Toronto Blue Jays Poll: Greatest Players of All Time Rd2

Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

Matchup 4: Dave Stieb vs Jim Clancy

Both of these starters have earned their place in Blue Jays history. Clancy started his career the same year the Blue Jays started theirs. Stieb came along not too long after. Both rank highly on the Blue Jays all time list of pitchers.

Toronto Blue Jays

Jim Clancy received 69% of the vote in Rd 1. He started his career in 1977 and went 4-9 for the expansion team in Toronto. It wasn’t a great 76.2 innings of work for him as his BB/9 rate (5.52) was actually higher than his K/9 (5.17). Despite that, he put up 0.5 WAR. And, he never looked back. He would go on to collect 128 wins as a Blue Jay, which puts him in 3rd spot. He also sits in 3rd with  1237 strikeouts.

Clancy would accumulate 27.9 WAR for the Blue Jays over 12 seasons. The one time All Star led the league in games started twice: 36 in 1984 and an incredible 40 in 1982. He started 30+ games 8 times in Toronto and 20+ 2 more times. He threw 11 complete games in ’82 and 15 in ’80. It is that durability that netted him 2204.2 innings as a Blue Jay, which is good for 2nd place.

He’s 2nd to Stieb, who received 98% of the vote in Rd 1. Who actually voted for Escobar over him?! Stieb threw 2873 innings over 15 seasons with the Blue Jays (he had a year in Chicago and 4 out of baseball altogether). His case just might be made by cycling through his resume alone. He is the franchise leader in wins with 175. He is a 7 time All Star who finished in the top 10 in Cy Young award voting 4 times.

Aside from that, Stieb is the only Blue Jays pitcher to ever throw a no hitter. He did so on Sept 2. 1990. As remarkable as that is, he also had two other no hit bids broken up with two outs in the 9th inning back to back starts in 1988. It would happen again in 1989, this time it was a perfect game bid.

The next matchup asks you to choose between two power threats.

Next: Matchup 5: More Big Boppers