Does Sabathia Deserve the Cy Young Hype?

If you had asked me at the beginning of August who I thought should win the NL Cy Young, I probably would have said Webb, Lincecum, or Santana depending on how they fared down the stretch. Sure, C.C. Sabathia had been shredding National League bats into dust for over a month at that point, but I didn't consider him a serious CY candidate.

First, the fact that Sabathia had split his time between two different leagues made him seem like a tough sell for an award traditionally given to NL-exclusive pitchers. Second, it seemed like Sabathia's credentials for the NL CY were being hyped up because he happened to get traded to Milwaukee in the middle of a playoff race. I was rooting for the Brew Crew to make the playoffs, but there was no way Sabathia would be able to keep up such a torrid pace, right? It almost seemed like a slight to the other candidates, several of whom were fighting for their own playoff berth, to discuss awarding the recently arrived Sabathia the title of the NL's Best Pitcher.

The trouble is, Sabathia hit the ground running in Milwaukee and never slowed down. Sabathia made 17 starts from July 8 to September 28, posting a 1.65 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, and 128 K over 130.7 IP. Milwaukee made no effort to temper C.C.'s competitive nature either, unleashing him in the midst of the wild card race with little concern for a pitch count. To get an idea of how far Sabathia pushed himself in the second half of the season, remember that the Major League leader in complete games was Roy Halladay with nine. Sabathia collected seven CG in about half that time (he had three in the first half with Cleveland, marking his second consecutive year with 10 CG).

Sabathia went on to pitch a complete game shutout on the final day of the season to punch the Brewer's first ticket to the postseason in 26 years. The must-win season finale was Sabathia's third consecutive start on just three days rest (he's in line to make a fourth straight start on short rest against Philly in Game 2 of the NLDS). Besides dragging a struggling Brewers club over the finish line, Sabathia's season is a testament to his durability, athleticism, focus, and outstanding skill as a pitcher. In fact, Sabathia has far surpassed his 2007 Cy Young winning campaign (19-7, 241 IP, 3.21 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 209 K) in every category except win percentage and total wins, making 2008 the best overall season of his career.

Would his stats be so impressive if Milwaukee hadn't given the 27 year old Sabathia free reign over his pitch counts though? As effective as Sabathia has been, there is a potential downside to letting him go like it's 1950 again (but not for Milwaukee). Milwaukee's desperation combined with Sabathia's confidence and competitive nature may have valuted C.C. beyond his peers in terms of performance this season, but I just hope 2008 doesn't come back to haunt him down the road. Interestingly enough, Tim Lincecum is ahead of Sabathia in Baseball Prospectus' Pitcher Abuse Points metric by 62,699 points. Sabathia is still well ahead of the field though with a 33,826 point buffer.

The risks associated with logging so many pitches per outing would grind down most pitchers, but who's to say Johan Santana wouldn't have dominated in the same way as Sabathia if the Mets didn't have millions of dollars still invested in their ace's arm. Santana could have easily reached the 20 win level without the Mets' bullpen holding him back, likely pushing him to the front of the pack in CY consideration. In that sense, it could be argued that Sabathia had an unfair advantage over more restricted (and sane) pitchers.

A similar argument of circumstance can be made on behalf of Tim Lincecum and the fact that he plays for a basement dweller like the Giants. Many voters feel that whether a player's team makes the playoffs is an important part of the awards equation, but I personally disagree with this notion. The player doesn't get to choose the environment he pitches in, all he can do is give his best effort and suck it up when the offense gets shut out or the bullpen implodes. Interestingly, Lincecum, Sabathia, and Santana are all within two wins of each other overall, partly negating the disparate teams issue. All three pitchers have had to deal with either a poor offense (Lincecum, C.C. with Cleveland) or leaky bullpen (especially Santana) on multiple occasions this season.

Even with the pitchers' decisions removed from consideration, Sabathia is arguably at a disadvantage compared to the rest of the NL CY field. The NL features much softer lineups compared to the AL, but Sabathia has had to deal with both leagues over a roughly equal number of starts (18 AL starts, 17 NL starts). Meanwhile, Lincecum and Santana have had twice as many starts logged against NL lineups and appear to have an edge against Sabathia if his entire season were to be taken into consideration.

