The Final Four Standing in 1985 Debut League

I simulated the 1985 Debut League tonight, and one remarkable result is that 3 of the 4 real-life playoff teams made the postseason in the Toronto Blue Jays, St. Louis Cardinals and the Los Angeles Dodgers. The only difference is that the Seattle Mariners won the A.L. West over the Kansas City Royals. The Royals finished in 2nd place, 6 games back.

I know what you are thinking, the Mariners?! I know, right!

The key to the Mariners' success was that they had 6 strong bats in Dave Henderson, Phil Bradley, Alvin Davis, Ruppert Jones, Jim Presley & rookie Danny Tartabull. They also had a good 1-4 rotation in Rick Honeycutt, Shane Rawley, Bud Black & Mike Moore, plus their bullpen's top half was solid in closer Ed Nunez, Ed Vande Berg & Matt Young. Mark Langston (4-7, 5.02 ERA) struggled and was relegated to bullpen duties.

Bradley was the offensive star for the M's, finishing 3rd in the American League with a .349 batting average & 3rd in WAR (8.9), while smacking 30 home runs & 112 RBI. Bradley also showed some speed on the base paths with 25 steals.

The Blue Jays were a beast, winning 109 games, thanks largely to Jesse Barfield (.304, 42 HR & 131 RBI) and Dave Stieb (22-8, 3.11 ERA, 194 K & 1.16 WHIP in 263.1 IP) on the mound. George Bell and Lloyd Moseby were no slouches as well. Bell led the A.L. with 132 RBI (just one more than Barfield), while batting .300 and hitting 27 bombs. Moseby batted .298 with 28 HR & 89 RBI, while stealing 44 bases and leading the A.L. in runs (138).

One of the Jays that came into the season quietly, but exited with a huge season was lead-off man Mitch Webster, who has a solid all-around season, batting .273 with 19 HR & 109 RBI, plus 35 steals & 19 triples, to go along with 32 doubles, 182 hits & 104 runs (70 extra-base hits), while compiling 309 total bases.

Another Jay that shouldn't go overlooked was Mark Eichhorn who converted 31 of 34 save opportunities, posted a microscopic 1.03 ERA, while posting 9.8 K/9 & 0.84 WHIP through 68.1 innings.

Before moving on to the National League. The Batting title winners were your two usual suspects in the 1980's in Wade Boggs and Tony Gwynn. Boggs nearly batted .400, batting .393 for the season, topping George Brett's 1980 run of .390, while being the highest batting average for a single-season since Ted Williams batted .406 back in 1941. Gwynn edged Lee Lacy's .341 batting average, by hitting .346 for the Padres.

By the way, Boggs' Boston finished with 103 wins, but still 6 games back.

The National League batting statistics were significantly lower than the American League's, as evident of Eric Davis's league-leading .890 OPS, compared to where the A.L. had at least 7 players with over a .940 OPS for the season. Davis also led the N.L. with 40 HR, while Andy Van Slyke (of the Cardinals) won the N.L. RBI title (114).

I think its worth mentioning that Atlanta's Brook Jacoby was 2nd in the N.L. in OPS (.890) and Slugging (.521). Jacoby was one of the more productive A.L. third basemen during those days, from about 1985-1987, but you wouldn't have known it, because he was playing with Cleveland. He was named to 2 All-Star Games in his day.

The St. Louis Cardinals won the N.L. East with a 101-61 record, while the New York Mets with their high-profile rotation finished 9 games back in 2nd place. You may remember that the Mets' rotation was stacked with Dwight Gooden, Nolan Ryan, Mike Scott, Tom Seaver & Ron Darling. Entering the season, Jerry Koosman made the rotation over Darling, but Seaver struggled badly and was demoted to relief duties, while the Mets would plug Rick Aguilera in the 4th slot of the rotation by the end of the season.

Gooden (17-9, 2.60 ERA), Scott (16-10, 2.26 ERA) & Ryan (17-9, 3.08 ERA) were as good as expected, but their lineup was nowhere as talented as the Cards' lineup.

