This MLB Monday entry kicks off the most recent New York Yankees dynasty, as the Bronx Bombers would win 6 American League pennants over the next 8 seasons, while winning 4 World Series along the way. And it was seemingly clean and legit, too, with few signs of PED use. So, love them or hate them, everyone now must tolerate the Yankees here for most of the next 2 months. There are other challenges, though (see below).

1996 World Series MVP: John Wetteland, RP, New York (AL) (original, confirmed)

The Yankees overcame an 0-2 deficit in this Fall Classic, losing the first 2 games at home before storming back to win 4 consecutive games against the defending World Series champions from Atlanta. New York closer John Wetteland (4 SV) was voted the MVP, as the key moment was the Braves bullpen blowing Game 4 in the late innings and costing the franchise a probable championship in the process: tragedy for the ATL.

Overall, the Yankees were outscored by the Braves, 26-18, but most of that came in the first 2 games where Atlanta won by a combined 16-1 score. New York won Games 5 and 6 by a single run apiece, continuing that World Series stretch of Braves’ failures in the bullpen that dated back to 1991. Wetteland only tossed 4 1/3 innings during the Fall Classic, but obviously, they were all key innings at the end of games for saves. Hmm.

Only 1 Yankees hitter really had what we’d call a “great Series”: designated hitter Cecil Fielder, who hit .391 with a .918 OPS. But he didn’t hit a home run, surprisingly, and he only had 2 RBI and 2 walks in his 25 plate appearances over the 6 games. That isn’t a lot of impact; in fact, Fielder only had 2 extra-base hits, both doubles. And somehow, he only scored 1 run as well. So we will confirm Wetteland’s MVP for high leverage.

1996 ALCS MVP: Bernie Williams, CF, New York (original, confirmed)

This was the famous series where Yankees fan Jeffrey Maier interfered with a fly ball that would have been an out and helped New York to a Game 1 victory it perhaps did not earn fairly. Alas, the Yankees would go on to defeat the Baltimore Orioles in 5 games, although who knows what might have happened if the typically worthless MLB umpires had done the right thing here. Either way, we have to pick an MVP from New York.

Center fielder Bernie Williams (.474 BA, 1.531 OPS, 2 HRs, 6 RNI, 5 BBs, 1 SB) won the vote at the time, and we can’t give the trophy to Maier. No Yankees pitcher won twice, either, although a lot of hitters feasted on Baltimore pitching. Yet Williams did the most widespread damage, by far, so we’re going to confirm here.

1996 NLCS MVP: Javy López, C, Atlanta (original); Mark Lemke, 2B, Atlanta (revised)

The Braves fell behind the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-1, in this matchup before coming back to win 3 straight on their way to a fourth pennant in 5 postseasons. Catcher Javy López (.542 BA, 1.607 OPS, 2 HRs, 6 RBI, 3 BBs, 1 SB) was the MVP as Atlanta emerged with the 7-game victory in the series. That’s a pretty tough line to beat, along with his error-free defense. But there are other candidates to consider here, interestingly so.

Braves starter John Smoltz (2-0, 1.20 ERA, 1.000 WHIP) won Game 1 and the must-have Game 5, while dominating the Cardinals. Atlanta scored 44 runs in this series to St. Louis’ 18 runs, so there were other hitting stars, too: second baseman Mark Lemke (.444, 1.146, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 4 BBs) had more “timely” hits than López, while third baseman Chipper Jones (.440, 1.003, 4 RBI, 3 BBs, 1 SB) did pretty well, too.

But Jones did have an error, so that drops him from the three-way analysis, despite having relatively the same impact as López did. So, it comes down to Lemke and López: this is about a leverage comparison, for once, too, as Lemke’s offensive contributions were 3 times as valuable as his teammate’s, based on the Win Probability Added (WPA) sabermetric. We rarely use it, but this is an instance where it stands out, for sure.

Back to Smoltz, who won this vote in 1992: winning Game 1 of any series is huge, and Smoltz had to win Game 5 to keep Atlanta alive. He responded with 7 innings of shutout baseball on the road, which cannot be underestimated. He did give up 7 hits, so it wasn’t a super-dominant performance, but it was gritty and tough. Still, he surpasses Jones and López for WPA—but still falls way short of Lemke. So that’s our pick.

1996 AL MOTY: Johnny Oates, Texas & Joe Torre, New York (tie) (original); Torre (revised)

We had a tie in the vote here, which is rare, between Texas Rangers Manager Johnny Oates (minus-2 PPP) and Yankees Manager Joe Torre (plus-4 PPP). Oates is obviously out, as we add Baltimore Manager Davey Johnson (plus-3 PPP) and Boston Red Sox Manager Kevin Kennedy (plus-3 PPP) to the fray. Kennedy won this award last year from us, as New York won the AL East by 4 games over the Orioles and 7 over Boston.

This was by far the most competitive division in the junior circuit this season, and even though the Yankees were projected to win, Torre had to do what he did to hold off the Orioles (and to a lesser extent, the Red Sox). We’ve never thought much of Torre as a manager, since he always had an All-Star roster to work with during this dynastic stretch of baseball, but this is a case where he deserves his props for managing well.

1996 NL MOTY: Bruce Bochy, San Diego (original); Tony La Russa, St. Louis (revised)

The San Diego Padres won the NL West by 1 game over the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Padres Manager Bruce Bochy (plus-1 PPP) won the vote here. Now, it’s well documented how Bochy is/was a PED enabler as a manager, so we wouldn’t even consider him for this award, in truth. Yet also consider how two Dodgers managers combined for a plus-3 PPP mark, and you see that Bochy was lucky to win the NL West here. Fact.

So, who really deserves this award for honest and successful managing? The Braves won the NL East by 8 games over the Montréal Expos, with Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox (plus-2) leading the way. Meanwhile, the Cardinals won the NL Central by 6 games with St. Louis Manager Tony La Russa (plus-2) steering the ship. We also like Houston Astros Manager Terry Collins (plus-5) with the top PPP mark in the senior circuit.

The Astros were in second place well behind the Cards, though. Does that matter? Well, what it does is make La Russa’s effort look that much better, knowing there was an overachieving team pushing them to stay the course. The Braves didn’t face the same challenge in the NL East, so this comes down to La Russa or Collins for us: do we reward the winner who had to work a little harder, or the upstart who overachieved?

With Houston finishing at 82-80, it was an achievement just to get to .500 overall. We’re going to give this to La Russa, who took a barely decent team and held it steady enough to win the division in the end. If you disagree here, we understand. No offense taken, ever. This is the third time we’ve chosen La Russa for an MOTY trophy, and this is the third team he’s done it with (Chicago White Sox and Oakland Athletics). Wow.