A clear-cut winner of the award as voted by the Baseball Writers Association of America, Colon was named on all 28 ballots with 17 first-place votes and 11 second-place votes to easily outdistance Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera. Twins left-hander Johan Santana finished third.
― maura (maura), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 19:06 (eighteen years ago) link
― maura (maura), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 19:08 (eighteen years ago) link
BOOOOOOOO
And Mariano finishing 2nd = MEGA BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
BOO
― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 19:11 (eighteen years ago) link
― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 19:33 (eighteen years ago) link
― disco violence (disco violence), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 20:09 (eighteen years ago) link
― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 20:23 (eighteen years ago) link
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 21:41 (eighteen years ago) link
― ojitarian (ojitarian), Wednesday, 9 November 2005 00:15 (eighteen years ago) link
One of these millennia, the Los Angeles-Anaheim-California Angels were bound to have somebody win a Cy Young Award. Wouldn't you think?
Heck, until Bartolo Colon finally obliterated the Angels' Curse of Dean Chance Cy Young-less streak Tuesday, this team had seen 41 years, eight presidential administrations, 17 managerial administrations and 326 different men claiming to be Angels pitchers zip by without a single Cy Young trophy.
And friends, that is one mind-boggling fact for a franchise that has employed Nolan Ryan, Frank Tanana, Chuck Finley, Bert Blyleven, Troy Percival, Mark Langston, Tommy John, Don Sutton and John Candelaria -- not to mention (at least briefly) Fernando Valenzuela, Jack McDowell and Luis Tiant -- in between Cy Youngs.
So now Colon has put an end to that streak -- the third-longest Cy Young drought in the sport (behind the Reds and Rangers). And though we gladly salute Colon for a terrific year, some of us still aren't so sure the right guy got the trophy.
Colon (21-8) did win three more games than anyone else in the American League. And he did become the Angels' first 20-game winner since 1974. And he did have a ferocious finish -- going 10-2 in his last 14 starts, 13-4 in his last 19 starts and 17-5 in his last 25 starts -- for a team that needed every one of his wins to hold off Oakland.
But what this voting really proves is that Cy Young voters are still mushy traditionalists who value the almighty "win" above all other indicators of who pitched best over six grueling months.
Not that there isn't something to be said for pitchers who find a way to win. That is, after all, the object. But Colon sure was helped out by his bullpen (which blew zero saves for him) and his run support (6.02 runs per game).
And if you zap wins out of the who-pitched-best equation and compare him with the guy who finished third in this voting -- Johan Santana --it wasn't even close.
Santana piled up 81 more strikeouts, beat Colon in ERA by 61 points, allowed almost two fewer baserunners for every nine innings, and had more innings pitched, complete games and shutouts.
Hitters who faced Colon had a batting average of .254 against him. The on-base percentage against Santana was .250. Any more objections, your honor?
True, Colon had five more wins than Santana (21 vs. 16). But since Santana actually pitched more innings, how was that win gap his fault? The win differential is a stat we can attribute almost completely to their offenses. It's that basic.
Colon got a ridiculous 1.32 more runs per game than Santana did. And Santana's totals in his last three no-decisions tell it all: 23 innings, 9 hits, 3 runs, 0 wins.
But the history of the award tells us that no starting pitcher has won just 16 games over a full season and won a Cy Young. (Rick Sutcliffe won 16 for the 1984 Cubs, but he also won four games earlier in the year for Cleveland.) So fine. Why not give this thing to Mariano Rivera -- another man who actually pitched better than Colon?
Rivera, the runner-up, had the best season of his career. And that's saying something. He had his lowest ERA ever (1.38). He allowed his fewest baserunners ever (only 0.87 per inning). He had his best strikeout-walk ratio ever (4.44 whiffs per walk).
He gave up one run all season on the road. And he gave up one extra-base hit all year to the 120 hitters he faced with runners on base. Yep, one.
But clearly, some voters think relievers aren't supposed to win this award, either -- six of them didn't even list Rivera on their ballot.
None of this is meant to disparage the man who won this award -- because we can think of 30 teams that would be thrilled to employ Colon. All we're saying is that it's way too easy to count up wins and cast a Cy Young vote.
Maybe that approach made sense four decades ago, the last time an Angels pitcher won himself a Cy. But it was also a lot harder to turn on a computer back then.
― gear (gear), Wednesday, 9 November 2005 08:39 (eighteen years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 9 November 2005 18:31 (eighteen years ago) link
So does this mean I can expect a Cy Young for Roy-O to be announced today?
― boldbury (boldbury), Wednesday, 9 November 2005 19:16 (eighteen years ago) link
-- boldbury (sniffywo...), Yesterday 11:16 AM. (boldbury)
Not for Oswalt but yes for the guys who had more wins than him! ;-D
― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 10 November 2005 23:27 (eighteen years ago) link
does someone want to explain the disproportionate response to this result here?
i mean, i thought era was sort of red herring when it came to determinant factors or is it just that so much weight is put on victories?
it seems to me that of all the pitchers mentioned up there, santana seems to be the only one w/ demonstrable edge over colon in a statistical category and that would be for era & k. there seems to be very little that separates everyone when you look at the raw numbers for bb, k and tacos.
