Johan Santana - Cleveland's Rented Mule And Not This Year's AL Cy Young
| 4
|
by Woodsmeister
Continuing the argument that C.C. Sabathia should get serious consideration for AL Cy Young and that Johan Santana, while probably statistically superior, should not, I point to yesterday afternoon's Twins-Tribe game.
The Cleveland Indians treated Johan as their personal rented mule once again, beating him for the fifth time this year in six starts. Against Cleveland this year, Santana is 0-5, with one no decision. Meanwhile, Sabathia pitched 8 innings of scoreless baseball, giving up 6 hits and a walk, striking out 6.
In 6 starts against Cleveland, Santana has an ERA of 4.38 in 39 innings. Sabathia, in 5 starts against the Twins is 4-1 with a 1.51 ERA. Three of those wins came head to head against Santana.
The Twins right now are 10.5 games out, and their season is pretty much done. If Santana does what a Cy Young winner, an ace, is supposed to do and wins 4 or 5 of those games, Twins fans are talking about making another scrappy run at the AL Central title. Instead, they're lamenting how this year's team failed to live up to expectations and the Indians are sitting in first place, 6 games up with 25 to go.
Cy Young winners win the big games against their division rivals. Johan Santana has not. Pure and simple. No matter what other statistic you may want to pull out to support Santana as the best pitcher in the American League, he just hasn't gotten it done in critical games and that has to count for something. Wins matter. Aces are supposed to find a way to win the big games. Sabathia has. Josh Beckett has. John Lackey has. Santana has not.
If it were just a matter of which pitcher had the best statistics, we should just pick a statistic (Runs Against, WHIP, K/9) and declare the pitcher who wins that category the best pitcher and be done with it.
Santana is a great pitcher. No question. However, he's not this year's AL Cy Young winner.