Bryce Harper NL MVP favorite, but 40 homers don't guarantee hardware

The Nationals' Bryce Harper, 22, is the sixth youngest in baseball history to hit 40 home runs in a season, joining Mel Ott, Eddie Mathews, Johnny Bench, Joe DiMaggio and Juan Gonzalez.

The first four are in the Hall of Fame, and Gonzalez won two American League MVP awards with Texas.

Harper is the favorite to be the National League's MVP, but hitting 40 home runs at a young age hasn't guaranteed MVP hardware in the past.

Here's a look:

- Mathews led the NL with 47 home runs in 1953 for the Milwaukee Braves at age 21. He finished second in the MVP voting to Brooklyn catcher Roy Campanella, who hit .312 with 41 home runs and a league-leading 148 RBIs. That season, Mathews had 99 walks, 83 strikeouts and a .302 average. In 1954, at age 22, Mathews hit 40 home runs, the last coming in the second-to-the-last game of the season.

- In 1929, Ott, a New York Giant, hit 42 home runs and hit .328, but the NL MVP was the Cubs' Rogers Hornsby, who hit .380 with 39 home runs. Ott finished 11th in the voting.

- In 1937, the Yankees' DiMaggio led the AL with 46 home runs, hitting .346 with 37 strikeouts and 15 triples. DiMaggio finished second in the voting to Detroit's Charlie Gehringer, who led the AL with a .371 average.

- In 1970, Bench, the Cincinnati catcher, led the NL with 45 home runs and 148 RBIs. He hit .293 and was a landslide winner in the MVP, beating the Cubs' Billy Williams and Reds teammate Tony Perez.

- In 1992, Gonzalez led the AL with 43 home runs while hitting .260 for the Rangers, but he didn't come close to winning the MVP. Oakland closer Dennis Eckersley won after getting 51 saves. Eckersley was one of six players to get first-place votes, but Gonzalez wasn't one of them. The others: Kirby Puckett, Joe Carter, Mark McGwire, Dave Winfield and Roberto Alomar. Gonzalez led the AL in home runs (46) the following season, but didn't win his two MVPs until 1996 and 1998.