Brandon Webb has won the NL Cy Young award for 2006. I voted for Roy Oswalt, but Webb is far from a terrible choice. It's the runner up I have a problem with. Here are two NL relief pitchers:
IP ERA SO BB HR Sv BlSv
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Pitcher A 63.0 2.14 50 13 6 46 5
Pitcher B 72.1 2.24 94 21 7 40 5
Two terrific pitching lines, each belonging to an elite NL closer for a division winner. Pitcher B looks better to me: more strikeouts, better K/BB ratio, better HR/9 ratio, more innings pitched. Pitcher A had a few more saves and a slightly lower ERA, but was certainly no better than Pitcher B and was probably quite a bit worse.
So how is it that Pitcher A was considered to be the single-best pitcher in the league by twelve writers and one of the top-three in the league by twenty-three writers while Pitcher B was considered by none to be the best pitcher and by two to be one of the three best in the league?