THAT’S certainly a cogent rebuttal. Can’t top that!

If you want to “unbundle” team tasks to the extent that a pitcher would be honored as the “best” despite a losing record and, conceivably,a higher ERA than some competitors, fine. The rest of the world doesn’t work that way, and for good reason. Such an award would quickly be discounted by the general public, lose prestige, and become irrelevant. I understand the point; always have. But the Cy Young will NEVER go to a losing pitcher, because the game will always honor winning rather than losing with finesse.

Wooden: Well, obviously I can’t communicate clearly enough to discuss this with you. There is more than one definition of “best.” The pitcher who wins the most games while maintaining a respectable ERA is a legitimate “best.” So is the pitcher who does the best job preventing runs. The Cy Young award, as indicated by its title (pointed out above), has historically tended toward the first definition. Given that there is some wisdom in that,and given that the “best” so defined will almost always be a deserving recipient,I think declaring that wins are irrelevant to the award is unwise…and not entirely logical. (The illogic to me is epitomized by those who have argued that Matsusaka had a “lousy” season in 2008, despite his low ERA and high win total, and even more bizarrely, that the Red Sox had not received value for his performance that season.)

The macro-task shared by all members of a team is to win games. To declare that the only one of those players to be actually credited with team wins DOESN’T have that in his job description is bizarre to me, and certainly not so intrinsically reasonable that a varying opinion deserves to be called “sad.”

If by “us” you mean the Association of Arrogant and Obtuse Jackasses, as I assume you do, please don’t hold your breath.

“If by “us” you mean the Association of Arrogant and Obtuse Jackasses”

Hey, if I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a hundred times, it’s the Arrogant and Obtuse Jackass Society.  No respect.

I do disagree with your notion of what a pitcher’s job is, though.  Baseball is such a compartmentalized game, each player can only do his part, and hope for the best from the other contributors.  A baseball team, more than any other type of team, is only as good as the sum of its parts.  Thus, since a pitcher can’t control what his offense or defense or bullpen can do, all he can do is strive to maximize his strikeouts, minimize his walks, and keep the ball on the ground.  Two out of three ain’t bad.  I’m not sure what he’s supposed to do besides give his best effort, each and every time out there.

Sorry, I thought it was clear I was talking to Jack, with the turn on his Association thing and a direct response to his stance.  Guess it could be confusing, since I didn’t directly address him and posted right after you.