The 10 most under-appreciated players of the 1980s: #2 Dave Stieb

Dave Stieb was the best pitcher of the 1980s. Don't believe me? Well, that's why he's rated #2 on our countdown.

Let's start by remembering that Stieb was the top pitcher (by WAR) in baseball for a few 3-year periods in the early 1980s.

From 1980 to 1985, Stieb totaled 36.5 WAR. By comparison, Jack Morris' highest 5-year period was 1983-1987 with just 20.1.

The news for Jack Morris just gets worse after that.






Here are the leaders, by WAR, for all the the 1980s:

Rk	Player	WAR	GS	W	L	W-L%	IP	ERA+
1	Dave Stieb	45.2	331	140	109	.562	2328.2	127
2	Bob Welch	35.1	311	137	93	.596	2082.1	113
3	Fernando Valenzuela	34.8	287	128	103	.554	2144.2	111
4	Bert Blyleven	34.0	288	123	103	.544	2078.1	113
5	Orel Hershiser	32.8	191	98	64	.605	1457.0	132
6	Roger Clemens	32.3	174	95	45	.679	1284.2	139
7	Nolan Ryan	30.8	314	122	104	.540	2094.0	111
8	Dwight Gooden	30.2	175	100	39	.719	1291.0	132
9	John Tudor	29.7	235	104	66	.612	1622.2	124
10	Bret Saberhagen	29.0	178	92	61	.601	1329.0	129
11	Charlie Hough	28.7	282	128	114	.529	2121.2	112
12	Jack Morris	27.9	332	162	119	.577	2443.2	109
13	Mario Soto	27.3	213	94	84	.528	1614.1	111
14	Teddy Higuera	27.3	152	78	44	.639	1085.0	130
15	Rick Sutcliffe	26.7	260	116	93	.555	1860.0	103
16	Rick Reuschel	25.7	241	97	82	.542	1616.1	113
17	Steve Carlton	25.6	240	104	84	.553	1732.1	109
18	Ron Guidry	25.5	232	111	72	.607	1639.2	108
19	Frank Viola	25.1	271	117	98	.544	1858.0	110
20	Dan Quisenberry	24.6	0	53	43	.552	996.2	151

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 1/12/2012.

Stieb was first by a mile. Admittedly the timing of his career happens to line up just right with the decade. But check out how Mr. "Best Pitcher of the 80s" and "Future HOFer" is just 12th in WAR with a 109 ERA+ that pales to Stieb's 127.

Stieb's reputation was hurt by his injuries that coincided with Toronto's rise. He had a good but short season in 1991 followed by a bad, short season in 1992 as the Blue Jays went on the win the World Series. Then he had a very short, very bad season with the White Sox in 1993 as the Blue Jays won again.

I chose this card for Stieb because I like it, but also because of an oddity. If you look at the photo on the front, there's a darkened rectangle around Stieb's head. You can see it most clearly to the left of Stieb's head, over his shoulder, and to the right of his head, through the batting cage. It looks perhaps like a reflection on a piece of glass that the photographer was shooting through?

Also, check out the uniform that Stieb's wearing...the Blue Jays are going back to this look in 2012!