From today's Times:
It's Been Done Before
If Yankees closer Mariano Rivera wins his first Cy Young award this season, he will have to beat out a 20-game winner, the Angels' Bartolo Colón, who is 21-8 with a 3.48 E.R.A. But this would not be unprecedented.
Seven of the nine relievers to win the award did so by beating out at least one 20-game winner. The exceptions are Rollie Fingers, who won it in the American League in the strike-shortened 1981 season, and Steve Bedrosian, who did so in the National League in 1987. The runner-up that year was Rick Sutcliffe, who led the N.L. with 18 victories for the Chicago Cubs.
Sutcliffe, who broadcast Friday's game for ESPN, said he would probably endorse Colón over Rivera, because he did not believe Rivera's season was significantly better than his past years. But Sutcliffe, who won the N.L. Cy Young in 1984, raised an interesting point about how to interpret the award.
"I think that every year, Mariano is the difference," Sutcliffe said. "And I know what the award says. It says, 'Most Valuable Pitcher.' Year in, year out, it could be his award, with the definition of what it is."
|