September 02, 2008
One Step Closer
The Angels defeat the Tigers 5-4, and Francisco Rodriguez collects his 54th save of the season. He made it interesting, however, giving up a hit and a walk. He needs three more saves to tie Bobby Thigpen's single season record.
I was interviewed on 1010XL this morning, and we talked about K-Rod versus Cliff Lee for AL Cy Young. The hosts thought there was a 50/50 chance that Rodriguez would get the award. A game like tonight is a reason he shouldn't win. The walk he issued tonight is his 30th in 59 1/3 innings. Lee has 27 walks in 194 1/3 innings. Since not walking people is one of the pillars of good pitching, how can anyone even think of voting for K-Rod over Cliff Lee?
Posted by David Pinto at
10:37 PM
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If saves are the only unit of measure then he is certainly the finest closer this year. Obviously they are not. Check Joe Nathan, Mariano Rivera or even Joakim Soria for comps. Starting pitchers who are having more comparable seasons are Roy Halladay and Dice-K, though walks seem to plague Dice-K as well(an numerous other things). I would say there should not be too much competition for the top spot this. Voters are infatuated with wins, good stories and the easy stats that show up the box scores each day. Lee has all those.
1- Lee
2- Halladay
3- K-Rod
4- Dice-K
5- Mussina
6- Rivera
I'm an Angel fan, but I don't think Frankie deserves the Cy Young - his save tonight is fairly typical of his outings this year. Yes, he usually gets the save, but he makes a lot of us pretty nervous in the process.
Cliff Lee is having a great year with a club that has been very disappointing, and very much deserves the award.
Joe Posnanski showed some comparison numbers a 2 or 3 days ago between K-Rod and Joe Nathan... Nathan's having a clearly better season, but K-Rod's just got more saves. If K-Rod's worthy of any award, then Nathan is more worthy of it. So i really hope K-Rod don't beat out Lee... that would just be...a sham.
