Who do you think will win the AL Cy Young Award this year?

[D-Lite]

Bartolo. Colon.

Believe it.

 

[nosterbor]

some guy with a sub-par 500 record again. so i could care less.

Record is irrelevant and doesn't speak to the quality of the pitcher, so no problem. Paul Abbott finished 17-4 for the M's in 2001 with a 4.22 ERA. He had horrible stats across the board other than wins and an average ERA. Was he better than Felix?

name a world championship team with a losing record. baseball,football,basketball,or hockey. well? as for Paul Abbott it just shows he knew how to win that year!!

 

[nosterbor]

and another thing. what was the phillies record in 72 when Carlton was 27 -10 with a 1.97 era ?
59-97
Carlton knew how to win that year.
last years AL CY Young was a joke.

 

[jgro85]

some guy with a sub-par 500 record again. so i could care less.

Record is irrelevant and doesn't speak to the quality of the pitcher, so no problem. Paul Abbott finished 17-4 for the M's in 2001 with a 4.22 ERA. He had horrible stats across the board other than wins and an average ERA. Was he better than Felix?

Hell, Jake Arrieta has 10 wins. W/L doesn't matter.

I say Weaver will win, but that's cuz I'm a Dirtbag.

Oh, I forgot. Ogando is raping too.

Ummm Arrieta has 8 wins....with 10 quality starts. So if you are implying that Arrieta doesn't deserve those 8 wins with his 4+ ERA than you are very misinformed. He has 8 wins because he has pitched very well those 8 games. He has three losses because he pitched poorly in three of his starts.

Whoops, I saw his statline in the free agent pool in one of my leagues and assumed it was wins but it was QS. Still, he has 8 wins.

Nost, wins are a TEAM stat. A pitcher cannot win by himself. A team has to score runs. Your one-year sample size example was simply a coincidence.

 

[craiger122003]

Still early with a couple callups and trades
Felix could get it he is the man

 

[wolfmanalfredo]

I say Nick Punto converts to a Starting Pitcher and goes 15-1 with a 1.97 era over the next 3+ months. Thats my pick

 

[jcmint]

Pitchers who are very good and get good run support usually pitch to the score. Boomer Wells was famous for this. CC does this all the time when he has a lead. He will just throw fastballs and not be picky about it. The Cy Young award should be the guy who puts it all together. Gotta be lucky too. I wasnt a fan of Felix getting it last year but that happened because there was no other overwhelming candidate.

 

[bradical]

James Shields

 

[MOFNY]

and another thing. what was the phillies record in 72 when Carlton was 27 -10 with a 1.97 era ?
59-97
Carlton knew how to win that year.
last years AL CY Young was a joke.

I still don't think you get it. Wins and losses are more of a team stat and are more of a luck stat now more than ever. He also pitched 346 innings that year and had an amazing year overall. Oh and he did lose 20 games the very next year. I don't know where I'm going with this.

 

[bradical]

and another thing. what was the phillies record in 72 when Carlton was 27 -10 with a 1.97 era ?
59-97
Carlton knew how to win that year.
last years AL CY Young was a joke.

Good thing the game hasn't changed in 38 years!

 

[braden]

some guy with a sub-par 500 record again. so i could care less.

Record is irrelevant and doesn't speak to the quality of the pitcher, so no problem. Paul Abbott finished 17-4 for the M's in 2001 with a 4.22 ERA. He had horrible stats across the board other than wins and an average ERA. Was he better than Felix?

name a world championship team with a losing record. baseball,football,basketball,or hockey. well? as for Paul Abbott it just shows he knew how to win that year!!

Why am I not the least bit surprised at this?

EDIT: And what the hell does a world championship team have to do with an individual award? Just when I think I've seen you say it all.......

 

[rbrownaz]

I just hope it's someone who KNOWS HOW TO WIN, rather than someone who just, you know, puts up amazing numbers and gets the best "results" vs batters (what is the pitcher's job again?).

Maybe if Felix "just figures out how to win" with the bats of Chone Figgins and Franklin Gutierrez supporting him instead of Teixeira, A-Rod, and Granderson, he will repeat. And for any doubters, he is very much a threat to repeat.

