This Day In Baseball: 16 August 2005

Tuesday, August 16 2005 @ 12:05 PM EDT

Contributed by: Magpie

I am intense. No question about it.
-- Roger Clemens

Our topic for today, as promised, is the National League Cy Young Award. As it happens, I think we have an excellent historical analogy, both handy and relevant. Consider the following season:

 W   L   G  GS  CG  SH  SV   IP     H    R   ER   HR  BB   SO  HBP  WP  BFP   ERA *lgERA *ERA+
26   9  38  38  30   5   0  326.0  295  106   88  21   46  218   6   8  1307  2.43  2.96  122
This pitcher led his league in Wins, Innings, Complete Games, and K/W ratio.

He polled no votes at all. Not a sausage. Bugger-all.

Perhaps the voters were disappointed with his performance? His name, of course, was Juan Marichal and the year was 1968. This was the famous Summer of the Pitcher, and in St. Louis Bob Gibson was having a season for the ages - 22-9, 1.12, 13 shutouts, 28 CG in 34 starts.

I haven't heard anyone say it - not yet anyway - but isn't it possible that Roger Clemens in 2004 has been better than Bob Gibson in 1968? Gibson posted his 1.12 ERA in a season when the league ERA was 2.96. Roger Clemens at this moment has a 1.32 ERA in a year when the National League ERA is 4.28.

I don't think the question is whether Roger Clemens has been the best pitcher in the National League this season. I think a better question might be whether Roger Clemens, at age 42, is having the best season of any pitcher, ever.

This is very bad luck for Chris Carpenter, just as it was for Juan Marichal. Carpenter's 2005 season is probably better than the seasons posted by at least seven of the last ten Cy Young winners. Bad timing, Chris.

But it could be worse. Just ask Juan Marichal. Here are Marichal's seasons from 1963 through 1966:

 W   L   G  GS  CG  SH  SV   IP     H    R   ER   HR  BB   SO  HBP  WP  BFP   ERA *lgERA *ERA+
25   8  41  40  18   5   0  321.3  259  102   86  27   61  248   2   2  1270  2.41  3.19  132
21   8  33  33  22   4   0  269.0  241   89   74  18   52  206   1   4  1089  2.48  3.57  144
22  13  39  37  24  10   1  295.3  224   78   70  27   46  240   4   2  1153  2.13  3.61  169
25   6  37  36  25   4   0  307.3  228   88   76  32   36  222   5   3  1180  2.23  3.68  165
He didn't get any Cy Young votes - zero, nada, none - in any of those years, either.

Anyway, here's my ballot:

1. Roger Clemens, Houston
2. Chris Carpenter, St. Louis
3. Pedro Martinez, New York
4. Roy Oswalt, Houston
5. Dontrelle Willis, Florida

The day's games:

AL
Texas (Rogers 11-5, 2.99) at Cleveland (Sabathia 8-9, 5.10) 7:05
Boston (TBA) at Detroit (Robertson 5-10, 4.10) 7:05
New York (Johnson 11-7, 4.29) at Tampa Bay (Waechter 4-8, 5.32) 7:15
Minnesota (Radke 7-10, 3.71) at Chicago (Garcia 11-5, 3.64) 8:05
Toronto (Downs 1-2, 5.02) at Los Angeles (Byrd 9-7, 3.88) 10:05
Baltimore (Chen 9-6, 4.16) at Oal;and (Blanton 7-9, 4.05) 10:05
Kansas City (Greinke 3-14, 6.09) at Seattle (Pineiro 4-7, 5.69) 10:05

NL
Washington (Drese 7-12, 5.67) at Philadelphia (Lidle 9-10, 4.61) 7:05
San Diego (Lawrence 6-12, 4.80) at Florida (Vargas 3-0, 2.38 ERA) 7:05
San Francisco (Schmidt 9-6, 4.29) at Cincinnati (Milton 6-12, 6.48) 7:10
Pittsburgh (Redman 5-12, 4.75) at New York (Benson 8-4, 3.54) 7:10
Los Angeles (Lowe 8-11, 3.97) at Atlanta (Smoltz 12-6, 2.90) 7:35
Chicago (Maddux 9-9, 4.54) at Houston (Pettitte 10-8, 2.62) 8:05
Arizona (Halsey 8-8, 3.96) at St.Louis (Suppan 11-8, 4.12) 8:10
Milwaukee (Santos 3-11, 4.18) at Colorado (Francis 11-8, 5.77) 9:05

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