Yahoo! Sports' Jeff Passan writes that this year's National League Cy Young race is a referendum on whether young Sabremetricians--those who swear by statistical analysis--will topple the Old Guard in the journalists' voting for the award. Passan states that victories have typically been the barometer by which Cy Young candidates are judged, earned-run averages and other stats be damned.
I take the position that victory totals, while an imperfect measure, still matter. There's something about playing behind a winning pitcher, an ace, a stud, that gets a team going. Winners keep teams in the game--guys like Jack Morris come to mind--and throw a lot of pitches while doing it. Workhorses matter.
In this year's NL race, it's come down to Brandon Webb of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants. Lincecum sports a gaudy ERA and Webb a slightly better win total on a better team. In all fairness the award could go to either guy, though I think Lincecum has been more dominant.
In the AL, it's no contest. Cliff Lee should make it back-to-back Cy Youngs for the Cleveland Indians. Despite playing on a .500 team, he leads the league in wins (21-2) and ERA.
Dune adventure
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Sonja, Celeste and I walked around Montrose Point today to investigate the
aftermath of the Halloween 2014 storm. The shoreline has been altered by
the s...
10 years ago
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