1984 American League

The Tigers bolted from the gate for a 35-5 start, and ran away from the league. The West division sported only one team over .500. It was definitely Detroit's year, and a total team effort. Reliever Willie Hernandez swept the awards, winning the MVP and Cy Young after saving 32 of 32 attempts, but that was a bit over the top. He pitched 140 innings, more than today's closers, but it was too much, really. In the East behind the Tigers and their 104 wins were Toronto in 2nd, with 89 wins, New York with 87, Boston with 86, and defending champs Baltimore with 85. Cleveland was 6th while Milwaukee dropped to last. Kansas City won the West with 84 wins, and California and Minnesota tied for 2nd three games back and at .500. Oakland was 4th, Chicago and Seattle tied for 5th, and Texas last. Don Mattingly won the batting title at .343, a few points ahead of teammate Dave Winfield at .340. Tony Armas led in homers (43) and RBI (123). Dwight Evans led in OPS and runs (121). Mattingly also led in hits (207) and doubles (44), and tied Eddie Murray in OPS+. Lloyd Moseby and Dave Collins had 15 triples each. Jim Rice was second in RBI at 122. Rickey Henderson led in steals at 66. Mike Boddicker led in wins and ERA as the only 20-game winner, Mark Langston led in strikeouts and Dan Quisenberry in saves with 44. Boddicker's 2.79 ERA was trailed by Dave Stieb at 2.83 and Bert Blyleven at 2.87. Blyleven and Jack Morris won 19 each. Langston's 204 strikeouts were trailed by Stieb at 198 and Mike Witt at 196. Stieb edged Charlie Hough with 267 innings to 266. Here's the top Win Shares people: Players, Cal Ripken (Baltimore) 37, Eddie Murray (Baltimore) 33, Dwight Evans (Boston), Alan Trammell (Detroit) and Don Mattingly (New York) 29, Wade Boggs (Boston) and Rickey Henderson (Oakland) 28, Robin Yount (Milwaukee) and Alvin Davis (Seattle) 27, Kirk Gibson (Detroit), Dave Winfield (New York), Buddy Bell (Texas) and Lloyd Moseby (Toronto) 26, Carney Lansford (Oakland) 25, Harold Baines (Chicago), Chet Lemon (Detroit) and Kent Hrbek (Minnesota) 24, Mike Easler (Boston) and Willie Wilson (Kansas City) 23, Fred Lynn (California), Lou Whitaker (Detroit) and Dwayne Murphy (Oakland) 22. Skipping to pitchers, it's Dave Stieb (Toronto) 25, Willie Hernandez (Detroit) and Dan Quisenberry (Kansas City) 24, Mike Boddicker (Baltimore) and Doyle Alexander (Toronto) 23, Frank Viola (Minnesota) 22, Bert Blyleven (Cleveland) and Bud Black (Kansas City) 20, Mark Langston (Seattle) 19, Storm Davis (Baltimore), Richard Dotson (Chicago) and Mike Smithson (Minnesota) 18. Looking at WARP3, it's Ripken at 12.1, Trammell 8.4, Bell 7.4 (best year), Murray 7.0 (his top season), Mattingly 6.7, Yount and Moseby (best year) 6.4, Boggs and Lemon (best year) 6.2, Lansford 5.9 (best year), Henderson 5.8, Baines 5.4, Winfield 5.3, Tim Teufel (Minnesota) 5.2, Evans and Frank White (Kansas City) 4.7, Davis (rookie), and Easler (best year) 4.3. Pitchers, Blyleven and Jim Beattie (Seattle) 6.6, Stieb and Hernandez (career year) 6.4, Boddicker (best year), Langston (rookie), and Phil Niekro (New York) 5.4, Bill Caudill (Oakland) 5.1, Quiz, Alexander (best year), Dave Righetti (New York), Ernie Camacho (Cleveland) and