1989 American League

It was the year of the "Earthquake Series," the only World Championship of the A's mini-dynasty. The Canseco/McGwire version of the Oakland team took 99 victories, seven more than Kansas City and eight more than California. Texas was 4th with 83 wins, Minnesota was 5th, Seattle lost 89 and Chicago lost 92. Toronto won the East, the second playoff appearance in franchise history as Cito Gaston took over for Jimy Williams in mid-season. Toronto edged resurgent Baltimore by two games, as the Orioles improved by 33 wins. Boston was 3rd with 83 wins and Milwaukee 4th at .500. New York lost 87, Cleveland 89, and Detroit 103. Robin Yount won an unusual MVP, in that he did not lead in any offensive categories and his team did not place first in any standings. Kirby Puckett edged Carney Lansford in batting average .339 to .336. Wade Boggs led in on-base, Ruben Sierra in slugging, Fred McGriff in OPS. Boggs and Rickey Henderson tied for the runs lead at 113. Kirby Puckett had 215 hits. Boggs had 51 doubles. McGriff led with 36 home runs, just ahead of Joe Carter's 35. Ruben Sierra led in triples with 14, and in RBI with 119, ahead of Don Mattingly at 113. Henderson had 77 steals. Bret Saberhagen led in wins with 23 and ERA with a 2.16 mark. Dave Stewart won 21, while Chuck Finley was second in ERA at 2.57 followed by Mike Moore at 2.61. Nolan Ryan led with 301 strikeouts and Roger Clemens was second with 230. Jeff Russell was tops with 38 saves. Saberhagen had 12 complete games, while Bert Blyleven had 5 shutouts. Win Shares leaders, players; Robin Yount (Milwaukee) and Ruben Sierra (Texas) 34, Rickey Henderson (New York/Oakland), Julio Franco (Texas) and Fred McGriff (Toronto) 30, Wade Boggs (Boston) 29, Paul Molitor (Milwaukee) and Kirby Puckett (Minnesota) 27, Cal Ripken (Baltimore), Don Mattingly (New York) and Alvin Davis (Seattle) 26, Lou Whitaker (Detroit) 25, Nick Esasky (Boston) 24, Chili Davis (California), Kevin Seitzer (Kansas City) and George Bell (Toronto) 22, Dwight Evans (Boston), Jim Eisenreich (Kansas City), Steve Sax (New York), Carney Lansford and Mark McGwire (Oakland) 21. Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Bret Saberhagen (Kansas City) 28, Bert Blyleven (California) 22, Chuck Finley (California), Mark Gubicza and Jeff Montgomery (Kansas City) and Mike Moore (Oakland) 19, Gregg Olson (Baltimore), Roger Clemens (Boston), Kirk McCaskill (California) and Nolan Ryan (Texas) 18, Chris Bosio (Milwaukee) 17. WARP3 scores: Boggs 8.0, Ripken 6.6, McGriff 6.4, Sierra 6.1, Molitor 5.9, Yount 5.8, Henderson 5.6, Puckett 5.3, Tony Fernandez (Toronto) 5.4, Franco 5.1, Harold Reynolds (Seattle) and Mickey Tettleton (Baltimore) 4.8, A. Davis 4.7, Evans (last big year) and Kelly Gruber (Toronto) 4.6, Sax and Ellis Burks (Boston) 4.3. Pitchers, Saberhagen 9.4 (best year), Montgomery 5.9, Clemens 5.6, Blyleven 5.5 (last big year), Gubicza and Bosio 5.4, Moore, Olson (rookie), and Tom Henke (Toronto) 5.4, Doug Jones (Cleveland) 4.9, Finley 4.8, McCaskill and Tom Candiotti (Cleveland) 4.7, Jeff Russell (Texas) 4.6, Dennis Eckersley (Oakland) 4.4, Dan Plesac (Milwaukee) 4.3, Ryan 4.1. WAR leaders, position players: Henderson 8.9, Boggs 8.8, McGriff 6.9, Ripken 6.3, Sierra 6.0, Franco 5.9, Yount 5.8, Molitor 5.6, Whitaker 5.5, Puckett 5.2, Lansford 4.9, Sax 4.8, McGwire 4.7, Esasky, D. Henderson, and Reynolds 4.6, Barfield and Davis 4.5. WAR leaders, pitchers: Saberhagen 8.4, Ryan 