Brewers 1982

Covering the Milwaukee Brewers throughout the 1982 season, in real-time, as it would have happpened.

NL Silver Sluggers Announced

Mike Schmidt
Schmidt won his third consecutive Silver Slugger.

AL Award Winners

The National League managers and coaches have spoken, and the annual Silver Slugger Awards have been announced to recognize the most prolific hitters in the league at each position.

Anyone get left off here? What about Lonnie Smith of the St. Louis Cardinals in the outfield? He hit .307 with 68 stolen bases. Or Jack Clark, who hit 27 homers and drove in 103 for the San Francisco Giants? Bill Buckner of the Chicago Cubs hit .306 and drove in 105, but it’s tough to argue with Al Oliver. It’s tough to argue with any of the winners, for that matter.

Pos: Player, Tm AVG HR RBI H 2B 3B SB
P: Don Robinson, PIT .282 2 16 24 5   0   0
C: Gary Carter, MON .293 29 97 163 32   1   2
1B: Al Oliver, MON .331 22 109 204 43   2   5
2B: Joe Morgan, SFG .289 14 61 134 19   4   24
3B: Mike Schmidt, PHI .280 35 87 144 26 3 14
SS: Dave Concepcion, CIN .287 5 53 164 25   4   13
OF: Dale Murphy, ATL .281 36 109 168 23 2 23
OF: Leon Durham, CHC .312 22 90 168 33 7 28
OF: Pedro Guerrero, LAD .304 32 100 175 27 5 22

Bob McClure a Free Agent

The Brewers announced today that left handed pitcher Bob McClure has been granted free agency. Though McClure is expected to get significant interest from other teams on the open market, McClure says he wants to remain a Brewer.

Should the Brewers bring McClure back for the 1983 season?

“I definitely want to stay in Milwaukee,” McClure said. “Bud (Selig) and Harry (Dalton) have been excellent to me. I hope it doesn’t come to the point where we can’t reach terms.”

McClure has been in Milwaukee since a 1977 trade with the Kansas City Royals. Prior to 1982, the 30-year-old hurler was used almost exclusively out of the bullpen. But the Brewers had trouble finding stability in the back-end of their rotation early on last season, so McClure got to see action as a starter in 26 games.

Considering it was his first full season used mainly as a starter, 1982 was arguably McClure’s most productive season. He established career-highs in wins (12), innings pitched (172 2/3) and strikeouts (99) while sporting a solid 4.22 ERA. His use as a starter came to an end in mid-September, but McClure allowed only one earned run out of the bullpen in his final 4 2/3 innings pitched.

As a left-handed pitcher with versatility as a starting pitcher and a reliever, McClure realizes this is his time to maximize his value.

“I have to think about my family, too,” said McClure. “This may be my only shot at this. But I hope it all works out.”

Don Sutton, Pete Vuckovich, and Mike Caldwell will anchor the pitching staff again in 1982. If he returns, McClure would challenge Moose Haas, Jim Slaton, and possibly youngster Chuck Porter for the final two spots.

There are several left-handed pitchers available on the free agent market, but only one (Floyd Bannister) is a full-time starter with the credentials of McClure. The Mariners and Angels couldn’t agree on a trade, so Bannister has officially become a free agent. But Bannister is likely to be too pricey for the Brewers, making resigning McClure all the more important.

In other Brewers pitching news, Doc Medich has retired to pursue a career in medicine. It was a move that many expected prior to the Brewers acquiring the veteran hurler from Texas during the season.

Vuke Wins AL Cy Young

The Baseball Writers Association of America announced today that Pete Vuckovich of the Milwaukee Brewers is their choice for the American League Cy Young Award, given to the league’s best pitcher.

Pete Vuckovich was voted the American League’s best pitcher.

Though Vuke had been seen as one of the favorites to win the award, the announcement came as something of a surprise since Toronto’s Dave Stieb was named the American League Pitcher of the Year by The Sporting News. In fact, even California’s Geoff Zahn beat out Vuckovich to make the Sporting News team. That said, pitching awards for the American League have been across the board this year. While Vuckovich didn’t make the TSN AL team, he was named the best right-handed pitcher in all of baseball by the Associated Press and was also named to the UPI AL team.

Forgive the voters for their lack of commitment, though, since this year marked one of the weakest AL Cy Young fields. In fact, it may have been the weakest.

Vuke finished the year 18-6 with a 3.34 ERA. Certainly impressive stats, but it was the first time a non-starting pitcher with fewer than 20 wins won the award since it was first handed out in 1958, and his ERA was also the highest of any Cy Young winner. Vuke also stumbled down the stretch, failing to win after a classic September 20 in 11 innings at Fenway Park (though his postseason failures were not considered).

Put all of that aside. Someone had to win, and the voters considered Vuke the most worthy candidate.

“I really feel great about it,” Vuke said, “but I can’t take full credit for it. I just happen to be lucky enough to be out there on the days the team’s playing well enough for me to be a winner. It feels great, it really does, but I’d like to break it up into 25 pieces. Thirty pieces.”

Vuke is humble, but he’s right. When you win as many games as he’s won with only six losses and a somewhat modest ERA, luck certainly plays into it.

“That’s the best election result of the day,” said satisfied general manager Harry Dalton. “I’m so happy for Pete. He’s pitched well enough to win it for two years. I knew he earned it, he should get it, but whether the people voting would recognize that, you’re never sure. This gives him the type of recognition he’s truly earned the past two years. I’m just thrilled for him.”

