The first great player for the Toronto Blue Jays was born in California and went to college at Southern Illinois. He was drafted by Toronto in the 5th round, 1978, and made his major league debut in 1979. That was Toronto's third year of existence, and they were searching for any hint of quality. They got it for a lot of years from Stieb.
Stieb could reasonably be considered the AL's best pitcher of the 1980s, although many would give that title to Jack Morris. Morris, however, pitched for much better teams and gave up many more runs than Stieb. Stieb was almost certainly the best pitcher in the league in 1985, among other years, but never won a Cy Young Award, due to a lack of gaudy win totals. He pitched on two postseason teams, 1985 and 1989, and was providing a lot of the push that got them there.
Stieb left the majors after the 1993 season, but returned in 1998 and posted respectable numbers, though not exceptional. Still, he will be remembered as Toronto's first ace, and should be listed among the great pitchers.
Stieb earned 135.39 ratings points.
Stieb's stats: 176-137 record, 3.44 ERA, 1669 K. posted by Shawn Weaver at 6:49 PM