Jason tossed his proposal on the BBWAA’s discussion board this morning. There haven’t been many responses yet—I’m guessing that most BBWAA members don’t know how to use a discussion board ... or a computer (kidding!)—but one youngish member is opposed on the grounds that relief pitchers are ... well, they’re just not that important. That’s why they rarely get serious Cy Young support. Also, most of them are failed starters.
Well, I agree with my young(ish) colleague (as I usually do, and I wish I could tell you who I’m talking about but that would get banned, justifiably, from the message board and maybe kicked out of the BBWAA after just one year). About relief pitchers, anyway. I’ve been as vocal as anyone about the relative value of relievers, and I could make the argument that Hoyt Wilhelm (because of all the innings) and Mariano Rivera (because of all the Octobers) are the only relievers who belong in the Hall of Fame.
I just don’t find that argument particularly germane to the question at hand.
Look (and this is basically what I posted to the BBWAA board), isn’t this sort of like Rookies of the Year and MVPs?
Many years ago, the BBWAA created an award for a sub-class of great players, the great majority of whom simply weren’t developed enough or valuable enough to merit serious MVP consideration. Nevertheless, there was a sentiment for these young fellows who seemed to be doing something special. We’ve been handing out Rookie of the Year Awards since 1947, and exactly two players in all those years won MVP Awards, too: Fred Lynn and Ichiro Suzuki.
Similarly, I think it’s reasonable to reward these relief pitchers who, however less valuable than starters they might be, still are doing something quite special.
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1. Rich Rifkin Posted: January 23, 2010 at 02:04 AM (#3444705)And the resulting examination of what the value of a Closer is vis-a-vis other relief pitching roles would be a fun and useful exercise.
And yet, somehow, there are many who still confuse the CYA with the MVP, believing that anyone eligible to win the former is automatically disqualified from winning the latter.
DB
With the creation of the Reliever award (and wither the Rolaids Relief/Fireman of the Year), does that mean that relievers will be less likely to win the Cy Young Award and/or the MVP? That would be a wholly good thing in my view.
How many? I mean, aside from idiot BBWAA members?
I also think it would be fun to give a gold glove award for DH's. But to win it, a player would have to be incredibly bad when in the field, and have at least 50 innings to qualify.
OK, found it. It was Gary Huckabay in 2000: Catching the D*mn Ball: Left Fielders Guess who this is about: "He plays defense like he's on a cell phone complaining about his Vicodin dosage being too low."
I was going to guess Grieve. It's not, though that slow-footed, groundball hitting early peaker earned a prominent position on the list.
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