Dave Stieb’s snub was even worse in 1984
The calendar turns to 1984 and the Toronto Blue Jays are the same exact team, as they go 89-73 … with one tie, according to Baseball-Reference. They weren’t in a race for a playoff spot so how or why they played 163 games is anybody’s guess.
The Blue Jays were the same team and Dave Stieb was the same pitcher: the best pitcher in the American League.
Stieb, arguably, got even better. He dropped his ERA down from 3.04 to 2.83. He made 35 starts, had 11 complete games, two shutouts, led the majors in innings (267), led the majors in ERA+ (146), had the lowest hit rate in the AL (7.0 H/9), and, again, increased his strikeout rate.
His rWAR was 7.9, which led all AL pitchers for the third straight season. He was second in the AL, overall, in rWAR behind Cal Ripken, Jr., who was absolutely ROBBED of the 1984 AL MVP Award (we’ll save most of that story for another day, though).
This time, instead of the win-loss record, they just went for the best pitcher on the best team: closer Willie Hernandez on the ’84 Tigers. Hernandez did have a great season for a reliever (80 appearances, 1.92 ERA, 0.941 WHIP, 32 saves) but he shouldn’t have won the AL Cy Young Award. He also shouldn’t have won the AL MVP award (but, again, we’ll talk about that another time).
Instead, Stieb comes in 7th in AL Cy Young Award voting with one third place vote. One.