This brings us to the biggest sticking point in advocating Sabathia for the NL CY. Should C.C.'s entire season be considered in the voting process?

Rick Sutcliffe is the only player to be traded mid-season and end up winning the Cy Young for the league he was traded to. Sutcliffe was dealt from Cleveland to the Cubs on June 13 in 1984. Given Sutcliffe's less than stellar performance while with Cleveland (4-5, 94.3 IP, 5.15 ERA, 1.66 WHIP, 58 K) and his near perfect run in Chicago, it's seems the voters didn't give his time in Cleveland much thought. Sutcliffe also faced a seemingly better pitcher in the voting that year. It may have been because he was a rookie or his team finished second to Sutcliffe's Cubs, but Dwight Gooden was better than Sutcliffe over 68 more innings and didn't get a single first place vote (Sutcliffe won unanimously).

1984 NL Cy Young Award Results

Player	Team (WP)	W-L	IP	ERA	WHIP	K	1st Place Votes^
Rick Sutcliffe	CHC (.596)	16-1	150	2.69	1.08	155	24
Dwight Gooden	NYM (.556)*	17-9	218	2.60	1.07	276	0
Bruce Sutter	STL (.519)*	5-7 (45 SV)	123	1.54	1.08	77	0
Joaquin Andujar	STL (.519)*	20-14	261	3.34	1.10	147	0

*Team did not reach playoffs
^Out of 24 possible votes

The precedent set by Sutcliffe shows that voters are not necessarily swayed by total innings or even if the pitcher has spent the entire season in the same league. Sutcliffe struggled the entire time he was in the AL that season (C.C. had a bad April, but was dominant after that), but like Sabathia, dominated after being traded to the NL. If anything, Sutcliffe's poor first half should have worked against him, but instead the voters saw the impact he made during a partial season in Chicago and ran with it. I think there is a strong chance Sabathia will benefit in the voting by helping Milwaukee to the playoffs in a similar manner.

I probably wouldn't vote for Sabathia if his time in the AL was banned from consideration. Technically, the NL CY is only supposed to consider innings logged in that league and the Sutcliffe vote showed that any AL starts tend to be ignored (that 5.15 ERA in the first half really sticks out).

If C.C. is limited to his NL starts, the gap in innings (over 100), wins (7), and strikeouts (over 130) compared to Lincecum is just too great to truly justify voting for Sabathia. The seven complete games and five shutouts are impressive, but unfortunately don't deserve to carry as much weight since Sabathia appeared to gain an edge from the fact that the Brewers' didn't need to worry about his arm beyond 2008. As great as Sabathia's impact was on the Brewers' second half, his 14.2 pitching win shares trail Johan Santana by 4.1 and Lincecum by 9.6.

I figured Sabathia would have been closer in win shares considering how bad the rest of the Brewers have been lately. Milwaukee went 49-40 (.550) before the trade and just 41-33 (.554) after, so it's safe to say they would have missed the playoffs by a wide margin with a slumping offense and an injured Ben Sheets had they not made the trade (again, a matter of circumstance).

The NL leader in wins, Brandon Webb, doesn't really deserve to be grouped in with those three pitchers; he just isn't good enough this year. I opted to include Webb into the table below anyway because he is still a serious candidate for the CY in the eyes of the voter. There are a few other pitchers who have come close to or surpassed Webb's performance this season (Cole Hamels gets honorable mention here), but have not been as good as the Big Three and are too far behind Webb in wins to have a realistic shot at getting many first place votes this year, so they were excluded from the conversation.

