BBWAA member Gil LeBreton doesn't vote....11/10/05

Cy Old story

Obviously, this is why the Baseball Writers Assn. of America doesn't want me voting for them anymore.

Nothing against Chris Carpenter or the St. Louis Cardinals, but I strongly disagree with the way my baseball colleagues select the Cy Young Award winners.

As the wire service story reported Thursday afternoon, Carpenter likely won on the basis of his 21-5 record. Second in the balloting was Florida's Dontrelle Willis, who was 22-10. And as the story said, Houston's Roger Clemens was "a distant third."

Stop the insanity. A pitcher's won-loss record may be the least accurate gauge of his overall pitching effectiveness. Exhibit A: Clemens, whose dominance was masterfully reflected by his 1.83 earned run average and the .198 batting average that he allowed opposing hitters.

Carpenter's ERA was 2.83 and his average allowed was .231. Willis' numbers were 2.63 and .243.

Artistically speaking, they weren't even in the Rocket's league.

A pitcher's won-loss record depends on a variety of factors, several of which are beyond his control. Yet, the writers annually will judge the Cy Young winner only on wins and losses.

By the way, though I am a long-time member of the BBWAA, I haven't been asked to vote for anything since 1994, when I followed my conscience and cast my ballot for the best-looking rookie that I had seen that year in the American League. Only two other writers voted with me for Rusty Greer. The rest voted for Kansas City flash-in-the-pan Bob Hamelin. Ridiculous.

Posted by glebreton on November 10, 2005 at 02:18 PM in Baseball |Gil is with the Ft. Worth
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