POLL: 2011 American League Cy Young
Posted by Andy on October 5, 2011
We still have two polls, but since the AL vote is a lock, I decided to make it more interesting by adding multiple entries for Verlander. This should keep him from running away with it!
October 5th, 2011 at 7:18 am
How can you tell which one you voted for? I'm rooting for my Verlander (the second to last one) but I have no idea if he's winning.
October 5th, 2011 at 8:12 am
Sorry, the second poll got swallowed up. It's there now.
October 5th, 2011 at 8:13 am
Where's Bruce Chen?
October 5th, 2011 at 8:15 am
Chen is stuck on a train left in limbo somewhere between Kansas City and Boston.
October 5th, 2011 at 8:21 am
i know this one's from way behind the backstop, but at least it's a Tigers question; anyone know who johnny bassler was (without looking)?
October 5th, 2011 at 8:24 am
Like the ballot. Reminds one of Florida in 2000.
October 5th, 2011 at 8:26 am
No hanging chads here.
October 5th, 2011 at 8:37 am
I wish my Mets had five Justin Verlanders.
October 5th, 2011 at 8:38 am
LOL!! That was awesome Andy!
October 5th, 2011 at 8:42 am
#1David,
You have no idea what you’re talking about and have no place on a baseball site.
The third Verlander is the obvious choice.
@8 MetsMaven
Lets not get greedy. 3/4 of a Verlander is an upgrade. Remember Pelfry was our # 1 last year. Next year, if Santana is not 'ready' for opening day, we may go with RA as our # 1, which begs the question, what team had a knuckler as their # 1. I’m gonna have to guess the Marlins with Charlie Hough.
October 5th, 2011 at 8:45 am
At MM
Yes Hough was the last (I guess?) knuckler to start a season for the ’94 Marlins. He was also 46 that year. I wonder if he was the oldest #1 as well?
Any one know?
October 5th, 2011 at 8:46 am
The results show me that the randomizing function doesn't work all that well--otherwise how the hell can one Verlander (the first one) be getting twice as many votes as another?
October 5th, 2011 at 8:47 am
@10
You're correct, Duke. I would settle for one Justin Verlan.
October 5th, 2011 at 8:51 am
Oldest opening day starters since 1980:
Generated 10/5/2011.
October 5th, 2011 at 8:52 am
Oldest opening day starters, 1950-1979:
Generated 10/5/2011.
October 5th, 2011 at 8:53 am
Check out entries 13 and 14 in post #14 above...RJ and Wells started against each other in 2005. I wonder if that's the oldest opening day matchup?
October 5th, 2011 at 8:54 am
Well in 1994 Hough opposed Hershiser, who was 35 that year, so the total compared to Wells-RJ might be similar.
October 5th, 2011 at 8:55 am
hough oldest opening day shutout
October 5th, 2011 at 9:07 am
el oh el
October 5th, 2011 at 9:16 am
No Jose Valverde aka Papa Grande aka Big Potato?
October 5th, 2011 at 9:22 am
@5 - A catcher for the 34 Tigers?
October 5th, 2011 at 9:37 am
@brett. yea. he was. but tryin to point out statistical anomalies such as he to a group of people who i thought were into such things is like pulling teeth; not pleasant. short and sweet, yea, sure, i guess he was a 34 tiger. thanks for tryin to bury the hatchet brett. more man than some in here. if not a site like baseball reference dot com to ask a baseball question without getting 'hung' out to dry, where then?
October 5th, 2011 at 9:42 am
twenty one to twenty seven
October 5th, 2011 at 9:53 am
HA! Great idea!
October 5th, 2011 at 10:15 am
@Jbird - I'm in a Strat-O league that combines 20, 24 & 34. I have his 24 card on my team. He's ridiculous!!!! I regret the error. 🙂
October 5th, 2011 at 10:25 am
@12 Andy,
If there is one thing we have learned about Statistics on this site...
It is all about the sample size - at this point, all of the Verlanders have vote totals in the 30's.
October 5th, 2011 at 10:27 am
@brett,
sounds cool! sorry if any of that steam i was letting off seeped your way. the silence is the pudding. either way, you're awesome!
October 5th, 2011 at 11:03 am
JBird @ 5 I skipped right down so if someone has answered this already, I apologize: Brasler was a catcher for the Tigers in the 1920's. And a pretty good one at that, at least as far as MVP voters were concerned.
