The AL CY Young Award

I know you're looking forward to my discussion of the three reasons why the Twins didn't make the postseason this year, but my attention has been drawn to the AL Cy Young award for this year. It seems like everyone is heralding John Buehrle as the man who will win. He shouldn't be. Johan Santana should.

Through 29 September both Buehrle and Santana have the same number of appearances (32) which I think makes this a pretty fair comparison. Buehrle has been playing for the wire-to-wire champions (who've barely been able to maintain a winning record since the end of July), the ChiSox. The Twins however have been sliding all season, and may just barely be able to wrap it up over and finish over 500. If you ignore the press and the oft-heralded "smart ball" management syle of Ozzie Guillen, and look at the numbers it's clear that between Bueherle and Santana, Santana has been the better pitcher this year.

Here's the numbers (sorry about the crappy formatting):

Pitcher App IP H R ER BB SO HR WP BK IBB HB W L ERA WHIP
Buehrle 32 231 237 99 82 37 143 20 1 2 4 4 16 8 3.195 1.186
Santana 32 224.6 177 76 73 43 229 19 6 0 0 1 15 7 2.925 .980


Mark Buehrle leads Johan Santana in the following categories:
Innings pitched - 231
Walks - 37
Wild pitches - 1
Wins - 16

Santana leads in these:
Hits - 177
Runs - 76
Earned Runs - 73
Strikeouts - 229
Home Runs - 19
Balks - 0
Intentional Walks - 0
Hit batters - 0
Losses - 7
Earned Run Average - 2.925
WHIP - .980

Just for giggles, if you want to add Win Shares to the mix, according to the Hardball Times, Buehrle has 20, and Santana has 19. That's a difference of one share. Not much of a difference, really. Don't get me wrong here, I think Win Shares are one of the best stats there is to show a player's contributions to the team. But in this case, I think it shows that both players are equally valuable. If Buehrle had significantly more shares than Santana, that may have been telling as well. But he doesn't. They are both so closely ranked that you can ignore the stat entirely.

Bottom line: Buehrle leads in 3 categories, Santana in 11. I think that paints a pretty good picture of who has had the better season.

If I had a vote for the AL Cy Young award it'd be for Johan Santana. If he doesn't get it, he's been ripped off.

Comments

Maren said…
Santana rocks hard! Let him pitch! Let him pitch! (Hunter will be back next season, right? They're dying without him...)
11:06 AM, October 07, 2005
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