― jonathan quayle higgins (j.q. higgins), Saturday, 12 November 2005 15:33 (eighteen years ago) link
― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Saturday, 12 November 2005 18:20 (eighteen years ago) link
For some reason I completely forgot that those guys had more wins than Roy. But Roy is the only one with consecutive 20-win seasons, so that should count for something, right?
― boldbury (boldbury), Saturday, 12 November 2005 19:35 (eighteen years ago) link
I think 1. Santana and 2. Rivera would have been a pretty reasonable result, and I wouldn't have minded 3. Nathan 4. Buerhle either.
― polyphonic (polyphonic), Saturday, 12 November 2005 21:13 (eighteen years ago) link
the Fed Reserve nominee obsesses on inherited runners
― hstencil (hstencil), Saturday, 12 November 2005 21:43 (eighteen years ago) link
Ortiz is (deservedly) getting lots of attention for maybe the best old-guy hitter's season ever. I checked a bunch of obvious names, and Colon might be having one of the three best 43-year-old-starter years ever (mostly old-school stats here).
Colon: 14-7, 3.14, 177.2 IP, 1.199 WHIP, 3.63 K/BBRyan: 13-9, 3.44, 204 IP, 1.034 WHIP, 3.14 K/BBNiekro: 17-4, 3.61, 234.1 IP, 1.272 WHIP, 1.97 K/BB
Only checked post-war pitchers: also Clemens (very good, but only 115 IP), Johnson, Spahn, Moyer. May have forgotten someone.
― clemenza, Thursday, 22 September 2016 00:56 (seven years ago) link
he's also 15th among NL pitchers in WAR, ahead of jake arrieta
― mookieproof, Thursday, 22 September 2016 01:02 (seven years ago) link
Bartolo Colón is making his Twins debut Tuesday at 8 ET on ESPN against the Yankees. It'll be Colón's first career appearance at Target Field and if he allows a home run, he'll be making history. According to Elias, only Jamie Moyer (43) has allowed a home run at more ballparks than Colón (42) in MLB history.
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 18 July 2017 17:37 (six years ago) link
all the way
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2017/08/04/colon-goes-distance-minnesota-beats-texas-8-4/104308516/
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 5 August 2017 17:03 (six years ago) link
You are cordially invited to an evening with Big Sexy! https://t.co/2KS4ruHUGw pic.twitter.com/xi0HL8GKU9— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) September 8, 2017
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Friday, 8 September 2017 16:17 (six years ago) link
We interrupt our train of no-hitter tweets to show you that Bartolo Colon beat Dee Gordon to 1st in a footrace. pic.twitter.com/MewCi5EB12— MLB (@MLB) April 22, 2018
― Andy K, Sunday, 22 April 2018 14:41 (five years ago) link
Impressive!
― Karl Malone, Sunday, 22 April 2018 15:10 (five years ago) link
ben: Sam Miller has a new piece about Bartolo Colon making the HOF. Fun piece (as usual), but zero chance of happening, right?
Jay Jaffe: Even if we assume Jack Morris’ election lowered the performance bar enough to make Colon’s candidacy credible — and here I should point out that Bart is 139th to Jack’s 163rd in JAWS ranking — the PED suspension is a huge stumbling block. If it’s gonna keep A-Rod, Palmeiro and Manny out, it’s gonna keep him out as well.
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 26 July 2018 20:15 (five years ago) link
Bartolo Colon definitely is in the hall of very good. His career arc is fairly unique losing those five seasons in his early 30s then figuring it out and having this second act of his career.
Big Daddy is one pitcher that had a somewhat similar career arc with losing a few years to injury. Reuschel was maybe even at his best later on in his career, although without quite the crazy innings pitched numbers of his early seasons.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/reuscri01.shtml
― earlnash, Friday, 27 July 2018 00:26 (five years ago) link
Passed Dennis Martinez tonight for wins (246) by a Latin American pitcher. I remember that was a semi-big deal up here when Martinez passed Marichal, even though he was no longer with the Expos.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 8 August 2018 04:21 (five years ago) link
Sam Miller asks some tailored HOF questions
http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/24191231/bartolo-colon-hall-famer-maybe-not-crazy
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 9 August 2018 15:24 (five years ago) link
makin' some dough in a RIBS cap
https://www.sbnation.com/2018/9/26/17906056/bartolo-colon-kingsford-commercial-good-job-brand-gooooood-job-who-wants-a-brand-biscuit
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 26 September 2018 19:25 (five years ago) link
RIBS
― YouTube_-_funy_cats.flv (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Wednesday, 26 September 2018 22:43 (five years ago) link
Bartolo Colon announced on Instagram today that he is releasing a memoir entitled "BIG SEXY." More details here:https://t.co/w0If3roQSp pic.twitter.com/FiUWCDEVq7— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) October 9, 2019
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 10 October 2019 20:27 (four years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thJ3a0T_Rug
― omar little, Thursday, 10 October 2019 20:32 (four years ago) link