October 5th, 2011 at 11:13 am
And by the way, I knew that because Bill James talks about him in The Historical Abstract, not because I looked him up.
And as for list #2 @ 15: it looks like just about every one either a) played after 1977 or b) was named Spahn
October 5th, 2011 at 11:16 am
@Jbird,
If I recall correctly from the first [i]Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract,[/i] Johnny Bassler was a Tigers catcher whose vote totals in 1920s MVP voting were surprisingly high. I'm almost positive he walked a lot, too. (Obviously, I could check that on the site, but your question asks us not to look.)
October 5th, 2011 at 11:18 am
P.S. Sorry about the italics.
October 5th, 2011 at 11:40 am
Where was my David Robertson choice?
October 5th, 2011 at 11:40 am
Robertson nearly made the cut...
October 5th, 2011 at 11:44 am
great stuff, y'all. i just stumbled upon him today and wondered if anyone knew of him. by his numbers, it seemed, people should, but a lot is lost with the passage of time, so i just wanted to make sure. i was surprised by his peak appearances (135) yet his consistency during the meatball of his career with detroit. rock on!
October 5th, 2011 at 2:13 pm
I think Dan Haren belongs in those lists.
October 5th, 2011 at 2:16 pm
Haren just missed the cut.
October 5th, 2011 at 3:01 pm
@16, @17
Re: Oldest Opening Day Matchups
I believe these games are the only ones since 1919 with combined age exceeding 80 years.
- 2005-04-03, 83.158, Randy Johnson (41.205), David Wells (41.318)
- 1931-04-15, 82.266, Jack Quinn (47.287), Tom Zachary (34.344)
- 1949-04-19, 82.003, Rip Sewell (41.343), Dutch Leonard (40.025)
- 1994-04-05, 81.291, Charlie Hough (46.090), Orel Hershiser (35.201)
October 5th, 2011 at 3:03 pm
Thanks Doug. Weird that I happened to check the 1 other game out of 4 since 1919 that make that list.
October 5th, 2011 at 3:31 pm
Johnny Basler always finishes with a .400 career OBP in my OOTP historical sims. Lots of walks. That's about it. 'Without looking' I presume that's his strength, like 'camera eye' max bishop
October 5th, 2011 at 3:34 pm
I just want to know what this father was thinking, five sons named Justin! I think it was funny when George Forman did it...this just isn't the same.
( But props for the killer sperm )
October 5th, 2011 at 3:40 pm
@31: use instead. It's more semantic 😉
October 5th, 2011 at 3:40 pm
er...<em>
October 5th, 2011 at 5:17 pm
Hilarious post! Justin Verlander is the obvious and pretty much indisputably correct answer. However much of his results are based on luck, he's been the most successful pitcher, and his underlying performance is still so excellent that the low BABIP shouldn't matter much. All great seasons need a tidbit of luck anyway.
October 5th, 2011 at 7:44 pm
Looks like the randomizer caught up some.
October 5th, 2011 at 9:27 pm
Over on the Onion they reckon it should be Adam Dunn. They say "Dunn's historic performance this season did more for American League pitching than anyone who actually took the mound".
They got a point there.
October 5th, 2011 at 10:19 pm
Of the 20 or so people in the Baseball Prospectus poll, one guy voted for Sabathia. We batted this around on a message board I'm on--what was he thinking?--and the explanations offered were a) stronger division, b) Verlander's BABIP, and c) Sabathia's better fielding-independent ERA (a stat I'm just becoming familiar with). The first reason struck me as weak (Sabathia didn't have to face the Yankees, so he's left with 9 starts vs. the Red Sox/Rays, while Verlander had six vs. the Red Sox/Yankees/Rays); the second as irrelevant (probably a useful predictor for next season, but for this one who cares?--results are results); and the third as grasping at straws.
October 5th, 2011 at 10:50 pm
Charlie Hough---my hero. He was the last major league player who was older than me.
October 7th, 2011 at 2:43 pm
Johnny Bassler's 5.4 walk-to-strikeout ratio is 2nd only to Joe Sewell since 1901 (min. 1,000 PAs).
October 9th, 2011 at 3:11 pm
hot dog, autin. that's where it's at. i knew with those numbers, there'd be more.
with this guy, it was ball in play; and if it wasn't, it was ball four, not whiff.
October 9th, 2011 at 3:26 pm
@cheese, or anyone: what's 'ootp'?