Rivera for the Cy?

ADKbrown · **Posted:** Fri Sep 23, 2005 5:50 pm

Jack Curry suggests in his column today that Mariano Rivera deserves the Cy Young Award. Thoughts?

wordygurdy · **Posted:** Fri Sep 23, 2005 7:01 pm

Saw that too, ADK. I don't see why he wouldn't get it, given the relatively weak seasons the starters have had and Rivera's dominance.

Colon hasn't really been dominant, though that's tough to say about a 20-game winner. You always get the feeling when facing Colon that if you can just tire him out enough, you can light him up. That's not ordinarily the way you think about facing a Cy Young winner. (By comparison, batters usually go up thinking they have no chance against Rivera unless they can choke up enough to get the bat head on the cutter inside, as Luis Gonzalez did in November 2001.) I think Colon throws only two pitches, which is very unusual for a starter.

The White Sox and Garland and Buehrle have imploded in the past few weeks.

Rivera's certainly in the top three in the running for the award, wouldn't you say?

Matthew Grieco · **Posted:** Sat Sep 24, 2005 5:00 am

I would say so, but I think the Cy will go to Colon. He's the best pitcher on the hottest team down the stretch.

And Rivera, despite being the greatest reliever of all time, is still a reliever.

wordygurdy · **Posted:** Mon Sep 26, 2005 7:24 pm

See, outings like the one Colon had yesterday are the main reason why I don't think he will win the Cy Young:

5 innings
10 hits
6 runs, all earned
Loss, for a win-loss record of 20-8

That's not the line of a Cy Young winner who, if he loses his last outing (granted, it might not be a competitive game by then), will have lost 9 games and have an ERA close to 4.00 (it's 3.51 now).

I think voters who might not want to give Rivera the league MVP vote (which you could make a case he also deserves) could vote for him as the Cy winner to "compensate."

wordygurdy · **Posted:** Sat Oct 01, 2005 11:15 am

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 ColÃ³n, 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 ColÃ³n 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."

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