I don't understand any argument against Felix last year, 13-12 actually isn't a losing record at all. It is very much a winning record, from all standpoints.

This year: Verlander. Not many guys are "due" for a Cy, but this guy has to top the short list of pitchers who are. A no-no, a couple more CG/Shutouts, a K title, and a playoff run could seal the deal. Too early to tell. Wouldn't mind seeing Haren bring one home. Guy will be underrated and underappreciated til he retires.

 

[All The Hype]

I've predicted Verlander to win the Cy at the beginning of each of the last three seasons, and this year I put money on it. It's only a matter of time, and so far it looks like he'll certainly be one of the front-runners. BUT, there is still a long way to go.

 

[craftysouthpaw]

Pitchers who are very good and get good run support usually pitch to the score. Boomer Wells was famous for this. CC does this all the time when he has a lead. He will just throw fastballs and not be picky about it. The Cy Young award should be the guy who puts it all together. Gotta be lucky too. I wasnt a fan of Felix getting it last year but that happened because there was no other overwhelming candidate.

"Pitching to the score" is a complete myth used when there isn't any concrete evidence to support one's argument. If you have any evidence that any pitcher has actually done this AND that it can be borne out by reasoned analysis, I would love to see it.

Jack Morris is the poster child for this argument and Joe Posnanski did an amazingly detailed breakdown showing it to be complete bunk. Morris won a bunch of games because he pitched for one of the best offenses of the '80's, not because he "pitched to the score".

Did Morris forget how to win (since "pitching to the score" is a crucial subset of the "knowing how to win" argument) in the three years after 1987 when he went 18-11? His records those three years were 15-13, 6-14, and 15-18. And then he magically remembered how to win in 1991 and 1992 when he went 18-12 and 21-6? His 21-6 year is statistically quite similar to the years he went 15-13 and 15-18. ERA+ quite close, H/9 about the same, BB/9 a tad lower, and a drop in K/9 that is offset by a drop in HR/9.

Couldn't have anything to do with where his team ranked as far as runs scored right? Nah. Let's look just for fun. His team's AL rank in runs for '87 to '92 (with his W-L in parentheses) was 1 (18-11), 9 (15-13), 14 (6-14), 2 (15-18), 4 (18-12), and 2 (21-6). Amazing how linear that looks. Except for 1990 when he really, really forgot how to win with a 15-18 record despite playing for a team that finished 2nd in the AL in runs.

And I guess Steve Carlton forget how to win in 1973 when he went 13-20? No, he pitched a lot worse. ERA+ went from an amazing 182 to below league average. As for the things he could control, his K/9 went from a tick over 8 to 6.8, his BB/9 went from 2.3 to 3.5, and his HR/9 went from .44 to .89. Those 346 innings from 1972 probably took their toll.

By default, the "pitching to the score" argument concludes a guy's W-L record should remain constant and predictable from year-to-year despite his team's ability to score runs and despite his own peripheral stats such as walks, K's, HR's, and hits allowed (since he would supposedly give up more hits and HR's, surrender less BB's, and have less K's when pitching to the score). But the evidence shows the exact opposite - i.e. that a guy's W-L record is largely the result of those items, not in spite of them.

 

[UMich92]

Pitchers who are very good and get good run support usually pitch to the score. Boomer Wells was famous for this. CC does this all the time when he has a lead. He will just throw fastballs and not be picky about it. The Cy Young award should be the guy who puts it all together. Gotta be lucky too. I wasnt a fan of Felix getting it last year but that happened because there was no other overwhelming candidate.

"Pitching to the score" is a complete myth used when there isn't any concrete evidence to support one's argument. If you have any evidence that any pitcher has actually done this AND that it can be borne out by reasoned analysis, I would love to see it.

Jack Morris is the poster child for this argument and Joe Posnanski did an amazingly detailed breakdown showing it to be complete bunk. Morris won a bunch of games because he pitched for one of the best offenses of the '80's, not because he "pitched to the score".

