1984 National League

It was Ryne Sandberg's year, all year long. The Cubs hadn't won anything since the 1945 pennant, and after blowing it so big in 1969 it all seemed to fall into place...including their exceptional second baseman. Even more, Rick Sutcliffe arrived in a June 13 trade and went 16-1 the rest of the way, winning the Cy Young Award for his trouble. The Cubs won 96 games, while the Mets took second with 90 wins. St. Louis won 84, while Philadelphia was 4th at .500. Montreal was 5th, Pittsburgh last while in the throes of a drug-enduced collapse. Then the Padres won the NLCS. They had a young star of their own in Tony Gwynn, but the Chicago faithful just thought it wasn't fair. Destiny again denied the Cubbies. The Padres took the West with 92 wins, and no other team was over .500. Atlanta and Houston tied for 2nd, twelve games back. Los Angeles was 4th, Cincinnati 5th, and San Francisco last. Gwynn led the league in batting at .351 by a 30-point margin, with Lee Lacy second. Mike Schmidt led in OPS by a fraction of a point over Dale Murphy, who led in slugging. The two tied for the home run lead at 36, and Schmidt tied Gary Carter in RBI at 106. Murphy's 100 was the only other triple-digit number. Gary Matthews led in on-base, Sandberg in runs with 114, Tim Raines in steals with 75 to edge Juan Samuel at 72. Gwynn had 213 hits, Raines and Johnny Ray 38 doubles, Sandberg and Samuel 19 triples. Joaquin Andujar led the league with 20 wins (Sutcliffe won 20, but the first 4 were in the AL) while Mario Soto won 18. Alejandro Pena led in ERA with a 2.48 mark. Dwight Gooden led in strikeouts with 276 and was second in ERA at 2.60. Bruce Sutter led in saves with 45. Andujar led with 261 innings, 1/3 more than Fernando Valenzuela, and Soto pitched 13 complete games. Here's the 1984 NL Win Shares leaders: Ryne Sandberg (Chicago) 38, Tony Gwynn (San Diego) 35, Dale Murphy (Atlanta) and Keith Hernandez (New York) 33, Tim Raines (Montreal) 32, Gary Carter (Montreal) 30, Jose Cruz (Houston) 29, Mike Schmidt (Philadelphia) 26, Kevin McReynolds (San Diego) 25, Darryl Strawberry (New York) 24, Gary Matthews (Chicago), Pedro Guerrero (Los Angeles), Mookie Wilson (New York) and Alan Wiggins (San Diego) 23, Leon Durham (Chicago) 22, Hubie Brooks (New York), Von Hayes (Philadelphia), Tony Pena (Pittsburgh), Carmelo Martinez (San Diego) and Chili Davis (San Francisco) 21. For pitchers, it's Bruce Sutter (St. Louis) 23, Rick Rhoden (Pittsburgh) 20, Rick Mahler (Atlanta), Mario Soto (Cincinnati), Orel Hershiser , Alejandro Pena and Fernando Valenzuela (Los Angeles) , and Dwight Gooden (New York) all with 18, Jesse Orosco (New York) and Joaquin Andujar (St. Louis) 17, Rick Sutcliffe (Chicago) 16, Lee Smith (Chicago), Charlie Lea (Montreal) and Goose Gossage (San Diego) 15. WARP3 numbers have Sandberg and Schmidt 8.6, Cruz 8.4 (best year at age 36), Carter 7.4 in his last Montreal year, Gwynn 7.2, Hernandez 7.1, Raines 6.4, Murphy 6.0, Johnny Ray (Pittsburgh) and Bob Brenly (San Francisco) 5.6, Pena 5.5 (best year), Ozzie Smith (St. Louis) 5.3, Tim Wallach (Montreal) 5.2, Willie McGee (St. Louis) 4.9, Lee Lacy (Pittsburgh) 4.8, Wiggins 4.7 (best year), Davis 4.5 (best year), Mike Scioscia (Los Angeles) 4.3, McReynolds and Hayes 4.2, Phil Garner (Houston) 4.0. Pitchers went Sutter 7.2 (last great year), Rhoden 5.7, Hershiser and Gooden (both rookies) 5.4, Valenzuela 5.1, Pena 5.0 (best year), Mahler and Bill Dawley (Houston) 4.5, Sutcliffe 4.3 (4.6 counting Cleveland work), Rick Honeycutt (Los Angeles) 4.2, Soto and Ted Power (Cincinnati) 3.9. No wonder we went ga-ga over Gooden, the state of NL pitching at the time was pretty sad. WAR, position players: Sandberg 