Sabathia wins AL Cy Young

The regular season is a much more significant sampling than the postseason.

 

I don't have a problem with the voting. Sabathia's stats were better and he was more of a workhorse than Beckett. Who knows -- maybe the extra rest Beckett got in the regular season played in a role in his success in the playoffs. That's a tradeoff I'm sure he (or any pitcher) would make any time. Meanwhile, all of Beckett's rivals for the Cy -- Sabathia, Carmona, Lackey and Wang -- were disastrous in the postseason (Carmona's the only one who even had one decent start, right?).

 

In my humble opinion, the only surprise in the voting is that two voters left Beckett off the ballot, one voter left Sabathia off. That seems crazy to me. How could either of them not be among the top 3 pitchers in the league for 2007??

 

I have no problem with Sabathia winning the award. His numbers were marginally better, and he was able to get nearly the same amount of wins with less run support.

In other news, I wonder who voted John Lackey first. I would need to see that writer's reasoning. Methinks he's an Angels beat writer.

 

I wouldn't say he was more of a workhorse than Beckett.
Beckett got to take it easy down the stretch because the Sox had a big enough lead for him to do so. Cleveland was fighting for a division and wild card spot all the way until the last week or so of the year. I also think that's why Beckett pitched so well in the postseason while Sabathia faltered - C.C. was dead tired, Becket no.
The biggest reason I liked Sabathia to win was his Ks to walk ratio was, if I heard correctly, the best by a lefthanded AL pitcher ever.
As a Sox fan, I should be angry, but I'm not. Sabathia was great all year. And I'm sure Beckett's a little peeved, but if asked, he'd take a WS ring over the Cy Young trophy any day.

 

I thought Sabathia would win going into the end of the regular season, so I'm not surprised. Beckett made a great late push, but I think most of the voters' minds were already made up.

 

C.C. gets an A for his regular season and an F for his postseason. But, obviously, Cy Young is a regular-season award.

 

Has there ever been a year in which so many award races are so close? I mean last year was pretty close with the AL and NL MVP races. This year, the only clear cut winner hands down has to be the NL Cy Young and AL MVP because if Peavy and A-Rod don't win those, Satan is doing some ice skating. The AL ROY, NL ROY, AL Cy Young, and the NL MVP all will be or have been close votes.

 

Mister Blister got screwed.

 

I'm surprised that more of you aren't outraged at Beckett being left off two ballots completely. How was he not one of the three best pitchers in the league during the season?

 

I can see how it happened. A lot of people fell in love with Carmona and Sabathia. And I'm sure some West Coast writers picked Lackey, too.

 

Look at the innings pitched all through the season. Sabathia was going deeper into games all along.

Any ballot that leaves either of those two off entirely is a joke.

And Fenian, the Indians' middle relief was very good during the season. I'm not sure it is fair to say Boston's was that much better. Remember, Gagne was awful and Okajima struggled quite a bit late in the regular season before righting himself in the playoffs. I don't think Wedge had any problem going to his middle guys.