2008 NL Cy Young Candidates

Player	Team (WP)	W-L	IP	ERA	WHIP	K	CG	SHO	Pitching WS
C.C. Sabathia	MIL (.554)	11-2	130.7	1.65	1.00^	128	7^	3^	14.2
T. Lincecum	SF (.444)	18-5	227.0	2.62	1.17	265^	2	1	23.8
J. Santana	NYM (.549)	16-7	234.3	2.53^	1.14	206	3	2	18.3
B. Webb	ARI (.506)	22^ -7	226.7	3.30	1.19	183	3	1	18.8

^Leads or ties NL

The Sutcliffe precedent may ultimately work against Sabathia because his AL starts are impressive in their own right. Here are Sabathia's total stats for 2008:

C.C. Sabathia Totals for 2008 Season

Team (WP)	W-L	IP	ERA	WHIP	K	CG	SHO	Pitching WS
TOTAL (.493)	17-10	253.0	2.70	1.11	251	10	5	22.4

After taking all of the above factors into account, I think I would stop just short of calling Sabathia the best pitcher in baseball this season. Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay are the only two pitchers who would cause me to pause in terms of who has compiled the best overall season (yes, I'm backtracking a bit and saying Halladay may be more deserving of the CY than Lee).

Considering Sabathia only had a 116 ERA+ (adjusted by league, 100 indicating an average pitcher) with Cleveland and a ridiculous 262 ERA+ with Milwaukee, I think the difference in leagues has to be taken into account when comparing Halladay, Lee, and Sabathia in 2008. Lee's ERA+ of 175 and Halladay's 155 actually makes their respective campaigns even more impressive since they weren't able to feast upon National League lineups after the All Star Break.

So in conclusion, does Sabathia deserve the National League Cy Young Award?

Probably not.

Will he win it?

No, I'd put my money on Lincecum by a slight margin over Santana.

Fun Fact

The Cy Young Award was initially given to the single best pitcher in the Major Leagues from 1956 to 1966. Sandy Koufax was the last pitcher to win the unified title of best pitcher in 1966.

Isaac Out as Bullpen Coach

Longtime bullpen coach, Luis Isaac, was dismissed from the team this week. The announcement was made by Manager Eric Wedge, who apparently had the last word on the decision. Fans and the media alike seem to be surprised by the move, as there was no indication that Isaac had done anything to warrant getting fired this season. Even insiders like Tribe beatwriter Anthony Castrovince said he was "stunned" to hear the news, so the events leading up to the firing were really kept quiet.

A legitimate explanation has yet to be released and we may not find out why Isaac was let go for a while, if at all. Wedge did point out that Isaac was not being fired on account of the bullpen's poor performance this year, which led me to believe this was a personal matter. My initial guess was some sort of confrontation or rift occured between Isaac and another member of the coaching staff. Whatever it was, the team doesn't want to share the details.

The Diatriber provided a likely scenario in a post on Let's Go Tribe:

I think this is a move to clear the way for Scott Radinsky to replace Luis in the bullpen. Radinsky is ALWAYS lauded by the organization for righting players that are sent to him (Jen Lewis) or trying to put the finishing touches on young arms (I seem to remember a piece on him wanting to keep Stevens in AAA until he was “ready” for MLB) before they come to the parent club.

Who knows how the Isaac thing went down and why he wasn’t simply re-assigned, but my guess is that they decided that they wanted to get Radinsky into the Tribe bullpen and asked Luis to take another position. If he refused, he’s shown the door. Maybe more was in play, but I think it’s a matter of getting Radinsky up here with all of the young arms that he’s helped develop over the last few years.

This makes sense in terms of trying to advance the organization and Radinsky does seem like a logical replacement for Isaac. Still, I'm sad to hear that Luis is no longer with the team after 43 years. Isaac was first appointed bullpen coach in 1993 and has become sort of an institution at the Jake; one of the few constants left from that era of Indians baseball.

I wish Luis good luck at the next stop in his career, I'm sure he won't have much trouble finding an organization that values his pitching expertise.

Heavyweight Bout for the AL CY

Raise your hand if you predicted Cliff Lee would be a front runner for the Cy Young Award this season (put your hand down Steve Phillips, I said this season). That’s ok, nobody else did either. As incredible as it may seem, Cleveland’s remaining ace spent half of 2007 in Buffalo and had to fight for his spot on the roster out of spring training. Now, Mr. Lee is locked in a tight race with Doc Halladay for the AL Cy Young Award. Quite a turn-around, all things considered.