Geoff Zahn (California) 4.7, Mike Witt (California) 4.6, Black (career year) and Ray Burris (Oakland) 4.5, Viola 4.3. WAR leaders, position players: Ripken 10.3, Moseby 7.5, Murray 7.4, Trammell 7.3, Bell 7.1, Lemon and Mattingly 6.6, Boggs 6.5, Henderson and Hrbek 6.0, Evans 5.9, Davis and Yount 5.8, Baines, Ward, and Winfield 5.3, Gibson 5.2, Murphy 4.7, White 4.6, Easler 4.5. Pitchers: Stieb 6.1, Witt 5.6, Alexander 5.5, Blyleven 5.2, Black 4.7, Davis 4.6, Langston 4.4, Boyd and Viola 4.3, Moore 4.2, Beattie 4.1, Butcher, Darwin, and Petry 4.0, Niekro 3.8, Morris 3.7. Here's how the actual award voting went, from baseball-reference.com. MVP Place Name Team First-place votes Total points 1 Willie Hernandez DET 16 306 2 Kent Hrbek MIN 5 247 3 Dan Quisenberry KCR 5 235 4 Eddie Murray BAL 2 197 5 Don Mattingly NYY 0 113 6 Kirk Gibson DET 0 96 7 Tony Armas BOS 0 87 8 Dave Winfield NYY 0 83 9 Alan Trammell DET 0 76 10 Willie Wilson KCR 0 61 11 Dwight Evans BOS 0 39 12 Alvin Davis SEA 0 26 13 Harold Baines CHW 0 10 13 Dave Kingman OAK 0 10 13 Jim Rice BOS 0 10 16 Lance Parrish DET 0 8 16 Willie Upshaw TOR 0 8 18 Brian Downing CAL 0 6 19 Steve Balboni KCR 0 5 19 George Bell TOR 0 5 19 Andre Thornton CLE 0 5 22 Buddy Bell TEX 0 4 22 Lloyd Moseby TOR 0 4 22 Dave Stieb TOR 0 4 25 Juan Beniquez CAL 0 2 25 Mike Boddicker BAL 0 2 27 Doyle Alexander TOR 0 1 27 Cal Ripken Jr. BAL 0 1 I put in the whole list to show you that, after a terrific season for Cal Ripken where he led the league in Win Shares, WARP, and WAR, he got exactly one tenth-place MVP vote. There were a few reasons for that: he had won the year before, the Orioles finished fifth (though they were over .500) and his main stats were not impressively big: .304 average, 27 homers, 86 RBI. In those days before meta-stats, he got overlooked. Cy Young Place Name Team First-place votes Total points 1 Willie Hernandez DET 12 88 2 Dan Quisenberry KCR 9 71 3 Bert Blyleven CLE 4 45 4 Mike Boddicker BAL 3 41 5 Dan Petry DET 0 3 6 Frank Viola MIN 0 2 7 Jack Morris DET 0 1 7 Dave Stieb TOR 0 1 Hernandez's mojo carried over into the Cy voting, with another reliever in Quisenberry second. Rookie Place Name Team First-place votes Total Points 1 Alvin Davis SEA 25 134 2 Mark Langston SEA 3 82 3 Kirby Puckett MIN 0 23 4 Tim Teufel MIN 0 5 5 Mike Young BAL 0 3 6 Roger Clemens BOS 0 2 7 Mark Gubicza KCR 0 1 7 Al Nipper BOS 0 1 7 Ron Romanick CAL 0 1 Ripken's defensive value made him the best player in the league in 1984, as well as several other years. This was so even though the Orioles did not win the division. No depth, after a terrific bench in 1983. 2. Eddie Murray, 3. Alan Trammell, 4. Don Mattingly, 5. Dwight Evans, #6 Buddy Bell. I'll go with the Win Shares and WAR and say Dave Stieb was the top pitcher, although Willie Hernandez certainly had a spectacular year. #1 Stieb, #2 Willie Hernandez, #3 Bert Blyleven, #4 Mike Boddicker, #5 Bud Black. Alvin Davis was the top rookie, with his closest competition being teammate Mark Langston. Both were superb in giving lift to the downtrodden Mariners. Top manager: Sparky Anderson, getting the Tigers out of the gate quickly and marching virtually unchallenged to the World Championship.