Chicago Cubs: Sammy Sosa had no business winning 1998 NL MVP

Chicago Cubs: By almost every measure, McGwire outperformed Sosa

Before I delve into Mark McGwire’s 1998 season, you need to know this: I value on-base percentage over batting average and while RBI totals look good on the back of a baseball card, I think there are better ways to measure a player’s impact.

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While Sosa led the league in runs, total bases and runs batted in, the slugging Cardinals first baseman cleaned up in most of the other offensive categories. He led the National League in on-base percentage (.470), slugging percentage (.752), OPS (1.222), home runs (70), walks (162), OPS+ (216) and WPA (9.6).

He also finished second in runs, RBI and total bases – to Sosa. If not for those three categories, he’d have dominated almost every significant offensive statistic. So what gives? How did the Cardinals outfielder not only miss out on NL MVP honors – but lose in a landslide to Sosa, who, again, collected 98 percent of first-place votes?

If you take the time to read Kenny’s book (which I strongly suggest you do), he offers up several reasons – a couple of which I’ll touch on here. First, the BBWAA is an antiquated body that has no business deciding who’s the most valuable player in each league (that rings more true now than it did in 1998 given the sheer scope of the information now available to writers). Most of these individuals saw a staggering 66 home runs and 158 runs batted on a guy who led his team to October for the first time in nearly a decade. What does all that add up to? A Most Valuable Player.