1984, what a great
start!
1984 was a
season of great promise. The playoffs saw the first appearance of the Padres in
the post-season, the return of the Tigers to the World Series, and a playoff
chase in Wrigley for the first time since early August of 1969.
Three of
the four playoff berths were won by teams making their Championship Series
debut (Cubs and Padres), or their first appearance in over a decade (the
Tigers). The Royals were the only one of the 'new guard' that played in
October, only to be swept by the juggernaut Tigers team.
The promise
of a bright future for the Cubbies, who picked up some pitching during the
season to help their playoff run (Rick Sutcliffe and Dennis Eckersley). The
Mets, who debuted Dwight Gooden, on his way to his record setting Rookie of the
Year campaign. And the Blue Jays, who at the end of the 1984 season, were
setting themselves up to be the team to beat in 1985. (I remember telling my
buddy Squig that the Jays were the team to beat that spring, and he thought I
was crazy, but who won the AL East in 1985?). But, I digress.
The Tigers
shot out of the gates, with a remarkable 35-5 record, coasting into the
playoffs, winning the division easily by 15 games over Toronto . If you look at their record, taking
away their first 40 games, they still played at a .574 clip, which would have
won either division handily.
Reputations
mean a lot, as does perception. The Tigers were led offensively by the likes of
Trammell, Whitaker and Gibson, and their ace was Jack Morris, with Willie
Hernandez coming out of the pen as the 'stopper'.
While in
the NL, The Cubs were carried by Ryne Sandberg , Leon Durham
and Jody Davis. The pick up of Rick Sutcliffe (who went 16-1 for the Cubs) at
the deadline anchored the staff that also featured Dennis Eckersly (picked up
in exchange for Bill Buckner.) Big Lee Smith was their closer that year. as they
beat out the upstart Mets to win the division by six and a half games.
The Padres used
some homegrown pitching, the first full season for Tony Gwynn along with some
veteran leadership (Rich Gossage, Steve Garvey and Graig Nettles) to win the
West over the Braves. The Padres were the only team in the West to have a
winning record, finishing with 92 wins. (I'm not going to mention their
uniforms)
And the
Royals, by this point a perennial playoff team, edged out the Angels by 3
games. They had the worst record of the four playoff teams.
·
1984 saw the first AL perfect game since 1981, as Mike Witt of
the Angels was perfect against the Texas Rangers on September 30th.
·
It saw Pete Rose get his 4,000th hit.
·
It saw Tom Seaver, now of the White Sox (ugh,
don't ask) get a win in relief, and then start a game the same day, and get the
win of course.
·
Reggie Jackson hits his 500th home-run, or
tater, as he called them, off of Bud Black.
·
Don Mattingly went 4-5 on the last day of the
season to beat out teammate Dave Winfield for the batting title. Mattingly
finishes at .343 to Winfield's .340.
So, where
do we start picking this apart?
In the
National League, let's look at the pitchers. In reality, Rick Sutcliffe didn't
pitch enough innings to qualify for the ERA title, or to place in a lot of the
statistical categories that have qualifiers. But, let's face it, we need some
sort of qualifiers. So I used 120 IP for a starting pitcher as my number, and
50 IP for relievers.
Now, the
top NL pitchers against the league were:
Rick
Sutcliffe Cubs
Dwight
Gooden Mets
Bruce
Sutter Cards
Charlie Lea Expos
Alejandro
Pena Dodgers
And against
their team's average performance:
Sutcliffe Cubs
Mario Soto Reds
Gooden Mets
Sutter Cards
Pena Dodgers
Then
combining/averaging those figures:
Sutcliffe Cubs
Soto Reds
Gooden Mets
Sutter Cards
Pena Dodgers
Over to the
American League, pitchers against the league:
Mike
Boddicker Orioles
Bert
Blyleven Indians
Dave Steib Blue Jays
Rollie
Fingers Brewers
Frank Viola Twins
Against
their team:
Fingers Brewers
Don Sutton Brewers
Blyleven Indians
Tom Tellman Brewers
Moose Haas Brewers
*side note
here, the Brewers pitching in 1984 was not very good, and the team finished thirty
six and a half games off the pace. That means that a pitcher that has a better
than mediocre season could theoretically excel beyond their team performance so
much so, that they can rank higher than players on stronger teams. Some of my
earlier postings reflect that, some don't. Still weighing the question over
which is a truer measure of player performance.
