Here’s something I didn’t actually know before doing the research for this story: the great majority of baseball’s big award winners have actually been tremendous players.
A related research question for ROY winners: greatest career WAR delta (negative) between a winner and a player that did not win. Marty Cordova might be a contender.
Interesting! Three things that are or might be true: the crop of non-winners was outstanding (Garret Anderson, Andy Pettitte, Ray Durham, Troy Percival, Shawn Green); Cordova probably deserved to win; and finally, he was arguably even better in his second season! Making him, by definition, NOT a one-hit wonder. But injuries and (apparently) poor defense did leave him with a particularly unimpressive career WAR, especially considering he played until he was 33.
A good example of why pitcher wins is a flawed statistic. He has no control over his offense, defense, or the pitcher/defense across the diamond. It's silly how baseball has so highly valued pitching wins for so long. Seems like we are finally coming to a realizations.
A related research question for ROY winners: greatest career WAR delta (negative) between a winner and a player that did not win. Marty Cordova might be a contender.
Interesting! Three things that are or might be true: the crop of non-winners was outstanding (Garret Anderson, Andy Pettitte, Ray Durham, Troy Percival, Shawn Green); Cordova probably deserved to win; and finally, he was arguably even better in his second season! Making him, by definition, NOT a one-hit wonder. But injuries and (apparently) poor defense did leave him with a particularly unimpressive career WAR, especially considering he played until he was 33.
No mention of Mike Marshall? First reliever to win the Cy Young...appeared in a ridiculous 106 games in 1974.
A good example of why pitcher wins is a flawed statistic. He has no control over his offense, defense, or the pitcher/defense across the diamond. It's silly how baseball has so highly valued pitching wins for so long. Seems like we are finally coming to a realizations.