National League "Quad" Leaders
As a follow-up to the American League article, I have prepared lists of those National Leaguers who did the best job of getting on base and accumulating bases (both in terms of the number of times as well as the percentage of times). The four categories of "The Quad" are times on base, on base percentage, total bases, and slugging average. The leaders are as follows: Todd Helton of the Colorado Rockies led the National League in the number of times on base with 322. Helton also led major league baseball in this category. He had a fantastic season, ranking first in TOB; second in BA (.358), OBP (.458), TB (367), R (135), and BB (111); third in SLG (.630) and OPS (1.088); and sixth in RBI (117). The third or fourth best offensive stats in the league, unadjusted and adjusted. N.L. LEADERS TIMES ON BASE Rank Player Team TOB 1 Todd Helton COL 322 2 Albert Pujols STL 301 3 Barry Bonds SF 291 T4 Bobby Abreu PHI 284 T4 Gary Sheffield ATL 284 6 Luis Gonzalez ARI 273 7 Richie Sexson MIL 272 8 Lance Berkman HOU 271 9 Jim Thome PHI 269 10 Jason Kendall PIT 265 Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants led the N.L. in on base percentage with .529, .071 higher than Helton's second place finish and .102 above the A.L. leader. Bonds had another season for the ages, ranking first in OBP, SLG (.749), OPS (1.278), and BB (148); second in HR (45); third in TOB (291) and BA (.341); and sixth in R (111). And to think that Barry did all this playing half of his games at Pac Bell Park rather than Coors Field or some other hitter friendly stadium. N.L. LEADERS ON BASE PERCENTAGE Rank Player Team OBP 1 Barry Bonds SF .529 2 Todd Helton COL .458 3 Albert Pujols STL .439 4 Brian Giles SD .427 5 Larry Walker COL .422 6 Gary Sheffield ATL .419 7 Lance Berkman HOU .412 8 Bobby Abreu PHI .409 9 Chipper Jones ATL .402 10 Luis Gonzalez ARI .402 Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals led the N.L. in total bases with 394. Pujols also led the major leagues in this category. Albert had a great year, ranking first in TB, BA (.359), and R (137); second in TOB (301), SLG (.667), and OPS (1.106); third in OBP (.439); fourth in HR (43); and fifth in RBI (124). First or second on every voter's MVP ballot. N.L. LEADERS TOTAL BASES Rank Player Team TB 1 Albert Pujols STL 394 2 Todd Helton COL 367 3 Gary Sheffield ATL 348 4 Richie Sexson MIL 332 5 Jim Thome PHI 331 6 Preston Wilson COL 322 7 Jeff Bagwell HOU 317 8 Javy Lopez ATL 314 9 Luis Gonzalez ARI 308 10 Jay Payton COL 307 Bonds not only led the league in on base percentage, but he also finished atop the leaders in slugging average with a mark of .749. Bonds beat out Pujols by .082 and crushed the A.L. leader by a remarkable .149. Barry's rate stats for 2003 place his season among the very best ever. Only Babe Ruth (1920, 1921, and 1923), Ted Williams (1941), and Bonds (2001 and 2002) have had years with a higher OPS than the 1.278 that Barry posted this year. N.L. LEADERS SLUGGING PERCENTAGE Rank Player Team SLG 1 Barry Bonds SF .749 2 Albert Pujols STL .667 3 Todd Helton COL .630 4 Jim Edmonds STL .617 5 Gary Sheffield ATL .604 6 Jim Thome PHI .573 7 Richard Hidalgo HOU .572 8 Sammy Sosa CHC .553 9 Richie Sexson MIL .548 10 Geoff Jenkins MIL .538 Helton, Pujols, and Gary Sheffield are the only three players who finished in the top ten in all four categories, and it should be noted that Helton and Pujols were in the top three across the board. Bonds, Jim Thome, Richie Sexson, and Luis Gonzalez made the top ten three times. As explained in the A.L. Quad article, I would give strong consideration to these seven players in my MVP voting as well as Javy Lopez and Jason Kendall given the difficulty of their positions and perhaps Jim Edmonds and Preston Wilson for their play in center field--the most demanding outfield position. Of these eleven, I would discount Helton, Wilson, and Gonzalez the most for the benefits of their home ballpark. I will post my top ten for the N.L. MVP (excluding pitchers) on Saturday. |