8.1, Carter and Schmidt 7.3, Raines 6.8, Gwynn 6.4, Hernandez 5.8, Cruz and Murphy 5.7, Pena 5.1, McReynolds 4.9, Ray 4.8, Davis 4.7, Hayes 4.3, Wallach 4.0, Brenly 3.9, Martinez 3.8, McGee 3.7, Durham 3.6, Lacy 3.5. Pitchers: Gooden 8.6, Sutcliffe 6.3, Valenzuela 5.5, Koosman 5.1, Pena 4.9, Rhoden 4.8, Carlton and Ryan 4.4, Hershiser 4.2, Mahler 3.8, Andujar and Trout 3.7, Candelaria 3.6, DeLeon, LaPoint, and McWilliams 3.4. Actual award voting: MVP (top 15): | Season Results Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+----------+---+------+--+ 1 Ryne Sandberg CHC 22 326 336 0.97 | 636 200 19 .314 .887 32 2 Keith Hernandez NYM 1 195 336 0.58 | 550 171 15 .311 .859 2 3 Tony Gwynn SDP 1 184 336 0.55 | 606 213 5 .351 .853 33 4 Rick Sutcliffe TOT 0 151 336 0.45 | 56 14 0 .250 .579 0| 16-1 150 2.69 1.08 155 5 Gary Matthews CHC 0 70 336 0.21 | 491 143 14 .291 .838 17 6 Bruce Sutter STL 0 67 336 0.20 | 10 0 0 .000 .000 0| 5-7 123 1.54 1.08 77 45 7 Mike Schmidt PHI 0 55 336 0.16 | 528 146 36 .277 .919 5 8 Jose Cruz HOU 0 53 336 0.16 | 600 187 12 .312 .842 22 9 Dale Murphy ATL 0 52 336 0.15 | 607 176 36 .290 .919 19 10 Jody Davis CHC 0 49 336 0.15 | 523 134 19 .256 .736 5 11 Tim Raines MON 0 41 336 0.12 | 622 192 8 .309 .830 75 12 Leon Durham CHC 0 38 336 0.11 | 473 132 23 .279 .874 16 13 Rich Gossage SDP 0 34 336 0.10 | 22 4 0 .182 .399 0| 10-6 102 2.90 1.08 84 25 14 Gary Carter MON 0 32 336 0.10 | 596 175 27 .294 .853 2 15 Dwight Gooden NYM 0 28 336 0.08 | 70 14 0 .200 .405 0| 17-9 218 2.60 1.07 276 Sandberg wasn't unanimous, for some reason. Cy Young: 1st Max | Season Results Rk Name Team Place Points Points Share| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+ 1 Rick Sutcliffe TOT 24 120 120 1.00 | 16-1 150 2.69 1.08 155 2 Dwight Gooden NYM 0 45 120 0.38 | 17-9 218 2.60 1.07 276 3 Bruce Sutter STL 0 33 120 0.28 | 5-7 123 1.54 1.08 77 45 4 Joaquin Andujar STL 0 12 120 0.10 | 20-14 261 3.34 1.10 147 5 Rich Gossage SDP 0 3 120 0.02 | 10-6 102 2.90 1.08 84 25 6 Mario Soto CIN 0 2 120 0.02 | 18-7 237 3.53 1.13 185 Sutcliffe was unanimous, although he shouldn't have been. Rookie: 1st Max | Season Results Rk Name Team Place Points Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------ 1 Dwight Gooden NYM 23 118 120 0.98 | 70 14 0 .200 .405 0| 17-9 218 2.60 1.07 276 2 Juan Samuel PHI 1 67 120 0.56 | 701 191 15 .272 .749 72 3 Orel Hershiser LAD 0 15 120 0.12 | 50 10 0 .200 .459 0| 11-8 190 2.66 1.11 150 2 4 Dan Gladden SFG 0 9 120 0.08 | 342 120 4 .351 .857 31 5 Ron Darling NYM 0 3 120 0.02 | 67 10 0 .149 .324 0| 12-9 206 3.81 1.38 136 6 Carmelo Martinez SDP 0 2 120 0.02 | 488 122 13 .250 .736 1 7 Terry Pendleton STL 0 1 120 0.01 | 262 85 1 .324 .777 20 7 Jeff Stone PHI 0 1 120 0.01 | 185 67 1 .362 .859 27| Manager: Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share | W-L Rank +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+------+---------+-----+ 1 Jim Frey CHC 16 101 120 0.84 | 96-65 1 2 Davey Johnson NYM 4 72 120 0.60 | 90-72 2 3 Dick Williams SDP 4 41 120 0.34 | 92-70 1 4 Bob Lillis HOU 1 2 120 0.02 | 80-82 2 Top player: Ryne Sandberg. You could make an argument that Murphy outplayed him, but it was clearly Sandberg's year. #1 Ryne Sandberg, #2 Tony Gwynn, #3 Keith Hernandez, #4 Mike Schmidt, #5 Jose Cruz, #6 Dale Murphy. Top pitcher: Rick Sutcliffe made a big difference in a pennant race, and Dwight Gooden looked like a star for the ages. Both were terrific. #1 Rick Sutcliffe, #2 Dwight Gooden, #3 Bruce Sutter, #4 Rick Rhoden, #5 Fernando Valenzuela. Top rookie: Dwight Gooden was very impressive. Orel Hershiser was the next best. Top manager: Dick Williams impressed me the most, although the writers gave the Cubs guys a near-sweep.