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tomdalton22
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From ESPN Jason Stark (Check out stat of starters other than JV)
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/8134086/handing-baseball-midseason-awards
Justin Verlander? Again? Well, Kate Upton might think Philip Humber deserves this award. And I have no doubt that I'm about to get tweeted at by every Angels and White Sox fan alive, to inform me that Jered Weaver and/or Chris Sale really, really deserve this award. But after days and days of thinking about this from every angle, I've concluded it isn't as easy to dethrone The Best Pitcher in Baseball as it might appear from afar. Is Verlander having a slightly less dominant year than he had last year? Of course. Do Sale and Weaver have slightly lower ERAs than he does? They do. But if you take in the big picture, it's hard not to factor in the way Verlander welcomes the massive responsibilities of true ace-dom, despite all the heavy lifting it forces him to do to keep his staff and his team afloat. You know what the ERA is this season of Tigers starters who haven't worn a Randy Johnson disguise on TV? It's barely under 5.00 (4.89). Meanwhile, Sale, Weaver and Verlander have almost exactly the same WHIP (0.94 for Weaver, 0.95 for Verlander, 0.96 for Sale). But Verlander has carved out those numbers while facing 173 more hitters than Weaver and 119 more than Sale. So guess which of these men leads the major leagues in starts of eight innings or more? Yep, that would be Verlander, who has done that more times (nine) than Weaver and Sale combined (eight). Now is Verlander as clear a choice this year as last? He's not -- obviously. And are there excellent cases to be made for both Weaver and Sale, two of the most talented pitchers alive? Absotively, there are. So feel free to lobby for your guy. But as for me, I'll still take Cy Verlander.
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/8134086/handing-baseball-midseason-awards
Justin Verlander? Again? Well, Kate Upton might think Philip Humber deserves this award. And I have no doubt that I'm about to get tweeted at by every Angels and White Sox fan alive, to inform me that Jered Weaver and/or Chris Sale really, really deserve this award. But after days and days of thinking about this from every angle, I've concluded it isn't as easy to dethrone The Best Pitcher in Baseball as it might appear from afar. Is Verlander having a slightly less dominant year than he had last year? Of course. Do Sale and Weaver have slightly lower ERAs than he does? They do. But if you take in the big picture, it's hard not to factor in the way Verlander welcomes the massive responsibilities of true ace-dom, despite all the heavy lifting it forces him to do to keep his staff and his team afloat. You know what the ERA is this season of Tigers starters who haven't worn a Randy Johnson disguise on TV? It's barely under 5.00 (4.89). Meanwhile, Sale, Weaver and Verlander have almost exactly the same WHIP (0.94 for Weaver, 0.95 for Verlander, 0.96 for Sale). But Verlander has carved out those numbers while facing 173 more hitters than Weaver and 119 more than Sale. So guess which of these men leads the major leagues in starts of eight innings or more? Yep, that would be Verlander, who has done that more times (nine) than Weaver and Sale combined (eight). Now is Verlander as clear a choice this year as last? He's not -- obviously. And are there excellent cases to be made for both Weaver and Sale, two of the most talented pitchers alive? Absotively, there are. So feel free to lobby for your guy. But as for me, I'll still take Cy Verlander.
