Who could forget the Florida Marlins, an expansion team that was created in 1993, winning its 2nd World Series title in an upset over the powerhouse Yankees? Not Marlins fans, for sure. While some franchises had positive memories of 2003, others wish it was erased from the history books (see the 43-119 Detroit Tigers). Below are some of the most eye-popping and fascinating stats from the 2003 MLB season.
1.) Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals: .359 Batting Average, 137 Runs Scored & 51 Doubles
That is a lot of stats I threw out there, but they are all incredible for their own reasons. It can be argued that 2003 was Pujols best season of his career, which says a lot considering he played for 19 seasons after that. Pujols began his career with at least 32 home runs, 103 RBIs and a .312 batting average in each season until 2011. He never hit more doubles than he did in 2003, never scored more runs, and also never hit for a higher average. His consistency was his most impressive quality, and if you exclude some of his down seasons on the Angels, Pujols was one of the greatest right-handed hitters to ever play.
2.) Kerry Wood and Mark Prior, Chicago Cubs: Top Two in the Majors in Strikeouts (266 and 245)
A new era in baseball, where young pitching studs Kerry Wood and Mark Prior become the best 1, 2 punch in any rotation has seen (well, since a year before with Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling). Wood and Prior took led the Majors in strikeouts, while both managing to pitch essentially the same number of innings (211). The coolest part of this stat is the fact that in 2001 and 2002, the aforementioned D-Backs aces also led the Majors. This would mark the 3rd consecutive season that two pitchers from the same team took the 1 and 2 spots in the strikeout leaderboard. This has happened twice since then, in 2012 with future Hall of Famers Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, and then again in 2019 with Gerrit Cole and Verlander in Houston.
3.) Eric Gagné, Los Angeles Dodgers: 55 for 55 in Saves
To this day, Gagné holds the Major League record for most consecutive Save conversions. More than the like of Mariano Rivera, Trevor Hoffman, or any of the Hall of Fame closers. In total, Gagné racked up 84 consecutive saves, spanning across 3 seasons. The Dodgers’ closer also won the 2003 Cy Young award, posting a 1.20 ERA and striking out 137 batters in just 82 innings. It was one of the most dominant seasons of any relief pitcher in MLB history.
Leave a Reply