ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?
Somebody needs to explain to me in what WORLD David Price is a better pitcher than Justin Verlander, even for one second. The Cy Young Award is given annually “to the best pitchers in Major League Baseball”, which if you ask me, or anybody who has one iota of intelligence is not David Price. Did David Price have more wins than Justin Verlander? Yep, he sure did, he had 20 wins to Verlander’s 17. But, that doesn’t make him better. Did the
The BBWAA can spin the tale however they want, but it was an absolute lazy vote. I realize these awards mean nothing to the big picture, but it’s the principle of the matter. Price winning this award over Verlander is based solely on two factors; wins and era. Simple as that, he had more wins and a lower ERA so OMG HE’S THE BEST PITCHER IN THE LEAGUE!!!!! Hardly.
People will argue that Price deserves the award over Verlander because he faced stiffer competition against the American League East than Verlander did in the American League Central. Well, Price made 16 starts against the AL East this year and Verlander made 12. Here’s how each fared:
Price had a 2.51 ERA, 1.21 WHIP and 104 strikeouts in 107.2 innings when facing the likes of the Yankees, Toronto, Baltimore and Boston and his team had an 11 – 5 record in those games.
Verlander on the other hand, had a 2.54 era, 1.07 WHIP and 84 strikeouts in 85 innings when facing the likes of New York, Tampa, Toronto, Baltimore and Boston and his team had an even 6 – 6 record in those games.
The numbers are extremely similar, except Price’s team won more of those games (there are those pesky wins again). If you want to get really technical, Justin Verlander’s WAR, which stands for “Wins Above Replacement” and measures how many more wins a player would give a team as opposed to a “replacement level” player was 7.5, compared to Price’s 6.4. (It should be noted that Matt Harrison of the Texas Rangers had a 6.2 WAR, so Price is a lot closer to being Matt Harrison than he is being Justin Verlander).
To make this rant short and sweet Justin Verlander should be the American League Cy Young winner for the 2nd consecutive year. He had a “down” year by his standards and was still far and away the best pitcher on the planet.
The two seasons of both men finished like this:
Price: 20 – 5, 2.56 era, 1.10 whip
Verlander: 17 – 8, 2.64 era, 1.06 whip
Compared to his counterpart in Tampa, while Verlander amassed only 2 more starts than Price, he managed to throw nearly 30 more innings, strikeout 35 more batters, walk only 1 more hitter and instill more comments of “holy S%*@ Verlander is pitching, we’ve got no chance” from fans than David Price ever will in three lifetimes.
At the end of the day, in this ranters opinion, the voters were terribly wrong in choosing Price over Verlander. And believe me when I say it, I’m not trying to take anything away from David Price, he’s a good young pitcher.
But, he’s a boy being compared to a man and frankly, he just isn’t on that man’s level.