7.6, Gubicza 7.2, Bosio 6.2, Clemens 6.0, Blyleven 5.4, Candiotti 5.0, Key 4.9, Moore 4.7, Black 4.1, Bankhead, Farrell, Swindell, and Viola 3.9, Finley 3.8, Boddicker and Henke 3.7. Actual award winners: MVP (top 20): 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 Robin Yount MIL 8 256 392 0.65 | 614 195 21 .318 .896 19 2 Ruben Sierra TEX 6 228 392 0.58 | 634 194 29 .306 .889 8 3 Cal Ripken BAL 6 216 392 0.55 | 646 166 21 .257 .718 3 4 George Bell TOR 4 205 392 0.52 | 613 182 18 .297 .788 4 5 Dennis Eckersley OAK 3 116 392 0.30 | | 4-0 58 1.56 0.61 55 33 6 Fred McGriff TOR 0 96 392 0.24 | 551 148 36 .269 .924 7 7 Kirby Puckett MIN 0 84 392 0.21 | 635 215 9 .339 .843 11 8 Bret Saberhagen KCR 0 82 392 0.21 | | 23-6 262 2.16 0.96 193 9 Rickey Henderson TOT 0 67 392 0.17 | +541 148 12 .274 .810 77 10 Bo Jackson KCR 0 46 392 0.12 | 515 132 32 .256 .805 26 11 Dave Parker OAK 0 44 392 0.11 | 553 146 22 .264 .741 0 12 Gregg Olson BAL 0 35 392 0.09 | | 5-2 85 1.69 1.21 90 27 13 Bert Blyleven CAL 0 32 392 0.08 | | 17-5 241 2.73 1.12 131 14 Dave Stewart OAK 0 30 392 0.08 | | 21-9 258 3.32 1.28 155 15 Don Mattingly NYY 0 25 392 0.06 | 631 191 23 .303 .828 3 16 Joe Carter CLE 0 23 392 0.06 | 651 158 35 .243 .757 13 17 Carney Lansford OAK 1 20 392 0.05 | 551 185 2 .336 .803 37 18 Nick Esasky BOS 0 19 392 0.05 | 564 156 30 .277 .855 1 19 Tony Fernandez TOR 0 9 392 0.02 | 573 147 11 .257 .680 22 20 Mike Moore OAK 0 6 392 0.02 | | 19-11 242 2.61 1.14 172 A very divided election, with six players getting first-place votes, including one for Carney Lansford. Well, at least he won the batting title. Cy Young (top 5): Season Results Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+ 1 Bret Saberhagen KCR 27 138 140 0.99 | 23-6 262 2.16 0.96 193 2 Dave Stewart OAK 1 80 140 0.57 | 21-9 258 3.32 1.28 155 3 Mike Moore OAK 0 10 140 0.07 | 19-11 242 2.61 1.14 172 4 Bert Blyleven CAL 0 9 140 0.06 | 17-5 241 2.73 1.12 131 5 Nolan Ryan TEX 0 5 140 0.04 | 16-10 239 3.20 1.09 301 Rookie: 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 Gregg Olson BAL 26 136 140 0.97 | | 5-2 85 1.69 1.21 90 27 2 Tom Gordon KCR 1 67 140 0.48 | | 17-9 163 3.64 1.28 153 1 3 Ken Griffey SEA 1 21 140 0.15 | 455 120 16 .264 .748 16 4 Craig Worthington BAL 0 16 140 0.11 | 497 123 15 .247 .718 1 5 Jim Abbott CAL 0 10 140 0.07 | | 12-12 181 3.92 1.46 115 6 Kevin Brown TEX 0 2 140 0.01 | | 12-9 191 3.35 1.24 104 Manager: Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share | W-L Rank +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+------+---------+-----+ 1 Frank Robinson BAL 23 125 140 0.89 | 87-75 2 2 Cito Gaston TOR 3 62 140 0.44 | 77-49 1 3 Tony LaRussa OAK 2 51 140 0.36 | 99-63 1 4 Doug Rader CAL 0 13 140 0.09 | 91-71 3 5 John Wathan KCR 0 1 140 0.01 | 92-70 2 Top player: Robin Yount. Another great season to spice up his career. Yount had a very broad range of skills. #1 Robin Yount, #2 Ruben Sierra, #3 Fred McGriff, #4 Wade Boggs, #5 Cal Ripken, #6 Rickey Henderson. Top pitcher: Bret Saberhagen at his peak. The odd/even paradox was mostly because they would wear him out during the good odd-numbered years, leaving him hurt for the even numbers. #1 Bret Saberhagen, #2 Mike Moore, #3 Bert Blyleven, #4 Nolan Ryan, #5 Chris Bosio. Rookie: Gregg Olson had an outstanding season, but hindsight shouldn't be required to see that the class of this class would be Junior Griffey. Manager: Frank Robinson's Orioles managed a tremendous comeback.