Wednesday, November 12, 2008

More Fun With The BBWAA

My view on the NL Cy Young was that reasonable people could disagree between Johan Santana and Tim Lincecum, and that whatever my thoughts on the matter, Brandon Webb would get a lot of votes based on early season performance and win total. Any way you sliced it, though, those three would be in everyone's top three, right?

Well, no:
The only Cy Young Award voter who excluded Tim Lincecum from his ballot grew up in Sacramento a Giants fan and had season tickets until 1984. Told that his name might not be treasured among Giants fans today, Chris De Luca, national baseball writer of the Chicago Sun-Times, said, "I'm glad I don't have season tickets any more." . . .

. . . De Luca stood by his ballot. Voters are allowed to pick the top three pitchers and De Luca had Brandon Webb first, Brad Lidge second and Johan Santana third.

"It's funny because toward the end of the season, in early September, I was thinking Lincecum would be in my top two," De Luca said. "I thought Webb's victories (22) stood out to me more than anything, and Lincecum didn't have the victories. Twenty victories was a big deal. We had a stretch there where no one was hitting 20.
Obviously not a moral atrocity or anything, and certainly not the worst ballot you'll see in a given year, but definitely evidence that there are still guys who are fascinated by the shiny counting totals, regardless of their worth.

3 comments:

bigcatasroma said...

What a jerkass.

I love these self-righteous baffoons who come up with every excuse to be different, because now they know they'll get more exposure and maybe wind up on Around the Horn or something.

There is nothing that members of the BBRAA say, write, or think that qualifies them to discuss baseball.

Shameful.

Mark S said...

Did he just use some stats to defend his argument? Not to be an anti-stats guy, as I believe they are an amazing useful tool, but as Scott Boras displays on a regular basis - stats can be configured to support even the lamest of arguments.

As for his lame excuse - at least he didn's use the 'you have to make the playoffs to win an award' argument.

Chipmaker said...

Lincecum's 18 wins were not enough, but Santana's 16 were?

How do any of these guys even get a driver's license, let alone a national platform from which to blither? Without being elected to it, anyway?