AL Cy Young

It really is like one of Pavlov's dogs.

 

and why do you think he does that

 

For a closer to win the Cy, three things have to happen. 1. He must have an astonishing year, his career best and one of the all-time best. 2. His team must win. 3. No one starter has a dominant year.
Rivera, IMO, is a victim of his own consistency in terms of this award. He's always superb, so it's hard for voters to say, oh, yeah, this was Mo's best year ever. The poor guy will have to settle for being a first ballot Hall of Famer. One of my life goals is to stay above ground long enough to vote for him.

 

It should be noted the Royals lead baseball in one-run games with Soria saving almost all of those games in which the Royals won. I would thing one-run lead protection is a pressure unto itself, pennant race or not. ...

But again, I just tossed that out there to give those two relievers some props on their performances this year. Rivera is who he is, excellence in no need of repetition.

I don't think there's any New York-centric bias to the awards chase (or if there is, it's greatly diminished) case in point: Greinke and King Felix (and Verlander) finishing ahead of Sabathia last year.

That said, FELIX FOR AL CY!

 

Because it amuses him, just as my posts amuse me.

 

ask anyone in Boston if they didn't think Pap was better a couple years ago, or even now. ask anyone in SD if they didn't think Hoffman was better. like i said Bourque and Lidstrom were better so it's not a perfect analogy. But there were years where Leetch, MacInnis or Chelios won. Career wise Stevens is better than them. they're all Hall of Famers but I'll take Stevens over anyone of those guys. Just like I'll take Rivera over any closer who has won Cy Young during his career or over anyone who has had more saves in a particular season -- i.e. Thigpen, Gagne.

 

Yes, spnited's responses to NFL discussions are definitely Pavlovian.

 

ding ding

 

You are so unbelievably cloying and fuck up so many threads because you can't just leave shit be. And then you always try to place blame on others.

 

Dear Cjericho: As of today, Red Sox fans would ship Papelbon out of town for nothing, or even accept Joba in a trade. He has been reasonably awful this season.

 

Shippin' Out of Boston

 

By the way, Cahill vs. Buchholz tonight in Oakland.

Here's the updated rankings in my two magic numbers...

Buchholz, 2.25 (1st), .300 (11th)
Cahill, 2.72 (3rd), .280 (4th)
Felix, 2.30 (2nd), .279 (3rd)
Price, 2.87 (4th), .304 (17th)
CJ Wilson, 3.10 (5th), .307 (22nd)
Sabathia, 3.14 (6th), .304 (18th)
Lee, 3.37 (11th) .259 (1st)

Based on that, if I were voting today, I'd probably go....

1. Felix
2. Buchholz
3. Cahill
4. Price
5. Sabathia

(EDIT: Just flipped Cahill and Buchholz, since Buchholz edge in ERA is pretty big. They have basically pitched the same number of innings, and Buchholz has faced tougher competition in better hitters parks.)