Walter Johnson Award
Friday, October 22, 2010
Happy Friday everyone. It is time for another postseason awards ballot as part of our duties to the BBA. Today's ballot is for the Walter Johnson Award, which if you couldn't tell is given to the best pitcher in each league.
Dave and I tried very hard to justify giving Josh Johnson a first place vote. The numbers (in many areas) gave us a solid case. Of course we know JJ did win the ERA title with a 2.30 mark. If you delve into the more advanced stats, courtesy of FanGraphs, there's even more of a case to be made. In the illustrious WAR category, JJ's 6.3 trailed only Roy Hallday (6.6). He also finished with a high BABIP of .308% and a FIP of 2.41 (lead the NL) which highlights the fact the defense behind him didn't do him any favors. Combine that with the weak run support and diabolical bullpen and he finished with just 11 wins.
But that's not the reason he didn't receive our first place vote. Ultimately it came down to the fact Josh Johnson only threw 183 2/3 innings, and Roy Halladay was able to put up very similar numbers while logging a massive 250 2/3 IP. This is the Walter Johnson Award after all, named after a player he threw 300+ innings in nine consecutive years (different era, I know). So Doc gets the nod. The full ballot:
- Roy Halladay
- Josh Johnson
- Adam Wainwright
- Tim Lincecum
- Yovani Gallardo
2 comments:
Guys,
Whoa, no Ubaldo Jimenez? Seems awfully difficult to justify Gallardo or Lincecum over Jimenez, though I can see the others. Good votes overall, though, and I think you got the right guy. Halladay is ridiculous.
- Michael
We discussed Ubaldo, and his WAR certainly made him worthy of consideration. We gave Lincecum and Gallardo the nod for their high K/9 rates, their BABIP's were both well above Jimenez' as well, so we took that into consideration. In any event, this year it was Halladay head and shoulders above the rest, filling out 2 through 5 seemed like mostly a formality.
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