Justin Verlander SBN's pick for top AL pitcher
by Kurt Mensching on Nov 8, 2011 1:01 PM EST
in Detroit Tigers News
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PrintJustin Verlander won over almost all SB Nation voters. However, he did not win the AL Cy Young vote in unanimous fashion. Verlander picked up 22 of 24 first-place votes
By the way, the ballots are secret (until released by their bloggers). But I do want to point out to you that the Sabathia votes did not come from the Yankees blog. So no claims of homerism can be made! More likely it was voters who decided Fangraphs' WAR (7.1 for Sabathia, 7.0 for Verlander) was their stat of choice. (For the record, Baseball-Reference's WAR gave a big nod in favor of Verlander, 8.6 vs 6.9)
Most stats vindicate a vote for Verlander. He did, after all, win the pitching triple crown: wins, earned run average, strikeouts. He had a higher K/9 and lower BB/9 than Sabathia as well. However, he trailed in xFIP (3.02 for Sabathia, 3.12 for JV). I guess an argument could be made that Verlander didn't have to face the same quality as schedule as Sabathia (8 games against teams that scored more than 800 runs for Sabathia, 5 for Verlander.)
As you might expect, Jered Weaver finished third. James Shields of Tampa was fourth and CJ Wilson was fifth. You'll find a certain voter, ahem! , had them exactly in that order.
Kurt's vote: Justin Verlander, CC Sabathia, Jered Weaver, James Shields, CJ Wilson
Alli's vote: JV, Weaver, Sabathia, Dan Haren, Josh Beckett.
AL Cy Young voting
| Num | Name | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Justin Verlander | 22 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 162 |
| 2 | CC Sabathia | 2 | 17 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 96 |
| 3 | Jered Weaver | 0 | 5 | 10 | 4 | 0 | 58 |
| 4 | James Shields | 0 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 6 | 31 |
| 5 | C.J. Wilson | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 25 |
| 6 | Dan Haren | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 23 |
| 7 | Josh Beckett | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| 8 | David Price | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 9 | Jon Lester | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 10 | Brandon McCarthy | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 11 | Mariano Rivera | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 12 | Doug Fister | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 13 | Felix Hernandez | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 14 | Gio Gonzalez | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Awards Schedule:
Monday: Michael Pineda AL Rookie of the Year, Craig Kimbrel NL rookie of the year
Tuesday: Cy Young (AL) announced
Wednesday: Cy Young (NL) announced
Thursday: MVP (AL) announced
Friday: MVP (NL) announced
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Doug Fister gets a vote
and it’s not from BYB. Interesting.
It’s hard to argue with his results after the trade, but naming him 5th best pitcher in the AL this year is a stretch.
Yeah...
I’m kinda interested to see who it was…but then, i’m too lazy to take the time to dig it up.
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by DetroitTigersGeek on Nov 8, 2011 9:39 PM EST up reply actions
CC
With two firsts? Weird
"It's 4th and inches and the Giants are going for it. You gotta love sports!"
2 people...
Are either SEVERELY mentally disabled or bitter Twins, Indians, or White Sox fans.
I have a good idea of who it is...
Its the Angels blog. Of all of the SBN blogs, they are the biggests homers and most obnoxious.
not twins, indians, sox or angels fans
by Kurt Mensching on Nov 8, 2011 5:06 PM EST up reply actions
Note he didn't say Royals.
"You, on the other hand, make Eeyore look like Rainbow Brite." -johnmoz
"I think of you more as the blue book style essay of sports journalism."-Kurt Mensching
Contributor, Bless You Boys
Is it just me or is it strange that the ballots are secret?
I dunno, I figured SB Nation would make it a point to have maximum transparency.
"I believe in a good kick in the ass. This— I believe. " -- Walker Percy
I tweet about stuff sometimes @jackhitts.
Maybe if SBN awards were a bigger deal.
I doubt anyone’s performance incentives are dependent on placement in SBN’s “Cy Young” vote.
Haha, this is true
Obviously, though, the athletes don’t care. I just figured bloggers would be more transparent than anybody about what they think about sports.
"I believe in a good kick in the ass. This— I believe. " -- Walker Percy
I tweet about stuff sometimes @jackhitts.
Angels
Forgot about the Angels still being sore about the Weaver game. And it would make sense for them to vote for CC instead of Weaver to make it look like it wasn’t them. I just don’t see how anyone with half a brain cell could think CC was better than JV this year. This has got to be a grudge vote.
note what I commented above
angels fans voted JV.
by Kurt Mensching on Nov 9, 2011 9:27 AM EST up reply actions
Whoops
Missed that. I’m completely baffled then. Even if you do look at the Fangraphs’ WAR that’s just one stat among a looooong list of others where JV was the clear winner. I know we’re all a little biased but the numbers don’t lie. JV was hands down the best pitcher in baseball this year. What possible rational reason could anyone have for voting CC?
http://www.royalsreview.com/2011/11/8/2546023/2011-sb-nation-awards-al-cy-young#storyjump
I was one of the two CC Sabathia voters. I voted Sabathia-Verlander-Haren-Wilson-McCarthy. Sabathia had a better FIP and xFIP and a higher WAR, while also not pitching against the Royals every week.
by Kurt Mensching on Nov 9, 2011 11:58 AM EST up reply actions
This is my beef with sabermetrics
People put way too much stock into them. I think it was pretty obvious that JV was a more valuable pitcher this season. His record after a Tigers loss speaks for itself. He was the stopper that allowed the Tigers to have such an incredible season. While we all know wins aren’t a great statistic, being the first guy to win 24 games in about a decade says something. WAR, FIP, and xFIP have their uses, but the fact that there’s a gigantic disparity between B-Ref and Fangraphs makes me question how valid the WAR statistic truly is when making comparisons between two players.
your beef should be with people misusing sabermetrics
but I mean, I agree. I’m a saber person but when I see WAR or player value trotted out there like facts, or a reliance on xFIP as anything but a guideline about what might happen in the future, well, I get annoyed.
by Kurt Mensching on Nov 9, 2011 12:21 PM EST up reply actions
That's a better way of putting it
I think that these stats have a use as a supplement, especially when predicting future performance, but they shouldn’t be the gold standard when evaluating past performance. There needs to be more analysis than simply pointing at WAR, FIP, and xFIP and calling it a day.
Royals
That snipe about pitching to the Royals every week is crap. They had a solid offensive team this year, it was their pitching that left them in 4th instead of 2nd place. A few sample stats:
4th in MLB in BA
8th in MLB in OBP
7th in MLB in OPS
And they were fast. 3rd in MLB in stolen bases. That puts a lot of extra pressure on pitchers.
by Sutelc on Nov 9, 2011 2:37 PM EST reply actions 3 recs
You would think that maybe the first person on SBNation to realize that would be
oh, I don’t know, somebody who writes for freaking Royals Review?
by thepartybird on Nov 10, 2011 9:17 PM EST up reply actions
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