The Cardinals' lineup was excellent from top-to-bottom, not to mention plenty of Gold Glove talent in the fielding department as well. The lineup boasted Willie McGee, Keith Hernandez, Andy Van Slyke, Terry Pendleton, Tom Herr, Jose Cruz, Garry Templeton & Terry Kennedy.

Their rotation was also talented in Steve Carlton (16-10, 3.32 ERA), Danny Cox (17-6, 2.73 ERA), Jerry Reuss (12-4, 3.18 ERA), and John Denny (17-14, 3.86 ERA).

The Dodgers won the N.L. West as expected, winning 101 games. Bob Welch (15-7) won the N.L. ERA title (1.76), while teammate Rick Rhoden finished 5th in ERA (2.59) while winning over 20 games (21-7 record). Fernando Valezuela (17-10, 3.45 ERA), Alejandro Pena (11-5, 2.30 ERA) and Rick Sutcliffe (5-1, 3.01 ERA) all contributed to their starting pitching.

L.A.'s lineup lacked production, led by Pedro Guerrero (.290, 20 HR & 102 RBI), Jeffrey Leonard (.330, 15 HR & 67 RBI) & Mike Scioscia (.291, 10 HR & 61 RBI).

Dodgers will have to lean on their rotation and hope that they can shut down the Cards' bats in the National League Championship Series.

Over in the American League Championship Series, it will be a battle between the two 1977 Expansion Teams.

Other Interesting Stats from the season...

• The worst two MLB teams were the Cleveland Indians and Houston Astros at 56-106, with the San Francisco Giants (59 wins) and the Detroit Tigers (64 wins) not far behind.

• The real-life champion Royals may not have moved on towards the promised land, but George Brett had a excellent season regardless, leading the A.L. in WAR (10.9), Slugging (.620),  OPS (1.056), OPS+ (185), Total Bases (380), Extra-Base Hits (84) & WOBA (.454). Brett finished 2nd in the A.L. with a .372 batting average while hitting 30 HR & 110 RBI. In many ways, he may be the front runner for the A.L. Most Valuable Player Award.

• Tom Brunasky hit 41 HR & 120 RBI for the California Angels.

• The Twins' Kirby Puckett finished 2nd in hits (237), 3rd in Batting Avg (.342), while hitting 89 RBI, scoring 111 runs & stealing 34 bases.

• Not a surprise, Rickey Henderson of the Oakland Athletics, led the A.L. with 75 stolen bases. Willie Wilson (64) and Gary Pettis (60) were not too far behind, the big surprise may have been Kirk Gibson stealing 54 bases for Detroit.

• The Royals' Ken Phelps hit 37 HR & 105 RBI, but only batted .211 for the season.

• The Angels' Mike Witt led all A.L. pitchers in WAR (7.2), ERA (2.72), Innings Pitched (287.1), complete games (14), WHIP (1.09) & Quality Starts (27) -- all while striking out 212 batters (ranked 2nd) & winning 15 games.

• Roger Clemens won the strikeout title (241), while sporting a 20-5 record.

• The Phillies' Ryne Sandberg may not have led in any major categories, but had a well-rounded season: .321 BA, 21 HR, 95 RBI, 208 hits, 98 runs & 39 stolen bases, all while sporting a .853 OPS & .372 OBP.

• Sandberg's teammate Mike Schmidt hit 35 HR & 104 RBI with a .841 OPS.

• Andre Dawson (.297, 28 HR, 107 RBI & 26 SB / .853 OPS) and Tim Raines (.323 BA, 131 runs, 198 hits & league-leading 98 steals) were the Expos' studs.

• Mike Scott (16-10, 2.26 ERA & 204 K) for the Mets. Scott was 2nd in both ERA & strikeouts.

• Dwight Gooden led all N.L. pitchers in WAR (9.5) & strikeouts (277), while going 17-9. 

• Reds' closer Jay Howell led N.L. with 37 saves, while posting a 2.95 ERA.