I felt that Gagne was probably the best bet for Cy Young, but again, two writers left him off there ballot. I think this is good for baseball and awards. Same thing happened with Matsui, and same thing happened here. This should make baseball review the award defenitions, i hope anyway (Be sure to check out the last line in his column)
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http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/column...son&id=1667569
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Cy Young Rumblings
After all the furor over two writers leaving Hideki Matsui off their rookie-of-the-year ballot, did anyone notice there were also two who left Eric Gagne off their National League Cy Young ballot?
Gagne got 28 of the 32 first-place votes. But the Miami Herald's Clark Spencer put Jason Schmidt, Mark Prior and Russ Ortiz in the 1-2-3 spots on his ballot, over Gagne. And the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Terence Moore went Prior-Schmidt-Ortiz.
Both Spencer and Moore told Rumblings they weren't trying to make a case that relievers shouldn't be eligible for the Cy Young. They just give heavy extra credits to starters who have great years with much heavier workloads.
"I do have a preference for starters over closers, primarily because I view the closer to be a specialist, much like the placekicker is in football," Spencer said. "While Gagne saved 55 games, he saved them for fellow pitchers -- many of them starters, I would presume -- who acquired the leads by working through the opposing order several times before turning the ball over to him to face three, four or five batters."
"I wouldn't call this a protest vote," Moore said. "I just think it's more of a starting pitcher's award than it is a reliever's award. It's almost like with the MVP, trying to decide whether it's the most 'valuable' or the most 'outstanding' player. It's not stated specifically, so it becomes objective. And in my mind, there should be an overwhelming emphasis on starting pitchers."
We actually agree with that emphasis. We just think Gagne had a season so dominating, you have to throw normal assumptions in the nearest dumpster. But if it means anything, virtually all of the other relief pitchers who won Cy Youngs had to fight the same battle.
Of the six previous closers who won Cy Youngs over the last quarter-century, only one -- Rollie Fingers in 1981 -- made it onto every ballot.
heres the last line
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League with fewest All-Stars testing positive gets home-field advantage in World Series.
LOL