L.A. Dodgers' Gagne Wins Cy Young Award

Bless ya if you’re still reading this.

LOL. I think starters should get their own award, called the Cy Young. I think relievers should get their own award, called the Fireman's Trophy. And I think position players should get their own award, called the MVP.

You can argue all you want about the sabermetric ability to compare closers to starters, or starters to shortstops, or what have you. Fact is, sportswriters don't bother with that anyway. They ain't sitting around reading Bill James. But if pitchers are so much more valuable than hitters, as you suggest, then the Big Unit should win all the MVPs. Maddux should have a closet full of them. Bob Gibson should have a few. Clemens ought to have some.

Oh, that's right--they have Cy Young Awards! See my point? It's not a question of whether or not it's possible to come up with some statistical weighted comparisons. Who the hell has time for that? Give the starters and award, give the closers an award, give position players an award. Simple, elegant, sensible.

Well I see where you're coming from. But I never advocated a strict statistical analysis - there's a fuzziness to it all for sure. I see your points - but regarding pitchers ALWAYS winning MVP - I do understand you have to take into account that they do have a whole lot of bench time. THat factors in somehow, for sure.

What really amazes me, however, is how you nailed me on Bill James. You sniffed out my admiration for the man allright!!!

Almost forgot - one of the better arguments AGAINST my stance actually kinda comes from Bill James. He complains about the people who say "Baseball is 75% pitching," or 90%, or whatever made up number. He disputes that by saying if that indeed were true, then the equivilent of baseball's 'market forces' in regard to talent allocation, would NOT have allowed Babe Ruth to be used as a position player instead of a pitcher. Had pitching been so valuable, he would have been kept in that position.

I always thought that was interesting. Kind of junk that's fun to chew over in a long, baseball-less winter. Especially here in Chicago, a town that offers the Bears as our winter football entertainment.

Well, I also brought up Bill James just to show you I am not completely ignorant. I assumed you would know who he is. A counter argument for the Ruth as pitcher vs. Ruth as hitter argument is this: Although Ruth was an excellent pitcher, with a career ERA under 3 and very good post season numbers as a pitcher, the difference between him as a pitcher and the rest of the pitchers in the market was not nearly as wide a gap as the difference between him as a hitter and everyone else. A pitcher with a top tier ERA is valuable, but not a completely unique commodity. The Yanks had pitchers with good ERAs during the Ruth era. But there was only one left fielder on the market who could hit 40 more home runs than everyone not named Gehrig, and that made him more valuable in left field than pitching. Just a thought.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.