Hi everyone. Remember me? MissMet. I know, I've been kinda missing in the blogosphere lately, I just didn't have anything much to say that is sports-related. I could talk about the joys of turning 26, looking for a job and of course, helping to elect a president, but those are boring, depressing and have been done by everyone else in that order. So, I have been watching Pardon the Interruption, scanning the Bottom Line for baseball news relevant to me and checking metsblog.com for any type of noteworthy off-season news for anything worth my time for writing and your time for reading.
Today, my good friend* Johan Santana was robbed of the National League Cy Young Award. I went into the day not only hoping that he would win, but truly thinking that he deserved to win. You might think that this is because I am a Mets fan, and well, you'd be right (duh), but only partially right. Matt Cerrone of MetsBlog agrees with me (or maybe I agree with him...potato, potahto) when he said, "The way I see it, Santana should win the Cy Young Award because no other pitcher in the league was on the mound longer, and no other pitcher had a lower ERA over the course of the entire season – and to me, that’s what it’s all about." I was not surprised, however, to see that Cy went to Tim Lincecum of the Giants of San Francisco. Even though I thought Johan deserved it, I also thought that he wouldn't get it. During PTI tonight, Mike Wilbon and guest host Rick Reilly mentioned winner Lincecum, 2nd place finisher Brandon Webb and 5th place finisher CC Sabathia, while they quietly grazed over Senor Santana. CC didn't deserve to win because he split his season between the two leagues and Reilly correctly stated that teams possibly would have fared better against him had they faced him more than one or two times. Later, on Sportscenter, voice of reason Peter Gammons said that he could easily have seen Lincecum, Webb or Santana win, but believes that Johan's expectations got in the way of him winning. Personally, I think that Santana (16-7, 2.52 ERA, 234.1 IP), who led the National League not only in ERA but also in Quality Starts and innings pitched should have won it. How about the complete-game shut-out that kept the Mets in the playoff race on three days' rest (at least till they lost the next day)? Imagine also, what would be if the 'beloved' bullpen had not blown leads in seven of Santana's games. He could have been right up there with Webb's league leading 22 wins. Coulda woulda shoulda. Maybe Jerry Manuel will get some love tomorrow, when the AL and NL Managers of the Year are announced. The good news is that Carlos Beltran won his third outfield Gold Glove, while David Wright picked up
his second at 3rd base.Also look at CitiField!!
*Johan and I are not, in fact, good friends, just acquaintences from back in the day in Venezuela...
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3 comments:
I'm not saying Rick Reilly's a douchebag, but he offered to write a 'douchebag' column for SUS and I told him that there wasn't enough space on blogger.
Santana did deserve the Cy Young, but at least it didn't go to Lidge or Sabathia...You forgot to add in that Santana's was injured in that last "three days rest complete game shutout win that kept the Mets in it"...
The NL Cy Young should have come down to only 2 pitchers: Lincecum and Santana. They were hands down the 2 best pitchers in the league in 2008.
I actually think Lincecum was ever-so-slightly the correct choice. Looking at ERA ignores home ballparks, it's more usefull to use the park adjusted ERA+ stat. There Lincecum had the slightest of edges, 167 to 166. Of course, this slight edge is negated by Santana's slight edge in innings (7.3).
The reason I would have voted for Lincecum is strikeouts. Linecum lead the league by far with 265, Santana was tied for 2nd with 206. Both pitchers were roughly egually effective, but Lincecum did it with less reliance on his team's defense and luck. In my book that's enough to give him the slightest of nods over Johan.
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