Anyway...
Combined,
the numbers as such:
Fingers
Blyleven
Boddicker
Sutton
Viola.
In looking
at the baseball-reference.com site for their WAR (Wins Against Replacement) rankings
their top 5 is:
Dave Steib
Bert
Blyleven
Doyle
Alexander Texas
Dwight
Gooden
Jim Beattie Seattle
Interesting,
to me anyway, is the lack of Detroit Tigers from these lists. The highest
ranking Tiger pitcher, using the combined value numbers, was reliever Willie
Hernandez, who came in at #19, lower than Bill Caudill, Dan Quisenberry and
Rollie Fingers.
Let's take
a look at the offensive numbers now, against the National League. We have
another qualifier issue here, with Dan Gladden. The qualifying rule is 3.1 plate
appearances for each game their team plays. In order to get more players, I
lowered my number to 300 plate appearances. I will include Mr. Gladden, just as
a point of reference where he should be, but will add an additional qualifying
player as well:
Ryne
Sandberg Cubs
Leon Durham Cubs
Dan Gladden Giants
Mike
Schmidt Phils
Gary Carter Expos
Gary
Matthews Cubs
Now against
their team, where the Cubs were the most potent offensive team:
Gary Carter Expos
Pedro
Guerrero Dodgers
Dale Murphy Braves
Tim Raines Expos
Tony Pena Pirates
Combined,
the value numbers are:
Gary Carter Expos
Dan Gladden Giants
Dale Murphy Braves
Tony Pena Pirates
Mike
Schmidt Phillies
Pedro
Guerrero Dodgers
And over in
the Junior Circuit, where the Tigers tallied the highest team performance:
Dave
Winfield Yankees
Dwight
Evans Red Sox
Don
Mattingly Yankees
Tony Armas Red Sox
Eddie
Murray Orioles
And versus
their team:
Eddie
Murray Orioles
Alvin Davis Seattle
Dave Winfield Yankees
Buddy Bell Texas
Kent Hrbek Twins
Combined,
they are:
Dave
Winfield Yankees
Eddie
Murray Orioles
Alvin Davis Seattle
Kent Hrbek Twins
Don
Mattingly Yankees
And the WAR
rankings were:
Cal Ripken Orioles
Ryne
Sandberg Cubs
Gary Carter Expos
Lloyd
Moseby Blue Jays
Eddie
Murray Orioles
Such a wide
discrepancy between my numbers and the WAR numbers. It's just as wide between
these sets of numbers and the post season awards.
The top 5
vote getters in each league, with my total value number off to the side:
American
MVP
Willie
Hernandez Tigers 19
Kent
Hrbek Twins 4
Dan
Quisenberry Royals 18
Eddie
Murray Orioles 2
Don
Mattingly Yankees 5
AL Cy Young
Willie
Hernandez Tigers 19
Dan
Quisenberry Royals 18
Bert
Blyleven Indians 2
Mike
Boddicker Orioles 3
Dan Petry Tigers 24
And
in the Senior Circuit, the MVP vote was:
Ryne
Sandberg Cubs 7
Keith
Hernandez Mets 6
Tony Gwynn Padres 20
Rick
Sutcliffe Cubs 1
Gary Matthews Cubs 23
NL
Cy Young:
Rick
Sutcliffe Cubs 1
Dwight Gooden Mets 3
Bruce Sutter Cards 4
Joaquin
Andujar Cards 7
Rich Gossage Padres 38!
So, in
actuality, if I were voting, my players of the year for each league would be:
National
League:
Gary Carter
Rick Sutcliffe
American
League:
Dave Winfield
Rollie Fingers
There you have it. I would love to know what you think of these rankings...
