C.C. or Josh - The Winner Is?

I am absolutely amazed that the Baseball Writers Association of America, yesterday, decided the Cy Young Award winner to be C.C. Sabathia. Are you kidding me? I can understand him being in the conversation but this year by far belonged and BELONGS with Josh Beckett. How Beckett doesn’t get the majority of the vote is a mystery.

While Sabathia was excellent, at times, he was nowhere as near as dominant as Beckett. There are not many players today, or in the history of the game, that can do what Beckett can. They may be able to throw 90 and strike hitters out. They pitch you a complete game every now and then. No one….NO ONE…in the game today, or really in recent memory, can create fear in the hearts of hitters like Beckett. No pitcher can give his team an opportunity to win every time he takes the mound like Beckett. I promise you one thing….without Beckett the Sox do not win the World Series. They lose to Sabathia twice and probably don’t make it out of that series with Cleveland.

They posted similar records this year. Sabathia had a record of 19-7 with an ERA of 3.21 and Beckett went 20-7 with a 3.27 ERA. Their respective teams had the exact same record at 96-66. But think about it…when Sabathia came to the mound were you AFRAID of him? Did you say “my team is guaranteed to win tonight”? No you didn’t. But you did when Josh Beckett stepped on the bump.

Here’s the problem. The Baseball Writers Association of America stops voting at the end of the regular season. The regular season for these guys was pretty much the same. All the votes came down to the last game of the season which Beckett lost to drop to a RIDICULOUS 20-7 and Sabathia went to 19 – 7 with a win. That’s it – the voting stopped – and Sabbathia is the winner.

Beckett far outshined Sabathia in the postseason, in which they were matched up head-to-head twice in the American League Championship Series; but voting by the Baseball Writers Association of America is done at the end of the regular season. So Sabathia's 1-2 record and 8.80 ERA in three postseason games (15 1/3 innings) did not factor in. Neither did Beckett’s three postseason games (15 1/3 innings) did not factor in. Neither did Beckett's 4-0 record and 1.20 ERA over four starts and 30 innings.

But as discussed earlier the postseason doesn’t count for the post season. What does count is that ring on Beckett’s finger. Make no mistake – Josh Beckett will be back – it was not a fluke. If pitchers traditionally won MVP Awards – I would have given him that too.