Pittsburgh Pirates: Four National League MVP Snubs in Franchise History
By Noah Wright
Barry Bonds, 1991
Twenty years after Stargell was snubbed out of an MVP award, another Pittsburgh
Pirates left fielder fell just short in votes to get the honors he deserved.
Barry Bonds really deserved to win the National League MVP four years in a row (and pretty much nearly every year of his career). Bonds deservingly received the MVP honors in 1990, and then again in 1992 after having one of the best offensive seasons of Pirates’ history. He also won it in 1993 with the San Francisco Giants, but missed out on receiving the award in 1991 even though he was having a monster year, and probably the best in the National League
In 634 plate appearances, Bonds was batting for a .292/.410/.514 line with 25 long balls and 43 stolen bases. Bonds had a 160 OPS+, and 155 wRC+. His wRC+ is the 9th highest single season mark in Pirates history, and led the National League this year as well.
While Bonds’ 25 home runs doesn’t seem like a lot for him, the fact he was such a dynamic player with both power (.222 isolated slugging percentage), and was able to be so fast (43 stolen bases, +3.4 baserunning runs above average) should have helped his chances of winning. Don’t forget about his Gold Glove winning defense either. He had +19 total zone runs and +1.5 defensive WAR. All told, his contributions were worth 7.8 fWAR. Just to show how ahead of the NL he was this year, Ryne Sandberg finished 2nd in fWAR, at 6.4.
So who finished in first place?
That would be Braves’ third baseman Terry Pendleton. Pendleton batted for a solid .319/.363/.517 line, 22 long balls, and a 139 OPS+ and 141 wRC+. In terms of wRC+, the difference between Pendleton and Bonds would be like the difference between 2019 Anthony Rendon and 2019 Yoan Moncada.
Pendleton was an outstanding defender with +7 total zone runs and +1.1 defensive WAR, but wasn’t as good as Bonds was in the outfield. He also wasn’t an awful base runner with +1.2 base running runs above average, clearly Bonds was in another league, as the only thing that Bonds didn’t have that Pendleton did have on him by a fair amount was batting average. Bonds outdid Pendelton by 2.5 fWAR with the latter sitting at 6.3 fWAR. Pendleton was good, but Bonds was just flatout otherworldly.