I love your work and i am really glad you came back with the blog.

That said, you blew it with the Cy. 41 innings Joe, 41!!!!!!!!. How can you value totals (Total Bases) with an unequal number of opportunities. Come on, Joe!!!!

I don’t think it’s close at all. Wins are a team Stat.

I still don’t understand, 41 innings, Joe. 41.

That said, I think I’ll have to disagree with you on Beckett, though he had a helluva season. Your write that the major reason for voting for Beckett is that “it’s clear that Beckett faced the toughest competition”. But if the Tigers are the Wild Card instead of the Yankees, then Sabathia faces 9 playoff teams to Beckett’s 6, a very fine line. And Sabathia beat Santana (Minnesota) head to head three times in August and September!

But to me the most telling stats are innings pitched and run support. Sabathia pitched 40 more innings (241 to 200) than Beckett. That’s 20% more than Beckett.

As for run support, you agree that Beckett had more, but when you look at the games, it becomes even more amazing.

After July 19th, the Boston Red Sox scored 7 or more runs in a Beckett start 5 times (out of 13 starts).

After July 19th, the Cleveland Indians NEVER scored 7 or more runs in a Sabathia start (out of 13 starts), and scored as many as 6 only once.

The competition faced is very equal, Sabathia pitched 20% more innings, has a lower ERA, and received much less run support the 2nd half of the season. The stats don’t lie. Sabathia should be the AL Cy Young. (That said, I think the majority of voters will side with you and award it [wrongly] to the Red Sock.

This week it’s my favorite way to avoid grading papers.

Oh, yeah. I don’t have an informed opinion for the Cy.

While I appreciate the analysis you put into this, I have to call BS on one of your reasons not to vote for Sabathia, namely that he gave up by far and away the most extra base hits of the candidates. Well, yeah. He also pitched 41 more innings than Beckett did, so it would make sense that he gave up more extra base hits. That’s like using total earned runs instead of ERA. You have to factor in C.C.’s extra innings when calculating a stat like that. If you divide Sabathia’s 241 innings by his 81 extra base hits, you get an extra base hit every 2.98 innings. If you divide Beckett’s 200.1 innings by his 65 extra base hits, you get an extra base hit every 3.08 innings. So it’s not THAT big of a difference like you made it sound. Also, how can you not mention that Beckett got over a run more of run support per game, which far outweighs the opponents’ average runs per game?

Glad to have you back. I’ve missed your blog since it departed, and have been scrambling to find good time-killers at work. Thanks for solving that problem for me.

I’m curious about why you didn’t consider Danny Haren a Cy Young candidate this year. Here’s his neutralized stat line next to Beckett’s:

Haren: 17-8, 2.83, 194 K, 226 IP
Beckett: 15-7, 2.85, 198 K, 205 IP

Please don’t tell me it was the whole “his team sucked” thing that caused you to eliminate him. I mean, for a pitcher, isn’t it MORE impressive when he has a good year for a bad team?

Welcome back to the blogging, btw, obviously we all missed you.

Extremely glad you’re back after closing up shop on your soul of baseball blog.

Like some of the posters, I’m biased, so hope other writers voted like you for Beckett, but I think I’d need to go with Sabathia for the reasons those above noted, plus anyone who can pitch like that with that bulk is already executing with a degree of difficulty others don’t have.

Lastly, is that the same Roger Peckinpaugh who directed the Wild Bunch? Impressive multi-tasking.

anyway, i’m glad i had an nl cy young vote. it was a lot easier — even though i did rethink for a second after that play-in game, but that didn’t erase an entire season

and to george, i think the writers who have votes take them a lot more seriously than the managers/coaches (gold glove/silver slugger) do.

J.R.