Lee and Halladay each have six starts remaining as of August 22, so there’s plenty of time for one of them to pull away. There’s also the chance that they will fall back to the pack, which features a few flashy albeit distant contenders who may catch the voters’ eyes.

I’m putting my money on either Lee or Halladay to win, but who will the BBWA voters favor in a close race? To try and answer that, I decided to look at the last ten CYA winners. I also compared the frontrunners to the rest of the field to see if there are any sleepers for the award. Finally, I compared Lee and Halladay directly in an attempt to find any chinks in their armor, as viewed by the voters (you may be thinking, this is an awful lot of work for something that will be fact in a couple months, which is true. Seriously though, where’s the fun in waiting?).

What’s the benchmark for the CYA?

The Baseball Writers of America are a notoriously picky bunch when it comes to voting for awards. The MVP award seems to have more controversy surrounding it each year than the Cy Young does, but there are some questionable trends that come into play for the CY as well. I’ll include less traditional stats later, but I wanted to focus on the voters’ tendencies to get a feel for what matters the most on the final ballot.

The strangest trend is how much weight the voters seem to put towards a pitcher’s win-loss record and his team’s overall record. Chances are, if you still think these two stats carry an equivalent value to ERA and strikeout rates then I doubt I’ll be able to convince you otherwise. Trying to determine the impact a starting pitcher has had over the course of the season and the context of those contributions can be helpful in determining how valuable the pitcher is, but only if put in the proper context. The win-loss argument is about as tired as it gets though, so I’ll be brief.

A pitcher’s record tends to be a direct reflection of how good the rest of the team is, specifically the bullpen, offense, and defense. The pitcher has little to no control over any of these factors (I suppose you could argue a groundball pitcher affects the defense and an innings-eater keeps a faulty pen off the mound, but in general, the pitcher has no say in the matter), yet they all directly impact the pitcher’s win-loss record. On the other hand, a pitcher can be made to look a lot better than he is if he has a superior defense or above average run support helping him suppress his ERA or rack up wins.

Looking at the past 10 AL Cy Young winners, you can compile a benchmark that voters will likely compare this year’s contenders to. The last ten winners posted an average line of 231 IP, 2.80 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, and 234 K. No pitcher had fewer than 18 wins or less than a .525 team win percentage. Even more exclusive was the fact that only three winners were on teams that did not make the playoffs.

Cy Young Award Winners 2007-1998

Player	Year	Team (WP)	W-L	IP	ERA	WHIP	K	1st Place Votes^
C.C. Sabathia	2007	CLE (.593)	19-7	241	3.21	1.14	209	19
J. Santana	2006	MIN (.593)	19-6	234	2.77	1.00	245	28
B. Colon	2005	LAA (.586)	21-8	223	3.48	1.16	157	17
J. Santana	2004	MIN (.568)	20-6	228	2.61	0.92	265	28
R. Halladay	2003	TOR (.531)*	22-7	266	3.25	1.07	204	26
B. Zito	2002	OAK (.636)	23-5	229	2.75	1.13	182	17
R. Clemens	2001	NYY (.594)	20-3	220	3.51	1.26	213	21
P. Martinez	2000	BOS (.525)*	18-6	217	1.74	0.74	284	28
P. Martinez	1999	BOS (.580)	23-4	213	2.07	0.92	313	28
R. Clemens	1998	TOR (.543)*	20-6	235	2.65	1.10	271	28
	Average:	.575	20-6	231	2.80	1.04	234

*Team did not reach playoffs

^Out of 28 possible votes

Actually, the only pitcher in the past 10 years to have just 18 wins and a team WP below .530 on a non-playoff team was Pedro Martinez in 2000. The rest of Pedro’s stats were just so ridiculous (217 IP, 1.74 ERA, .92 WHIP, 284 K), that it’s probably more realistic to expect no fewer than 19 wins and for the pitcher to be on a strong playoff contender (I didn’t say it made sense, that’s just what past stats say).

The Field

So besides Mr. Lee and Doc Halladay (more on them later), is anyone else close to meeting the criteria of a CY winner? Ehhh, not so much.

