He Can't Win If They Don't Score
The disappointment that characterized the 2005 Minnesota Twins season continued yesterday when the American League Cy Young award was inexplicably handed to Los Angeles Angels starter Bartolo Colon. Twins ace Johan Santana's second consecutive brilliant season failed to even earn him a second place finish in the voting as both Yankee closer Mariano Rivera and Colon garnered more first place votes from the purported experts in the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Lest you think me nothing more than a shameless homer for even noticing this injustice, please peruse the following handful of major pitching stats that directly compare the two hurlers (closer Rivera should never have even been considered) and then tell me who deserves the honor:
Total Strikeouts
Santana 238 (1st in the American League)
Colon 157 (8th in the American League)
Hits Allowed Per 9 Innings
Santana 6.99 (1st)
Colon 8.69 (13th)
Strikeouts Per 9 Innings
Santana 9.25 (1st)
Colon 6.35 (16th)
Opponent Batting Average
Santana .210 (1st)
Colon .254 (13th)
On Base Against Average
Santana .250 (1st)
Colon .291 (2nd)
Slugging Percentage Allowed
Santana .346 (1st)
Colon .407 (15th)
Walks + Hits Per Inning Pitched
Santana .970 (1st)
Colon 1.16 (3rd)
Earned Run Average
Santana 2.87 (2nd)
Colon 3.48 (8th)
Strikeout/Walk Ratio
Santana 5.17 (2nd)
Colon 3.65 (6th)
Wins
Colon 21 (1st)
Santana 16 (5th)
In the ten categories listed above, Johan Santana has an almost superhuman average rank of 1.60 while Bartolo Colon boasts a shameful 8.50...and this earns Santana third place?!?!
Apparently, the only statistic that mattered to the obviously besotted voters was number of wins. I guarantee you... if Bartolo Colon had to pitch behind the Twins pathetic offense all of last year, he'd have trailed Santana in that category too.
The Elder's now infamous prediction that the 2004 addition of Colon "might help the Angels" was incredibly prescient at the time, but it is just a bit backwards in this instance. Their phenomenal production of 6.02 runs per game when Colon was on the mound attests to the fact that the Angels probably helped Colon just a bit more than he helped them.
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