Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Joe Morgan Blows

From his chat today:

Is Tim Lincecum back in front of the NL Cy Young race after last night's gem?


No, I don't think so. I think the leader is Adam Wainright in St. Louis. He has the most victories. Most innings pitched of the guys in the race. His teammate Chris Carpenter was very close to him and he had a bad outing the other day. Lincecum has been good all along, but because of the offense in San Francisco, he went about four starts without a victory. I think Wainright is the leader, but there is still time for someone to make a run. There are a lot of guys in the mix, but Wainright, I think, is in the lead.


Reasons Why Joe Morgan Is Wrong
:
  1. Tim Lincecum (207.1 IP) has pitched more innings than Adam Wainwright (205 IP). Lincecum has pitched the most innings in the NL in 2009.
  2. A pitcher named "Wainright" does not exist. He can't even take the time to look up the right way to spell a guy's name he's arguing should win the most important award given to that position?
  3. He uses Wins to justify his argument. For the millionth, gazillionth time, Wins and Losses are the absolute worst way to judge how a pitcher has performed, his skill level, his ability, etc.

*Numbers From Baseball Reference and The Hardball Times.*


Lincecum
:

xFIP: 2.84 (MLB Best)
FIP: 2.25 (MLB Best)
ERA: 2.30 (NL Best)
ERA+: 187 (NL Best)
K: 244 (MLB Best)
K/9 IP: 10.6
K/BB: 4.14
WHIP: 1.04
CG: 4 (Tied NL Best)
Shutouts: 2 (Tied NL Best)

Wainwright:

xFIP: 3.61
FIP: 3.29
ERA: 2.59
ERA+: 161
K: 175
K/9 IP: 7.7
K/BB: 2.92
WHIP: 1.22
CG: 1
Shutouts: 0


If the voting were held today, Tim Lincecum is your 2009 National League Cy Young Award Winner. He's been the best pitcher in the National League this year. Doesn't mean he will win it, but he should because he's earned it by being the best pitcher in the National League and one of the 2 best pitchers in baseball in 2009.

4 comments:

  1. KK - You're absolutely right. Joe Morgan is a freakin' dumbass. "Wainright" is a good pitcher, but he's got nothing on Lincecum. You would think that the Cy Young voters would know better, but they still take wins and losses into consideration. Sad.

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  2. Very sad indeed Cabell.

    Wainwright hasn't even been the best pitcher on his own team.

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  3. Yeah Chris Carpenter is a stud. He was terrible in his last outing though. It's gonna suck facing those two in the playoffs.

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  4. Yeah, they're tough, but anything can happen.

    I remember looking at the boxscore for that outing, and while he wasn't missing many bats, most of the hits against him were listed as "shallow" by Yahoo.

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