K-Rod's banner season doesn't justify Cy Young hype

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Originally Posted by Slingshot

Keep in mind that K-Rod is indeed having a remarkable season. Closers are in my opinion result guys, not stat guys. By that I mean that their ERA and K's numbers doesn't really matter that much, they're only out there to do one thing and that is to close games. And he's on pace to having well over 60 saves. That gets 5 stars in my book. Not saying he should win the Cy Young award, but he should definately be in the consideration.

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But a "save" is not a particularly hard result, and it's also entirely a result of opportunity which the pitcher can't control. I'd rather have a pitcher accumulate 70 innings of great relief in 1 run and tie games, and get 20 saves, than a pitcher accumulate 70 innings of great relief in "save situations", which could be anyhwere from a 1 to 3 run lead, and get 40 saves. It's about leverage, and nearly any pitcher in the league can close out a 3 run lead with an inning to go. Using your best reliever in that situation is a waste of resources.

The Cy Young is for the best pitcher in the league. Saves do not at all tell you anything about how good the pitcher was. K-Rod is not even the best closer, let alone the best pitcher. Yes, he's having a remarkable season. It's remarkable because he's getting a ton of save opportunities. He's already had nearly 60 and it's not even September, and only a couple pitchers ever accumulated 60 opps in an entire year. That's remarkable, but entirely out of his control. It's being on the right team at the right time.

If Mariano Rivera, Joe Nathan, or any other good reliever were given the same amount of opportunities as Rodriguez, they'd have an equal amount of, if not more, saves. By using the save to justify considering him for an award that goes to the best pitcher, we'd be using opportunity, rather than performance, to evaluate players, and that's a silly way to go about evaluation.

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Originally Posted by HoustonGM

By using the save to justify considering him for an award that goes to the best pitcher, we'd be using opportunity, rather than performance, to evaluate players, and that's a silly way to go about evaluation.

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Yeah that'd be as silly as giving the award based solely on wins .... oh ... wait ...

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Originally Posted by gRYFYN1

Yeah that'd be as silly as giving the award based solely on wins .... oh ... wait ...

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Yeah, true, which is why K-Rod is going to come in 2nd or 3rd on the ballot, with an outside shot of actually winning it. The BBWAA doesn't know how to actually evaluate players. They look at wins, saves, and stories.

If Cliff Lee didn't have a great story to go along with the great season, I'd say K-Rod would be a shoo-in to win it.

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Originally Posted by gryfyn1

yeah that'd be as silly as giving the award based solely on wins .... Oh ... Wait ...

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:d