The BBWAA has awarded the 2005 AL Cy Young to Indians farm system product Bartolo Colon, on the strength of 21 wins credited to him. Please, join me in breaking down the stupidity of the voters ...
Update [2005-11-9 13:11:48 by Ryan]: The New York Times interviewed several of the voters, including Sheldon Ocker of the Beacon-Journal. He was one of two voters to rank Cliff Lee second, and (here's the kicker) he left Johan Santana AND Kevin Millwood off the ballot. And it's not like he didn't have the chance to see Millwood or Santana multiple times.
Ocker talked about starters versus relievers in regards to the Cy Young vote, but something else caught my eye:
"It's just a whole different animal from starting pitchers," he added. "If the best starting pitcher in the league only won 15 games and Mariano Rivera or someone else saved 45, I'd vote for Rivera. But in a season with a 20-game winner and an 18-game winner, I felt the starters should get my vote."
So even though Ocker probably watched every one of Millwood's starts this season, he felt Lee was the better pitcher because he had more wins? And even though Santana made four starts against the Indians, he didn't even place him on his ballot because he only had 16 wins?
Update [2005-11-9 20:38:7 by Jay]: Hey, man, WTF? You're distracting attention from my extremely important scientific poll!