Did Morris forget how to win (since "pitching to the score" is a crucial subset of the "knowing how to win" argument) in the three years after 1987 when he went 18-11? His records those three years were 15-13, 6-14, and 15-18. And then he magically remembered how to win in 1991 and 1992 when he went 18-12 and 21-6? His 21-6 year is statistically quite similar to the years he went 15-13 and 15-18. ERA+ quite close, H/9 about the same, BB/9 a tad lower, and a drop in K/9 that is offset by a drop in HR/9.

Couldn't have anything to do with where his team ranked as far as runs scored right? Nah. Let's look just for fun. His team's AL rank in runs for '87 to '92 (with his W-L in parentheses) was 1 (18-11), 9 (15-13), 14 (6-14), 2 (15-18), 4 (18-12), and 2 (21-6). Amazing how linear that looks. Except for 1990 when he really, really forgot how to win with a 15-18 record despite playing for a team that finished 2nd in the AL in runs.

And I guess Steve Carlton forget how to win in 1973 when he went 13-20? No, he pitched a lot worse. ERA+ went from an amazing 182 to below league average. As for the things he could control, his K/9 went from a tick over 8 to 6.8, his BB/9 went from 2.3 to 3.5, and his HR/9 went from .44 to .89. Those 346 innings from 1972 probably took their toll.

By default, the "pitching to the score" argument concludes a guy's W-L record should remain constant and predictable from year-to-year despite his team's ability to score runs and despite his own peripheral stats such as walks, K's, HR's, and hits allowed (since he would supposedly give up more hits and HR's, surrender less BB's, and have less K's when pitching to the score). But the evidence shows the exact opposite - i.e. that a guy's W-L record is largely the result of those items, not in spite of them.

I don't think "pitching to the score" affects W/L as much as it does ERA and WHIP. The thought has been "I'm up 5 runs. I'm not walking anyone. Here's my fastball. Go ahead and hit it." The idea being that the game is decided and there is no reason to get cute and risk starting a rally by walking batters. That said, I'm not sure I buy this line of thinking either.

As for Morris, even though my rational brain says the statistics don't bear it out, my eyes say he pitched differently late in a 5-0 game than he did in a 1-0 game. I'm not sure the stats are available, but my belief is that he through a much higher % of fastballs in the 5-0 type games.

 

[bongo870]

.

 

[scotty21690]

cole Hamels or Roy halladay

Did you even READ the read title? ::facepalm::

 

[BrewerSuperCollector]

cole Hamels or Roy halladay

I hope either one of those win the AL CY Young award. Hell, even better, I hope they both win in a tie for the AL CY.

 

[elmalo]

some guy with a sub-par 500 record again. so i could care less.

Record is irrelevant and doesn't speak to the quality of the pitcher, so no problem. Paul Abbott finished 17-4 for the M's in 2001 with a 4.22 ERA. He had horrible stats across the board other than wins and an average ERA. Was he better than Felix?

Agreed. Just because Felix was 13-12 last year doesn't mean he didnt dominate. I'm an avid M's fan and attend a lot of games, the reason he didn't have more W's is because our lack of run support for the poor guy. If Felix played for a good offensive team he would've had around 20 with the numbers he put up.

But you dont know if he would have put up those same numbers on a better team. You pitch differently in different situations.

 

[Buck15_24]

some guy with a sub-par 500 record again. so i could care less.

Record is irrelevant and doesn't speak to the quality of the pitcher, so no problem. Paul Abbott finished 17-4 for the M's in 2001 with a 4.22 ERA. He had horrible stats across the board other than wins and an average ERA. Was he better than Felix?

Agreed. Just because Felix was 13-12 last year doesn't mean he didnt dominate. I'm an avid M's fan and attend a lot of games, the reason he didn't have more W's is because our lack of run support for the poor guy. If Felix played for a good offensive team he would've had around 20 with the numbers he put up.

But you dont know if he would have put up those same numbers on a better team. You pitch differently in different situations.

Haha no, no one does. In fact, no one knows anything about the better team argument/debate for sure..its all hypothetical and personal opinions, so I think its hilarious it's still going on lol

With that said, yes, it is my personal belief, opinion, whatever you wanna call it that Felix would put up great numbers with a better team and more W's than he's had in the past.