As we’ve chronicled here at Call To The Pen in recent weeks, Toronto Blue Jays legend Dave Stieb has been overlooked and underappreciated for decades.
He was underappreciated when he played as he, arguably, should have won three or even four AL Cy Young Awards while with the Blue Jays in the early- to mid-1980s. He is also still underappreciated by the Blue Jays today who, inexplicably, have yet to retire Stieb’s number, despite being the best player in franchise history.
But he, arguably, should also be a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Toronto Blue Jays legend Dave Stieb has a great case for the Baseball Hall of Fame
Dave Stieb spent parts of 16 seasons in the majors from 1979 through 1998 with 15 of those seasons coming with the Toronto Blue Jays.
As we’ve discussed recently, Stieb was one of the best pitchers to pitch in the 1980s. He ended up winning 158 games in the 1980s, which was. the most among any pitcher.
Overall, he was an All-Star seven times. He won the 1985 AL ERA title and finished in the top 10 of AL Cy Young Award voting four times. He went 176-137 with an ERA of 3.44. He had an ERA+ of 122 and a FIP of 3.82.
However, in his career, he was in the top 10 in WAR by pitchers in the AL in seven seasons, six seasons in the top 10 of ERA, eight seasons among the top 10 lowest in hits allowed per nine innings, six seasons in the top 10 in ERA+, and five seasons among the top 10 in innings pitched, complete games, and strikeouts.
But all of these happened in the 1980s or in 1990. After 1990, Stieb struggled with injuries. He initially retired after the 1993 season due to back problems but after four years of retirement, Stieb rejoined the Blue Jays in 1998, when he pitched in 19 games (three starts) with an ERA+ of 98.
In his career, he had a 56.4 rWAR, which is 82nd among all starting pitchers, 227th all-time, and comparable among Hall of Fame starters.
For example, Hall of Famer Whitey Ford had a career rWAR of 57.0 in 16 seasons, which is the same amount of seasons as Stieb. Stieb has a higher WAR than five modern Hall of Fame starters, or starters who played most of their career after World War II. They are Jim Kaat, Sandy Koufax, Bob Lemon, Jack Morris, and Catfish Hunter.
His career 122 ERA+ is tied with Hall of Famer Bob Feller. He is ahead of Hall of Famers Don Drysdale, Warren Spahn, Lemon, Tom Glavine, Gaylord Perry, Phil Niekro, Steve Carlton, Ferguson Jenkins, Jim Bunning, Robin Roberts, and many others.
When you look at his peak seasons, Stieb’s case gets much stronger. Stieb’s WAR7 (or WAR in his best seven seasons) was 44.5, which is tied for 66th all-time among starters.
He is tied with Mike Mussina who, like Stieb, spent his entire career (with the exception of four starts for Stieb) in the American League East. Mussina, though, got into the Hall of Fame via the BBWAA voters on his sixth ballot.
Stieb is also above recent first-ballot Hall of Famers Glavine and John Smoltz in WAR7 as well as Early Wynn, Lemon, Kaat, Hunter, Ford, Don Sutton, and Morris.
When you balance WAR and WAR7 (which is called JAWS when the two are averaged), Stieb is still very comparable to other Hall of Fame starters. Stieb’s JAWS is 50.4. That is just above Don Sutton (50.3) and also above Wynn, Koufax, Ford, Kaat, Lemon, Morris, and Hunter.
Despite all of that, Stieb received seven votes (or 1.4 percent) on his first and only time on the BBWAA ballot in 2006.
A few years ago, Stieb told Sporting News that he didn’t think he was a Hall of Famer since he “did not win enough games and so forth,” but he also thought that he “surely did not deserve to be just wiped off the map after the first-year ballot.”
On the latter part, he is absolutely correct but on the former, he should definitely get some more consideration by the Modern Baseball Era Committee, who has yet to put him on one of their ballots.
He is also correct in his belief that he didn’t get enough wins (for most voters) and not playing longer than he did (and being healthy for those seasons) definitely did hurt him. But he was the best pitcher in the AL and probably the best pitcher in baseball for the 1980s.
Just because Dave Stieb played north of the border, was snubbed by writers of the time, and, occasionally, played on some bad teams, it doesn’t mean that he shouldn’t get recognition by the Blue Jays and by the Baseball Hall of Fame for his Hall of Fame-worthy career.