Speaking of the last two years, the Brewers are now a Robin Yount MVP away from sweeping the two major awards two years running. Reliever Rollie Fingers won both the AL MVP and Cy Young awards last season.

Vuckovich received 14 of the possible 28 first-place votes while the leftovers were split up among Toronto’s Dave Stieb (five), Baltimore’s Jim Palmer (four), Kansas City’s Dan Quisenberry (four), and Cleveland’s Rick Sutcliffe (one).

Player – Tm Pts 1st W L SO SV IP ERA
P Vuckovich, MIL 87 14 18 6 105 0 223.2 3.34
Jim Palmer, BAL 59 4 15 5 103 1 227.0 3.13
D Quisenberry, KCR 40 4 9 7 46 35 136.2 2.57
Dave Stieb, TOR 36 5 17 14 141 0 288.1 3.25
Rick Sutcliffe, CLE 14 1 14 8 142 1 216.0 2.96
Geoff Zahn, CAL 7 0 18 8 81 0 229.1 3.73
Bill Caudill, SEA 4 0 12 9 111 26 95.2 2.35
Bob Stanley, BOS 4 0 12 7 83 14 168.1 3.10
Dan Petry, DET 1 0 15 9 132 0 246.0 3.22

Yount Named TSN AL Player of the Year

1982 Donruss Robin Yount
Robin is recognized again!

The Sporting News announced their AL and NL teams today and named Robin Yount of the Milwaukee Brewers as their pick for the 1982 TSN American League Player of the Year Award.

Dale Murphy of the Atlanta Braves won the award in the National League while TSN named Steve Carlton of the Phillies and Dave Stieb of the Blue Jays their pitchers of the year.

Yount was joined by teammates Cecil Cooper at first base and Gorman Thomas in the outfield. So… how in the world is Dave Stieb the AL Pitcher of the Year? And how is Geoff Zahn on the team but not Pete Vuckovich? Vuke was named the best right-handed pitcher — not only in the American League, but in all of baseball — by the Associated Press. Vuke was also named to the UPI AL All-Star Team along with Baltimore’s Jim Palmer.

So while it’s certainly exciting (if not unexpected) that Yount won the Player of the Year Award, the fact that Vuke wasn’t recognized — not only as the best pitcher in the AL, but one of the two best pitchers — is a bit of a head-scratcher. And it also raises concerns that he may not win the AL Cy Young award.

Following are the entire AL and NL rosters, as named by The Sporting News:

American League

Catcher: Lance Parrish (DET)
1st Base: Cecil Cooper (MIL)
2nd Base: Damaso Garcia (TOR)
Shortstop: Robin Yount (MIL)
3rd Base: Doug DeCinces (CAL)
Outfield: Dave Winfield (NYY), Gorman Thomas (MIL) and Dwight Evans (BOS)
Designated Hitter: Hal McRae (KC)
Pitchers: Dave Stieb (TOR) and Geoff Zahn (CAL)

National League

Catcher: Gary Carter (MON)
1st Base: Al Oliver (MON)
2nd Base: Manny Trillo (PHI)
Shortstop: Ozzie Smith (STL)
3rd Base: Mike Schmidt (PHI)
Outfield: Dale Murphy (ATL), Pedro Guerrero (LA) and Lonnie Smith (STL)
Pitchers: Steve Carlton (PHI) and Steve Rogers (MON)

Carlton Wins NL Cy Young

Carlton ran away with the NL Cy Young award.

In what falls in the “yeah, duh” category, Steve Carlton has been named the National League’s Cy Young award winner. Voted on by members of the Baseball Writers Association of America, the award goes to the best pitcher in each league.

It was a formality, really. Carlton led the majors in wins with 23 and was the only pitcher in either league who won 20. His 286 strikeouts, 19 complete games and six shutouts also led both leagues, so it is not surprising that Carlton, who received 20 of a possible 24 first place votes, won the award.

Player – Tm Pts 1st W L SO SV IP ERA
Steve Carlton, PHI 112 20 23 11 286 0 295.2 3.10
Steve Rogers, MON 29 1 19 8 179 0 277.0 2.40
Bruce Sutter, STL 25 2 9 8 61 36 102.1 2.90
F Valenzuela, LAD 25 1 19 13 199 0 285.0 2.87
Phil Niekro, ATL 18 0 17 4 144 0 234.1 3.61
Greg Minton, SFG 4 0 10 4 58 30 123.0 1.83
J Andujar, STL 1 0 15 10 137 0 265.2 2.47
Gene Garber, ATL 1 0 8 10 68 30 119.1 2.34
Mario Soto, CIN 0 0 14 13 274 0 257.2 2.79

Stieb TSN AL Pitcher of Year

The Sporting News today named Toronto’s Dave Stieb as the American League Pitcher of the Year, damaging the Cy Young hopes of Brewers pitcher Pete Vuckovich.

On Oct. 7, I broke down the competition and determined that Stieb is my Cy Young winner. I hoped at the time that I was trying too hard to be unbiased, that I overcompensated by choosing Stieb over Vuckovich. After today’s announcement from The Sporting News, the numbers may just stack up in Stieb’s favor after all. [Read more…] about Stieb TSN AL Pitcher of Year