpassed the .700 threshold in slugging and also won the MVP. There is only one player in that group who also had 30 or more stolen bases. Who is he?

• (A) Barry Bonds - 1993
• (B) Larry Walker - 1997
• (C ) Jeff Bagwell - 1994
• (D) Mickey Mantle - 1956
• (E) Roger Hornsby - 1925

4. Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander gave the Tigers back-to-back-to-back MVP winners from 2011-13. When was the last time that two different hitters from the same team won the award in consecutive seasons?

• (A) 2006-07
• (B) 2000-01
• (C ) 2005-06
• (D) 2001-02
• (E) 1981-82

5. Four hitters have surpassed the 12.0 bWAR mark in the history of the Most Valuable Player award, but it’s been a while since the last one (Carl Yastrzemski in 1967). Who holds the record for the highest bWAR in a MVP campaign with 16.5?

• (A) Walter Johnson - 1913
• (B) Babe Ruth - 1923
• (C ) Hal Newhouser - 1945
• (D) Lefty Grove - 1931
• (E) Tris Speaker - 1912

Answers

1. (E) NL Central and AL West. Here is the list for each division.

NL Central:

STL - Albert Pujols (2005, 2008, 2009)

CIN - Joey Votto (2010)

MIL - Ryan Braun (2011)

PIT - Andrew McCutchen (2013)

CHC - Kris Bryant (2016)

AL West:

SEA - Ichiro Suzuki (2001)

OAK - Miguel Tejada (2002)

TEX - Alex Rodriguez (2003) and Josh Hamilton (2010)

LAA - Vladimir Guerrero (2004), Mike Trout (2014, 2016 and 2019) and Shohei Ohtani (2021)

HOU - José Altuve (2017)

2. (D) Juan Gonzalez in 1996 had a 3.8 bWAR season for the Texas Rangers and won the MVP award with the only sub-4 bWAR campaign since Dennis Eckersley won it in 1992.

3. (B) Larry Walker in 1997 had the following statline:

.366/;465/.720, 48 HR, 130 RBI and 33 stolen bases.

4. (A) Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins won it in consecutive years for the Philadelphia Phillies (2006-07). Jeff Kent and Barry Bonds were the previous ones to do it in 2000 and 2001.

5. (A) Walter Johnson had a 16.5 WAR in 1913 with these numbers:

36-7, 1.14 ERA and 243 SO in 346 IP.

Next closest is Babe Ruth with 14.2 in 1923.