Joe Morgan, who I enjoy as a baseball commentator, but usually find myself disagreeing with time and time again, wrote a column on ESPN about Eric Gagne’s consecutive save record. And in this instance, I find myself agreeing with him.
You can check out the column, and decide for yourself. Although I don’t neccesarily agree that the Cy Young should exclude relievers, I do agree that a pitcher who throws just over 80 innings isn’t nearly as valuable as a guy who throws 125, much less 225, no matter how effective he is. Probably the best write up on this would be in Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (required reading for a baseball fan, the book is excellent), where he talks about Dennis Eckersley. Also be sure to check out the thread Bllfer wrote about using his relievers over on the Detroit Tigers Weblog.
Hopefully everyone enjoys the new writers. Dan is doing a fine job reporting on the day to day activities of the Tigers, while Kevin is writing a semi-weekly AL Central report. Also, I’ll be taking a short hiatus. I’ll most likely be in the hospital tonight or tomorrow as my wife is more then ready to have the kid. In my place, a good friend will be doing a little writing for me.