1982 American League

The Brewers win the pennant! The Brewers win the pennant! For the only time in their AL history, Milwaukee took the league championship. They made only two postseasons, the other being the previous year. Harvey's Wallbangers had what it took to get to the World Series: average or below pitching, but enough bats to club everyone into submission. They lost in 7 games to the Cardinals. Milwaukee won a close division race by beating the Orioles 95 wins to 94. Boston was third with 89, Detroit 4th with 83. New York lost 83, Cleveland and Toronto 84 as no AL East team was really bad. In the West, the Angels took top honors with 93 wins, over Kansas City with 90. Chicago won 85. Seattle was 4th, but with 86 losses would have finished behind all AL East teams. Oakland lost 94, Texas 98, and Minnesota 102 to round out the AL West. Willie Wilson won the batting title, beating out Robin Yount by a point .332 to .331. Reggie Jackson and Gorman Thomas tied for the home run lead at 39, and Hal McRae led in RBI with 133 followed by Cecil Cooper at 121. Rickey Henderson stole 130 bases for a new single-season record. Yount led in hits, total bases, slugging and OPS. Paul Molitor scored 136 runs. McRae and Yount had 46 doubles each, Wilson 15 triples. Dwight Evans led in on-base. Lamarr Hoyt led in wins with 19, followed by Geoff Zahn and Pete Vuckovich with 18. Floyd Bannister led in strikeouts with 209, followed by Len Barker at 187. Rick Sutcliffe had a 2.96 ERA, trailed by Bob Stanley at 3.10 and Jim Palmer at 3.13. Dan Quisenberry led in saves with 35. Dave Steib led in innings, complete games and shutouts. The Cy Young voting was a controversial affair. Win Shares leaders, players; Robin Yount (Milwaukee) 39, Dwight Evans (Boston) 31, Paul Molitor (Milwaukee) 30, Eddie Murray (Baltimore) and Cecil Cooper (Milwaukee) 29, Doug DeCinces (California), Toby Harrah (Cleveland) and Rickey Henderson (Oakland) 28 each, George Brett (Kansas City) 27, Hal McRae (Kansas City) 26, Brian Downing (California), Willie Wilson (Kansas City), Gorman Thomas (Milwaukee) and Buddy Bell (Texas) 25, Lance Parrish (Detroit) and Dwayne Murphy (Oakland) 24, Cal Ripken (Baltimore) 23, Reggie Jackson (California), Steve Kemp and Greg Luzinski (Chicago) and Lou Whitaker (Detroit) 22. WS leaders, pitchers; Dave Stieb (Toronto) 25, Dan Quisenberry (Kansas City) 22, Dan Spillner (Cleveland) 21, Jim Palmer (Baltimore), Bob Stanley (Boston), Rick Sutcliffe (Cleveland), Bill Caudill (Seattle) and Jim Clancy (Toronto) 20 each, Dan Petry (Detroit) 18, Dennis Eckersley (Boston), Goose Gossage (New York), Floyd Bannister (Seattle) and Luis Leal (Toronto) 17. WARP3: Yount 9.6, DeCinces 7.3, Evans 6.6, Murray 6.4, Downing and Whitaker 6.1, Molitor 5.8, Cooper, Wilson, and Ripken (rookie) 5.5, Alan Trammell (Detroit) 5.4, Parrish and Fred Lynn (California) 5.3, Brett 5.2, McRae and Frank White (Kansas City) 5.0, Bell and U.L. Washington (Kansas City) 4.9, Harrah 4.7 (last big year). Pitchers, Caudill 6.9 (career year), Stanley 6.2 (best year), Stieb 5.9, Spillner (career year) and Gossage 5.5, Sutcliffe 5.4, Quisenberry 5.2, Lamarr Hoyt (Chicago) 5.1, Eckersley 4.5, Mark Clear (California) 4.3. WAR, position players: Yount 10.5, DeCinces 7.9, Evans 7.1, Harrah 6.5, Henderson 6.4, Brett, Molitor, and Murray 6.3, Wilson 6.2, Downing 6.0, Bell and Brunansky 5.8, Cooper and Parrish 5.7, Murphy and Thomas 5.5, Ward 5.4, Whitaker 5.3, Lynn and Ripken 5.1, McRae 5.0. Pitchers: Barker 6.1, Hoyt 5.5, Stieb 5.4, Bannister and Clancy 4.8, Petry 4.3, Beattie 4.2, Guidry and Tudor 4.1, John and Leal 3.9, Eckersley and Koosman 3.8, Sutcliffe and Witt 3.7, Gossage 3.6, Haas and Lamp 3.5. Actual award voting: MVP (top 12) 1 Robin Yount MIL 27 385 2 Eddie Murray BAL 0 228 3 Doug DeCinces CAL 0 178 4 Hal McRae KCR 0 175 5 Cecil Cooper MIL 0 152 6 Reggie Jackson CAL 1 107 7 Dwight Evans BOS 0 57 8 Gorman Thomas MIL 0 44 9 Dan Quisenberry KCR 0 39 10 Rickey Henderson OAK 0 38 11 Dave Winfield NYY 0 33 12 Paul Molitor MIL 0 29 Interesting, that guy who put Reggie #1. Can he be impeached? Cy Young 1 Pete Vuckovich MIL 14 87 2 Jim Palmer BAL 4 59 3 Dan Quisenberry KCR 4 40 4 Dave Stieb TOR 5 36 5 Rick Sutcliffe CLE 1 14 6 Geoff Zahn CAL 0 7 7 Bill Caudill SEA 0 4 7 Bob Stanley BOS 0 4 9 Dan Petry DET 0 1 Words cannot express. For the record, Vuckovich had 13 Win Shares and a WAR of 2.3 in his last good year. Rookie 1 Cal Ripken Jr. BAL 24 132 2 Kent Hrbek MIN 4 90 3 Wade Boggs BOS 0 10 4 Ed Vande Berg SEA 0 9 5 Gary Gaetti MIN 0 4 6 Dave Hostetler TEX 0 3 7 Von Hayes CLE 0 2 8 Jesse Barfield TOR 0 1 Best player: Robin Yount. Remember "M-V-P!" "M-V-P!"? Yount was terrific all-around in lifting his team to the title. He was the best by any definition you care to name. #1 Robin Yount, #2 Doug DeCinces, #3 Dwight Evans, #4 Eddie Murray, #5 Paul Molitor, #6 Cecil Cooper. Best pitcher: Dave Stieb. Pete Vuckovich won one of the worst award votes ever. Jim Palmer was the sentimental second choice. Quiz would have been a better pick than either, and Stieb was best of all. #1 Dave Stieb, #2 Dan Quisenberry, #3 Dan Spillner, #4 Bill Caudill, #5 Len Barker. The best pitchers in the league, other than Stieb, were relievers. Best rookie: Cal Ripken. Of course. Kent Hrbek was pretty good too. Best manager: Harvey Kuenn. He only managed the Brewers for 116 games, but he took over from Buck Rodgers and guided the team to the pennant.