CY Contenders as of 8/22/08

Player	Team (WP)	W-L	IP	ERA	WHIP	K	K/BB
D. Matsuzaka	BOS (.579)	15-2	126.2	2.77	1.37	109	1.42
F. Hernandez	SEA (.368)	7-8	151.0	3.04	1.34	140	2.30
J. Danks	CHW (.576)	10-5	150.3	3.05	1.20	130	2.89
J. Saunders	ANA (.613)	14-5	157.7	3.14	1.19	78	1.70
J. Guthrie	BAL (.480)	10-9	177.0	3.15	1.16	110	2.20
J. Lester	BOS (.579)	12-4	167.7	3.17	1.28	114	2.24
M. Mussina	NYY (.528)	16-7	153.3	3.35	1.20	109	5.19

I initially ranked pitchers by their season ERA, K/9, and VORP on Baseball Prospectus’ stat sorting list, just to figure out a rough list of candidates. Guys like Felix Hernandez, John Danks, Jeremy Guthrie, and Jon Lester looked like stiff competition before their lack of wins and innings pitched were factored in.

I was surprised to see what an excellent season Felix Hernandez is having with a 3.04 ERA and 140 K. If it weren’t for his fragility and the fact that he’s on a terrible, West Coast team, Hernandez’s performance would have garnered him more attention. Lester and Guthrie were two more guys who are having solid seasons, but their lack of strikeouts (112 and 110 respectively) and wins (12 and 10) leaves them out of the CY conversation.

Once you move past the mid-tier pitchers, there are only three starters comparable to Lee and Doc in wins and ERA. Saunders is tempting at first glance, but considering his lack of Ks (78) and name recognition (the average voter would probably be more inclined to vote for John Lackey over Saunders, even though Lackey missed a large chunk of the season) his chances are nil. It’s easy to be overshadowed on a contender like Anaheim when the rest of the rotation is so good (also see Carmona, Fausto; 2007).

I’ve heard various media outlets toss Matsuzaka and Mussina into the CY conversation, which is odd considering neither of them can hang with the frontrunners. Mussina may reach 20 wins thanks to a hefty 5.31 runs of support per start, but even that’s the only category where Moose has a shot. Mussina would have to finish extremely strong in September (not unprecedented, he has a career 2.84 ERA in Sept.), but I don’t think he has the stamina to catch up in any other categories.

As for Matsuzaka, I think his 1.42 K/BB ratio and below-average .264 BAbip speak pretty loudly. Like Mussina, he’s got the wins, the contending team, and the hype, but I bet his ERA ends up closer to 3.77 than 2.77 by the time the season’s over.

The Frontrunners

Barring an epic collapse in their final six starts, Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay seem to be alone in the AL CY race. Both pitchers have impressive resumes this season, but each goes about it in a different way.

Halladay is typically more of a groundball pitcher (57.2 GB%), allowing him to get fast outs, conserve pitches, and go deeper into games. Halladay’s strikeout rates have always been healthy, but he has reached 160 Ks only twice in his career. This makes his current combination of a 7.64 K/9 rate (168 K total) and 53.6% groundball rate particularly impressive.

The last time Halladay combined these two strengths in a healthy season was 2003, the last time he won the Cy Young (204 K, 58.4 GB%).

Lee has traditionally relied on flyball outs with decent strikeout rates, but like Halladay, has greatly improved upon his previous trends. By improving the quality of his pitches and approach, Lee has done a better job of keeping hitters off-balance than in the past. The fact that he can precisely locate his fastball and nasty curveball for a strike has also made hitters more inclined to swing at Lee’s pitch in an attempt to put the ball in play. This refined approach has led to a career high in groundball to flyball outs (1.34 2008, .83 career), thus leading to a career low in homeruns surrendered (.41 HR/9).

Obviously, more strikeouts and groundballs will lead to shorter innings (fewer baserunners, more double plays) and is a big reason why Lee has already matched his career total for complete games this season with three.

Lee vs. Halladay as of 8/22/08

Player	Team (WP)	W-L	IP	ERA	WHIP	K	K/BB
C. Lee	CLE (.460)	18-2	177.7	2.43	1.08	141	5.42
R. Halladay	TOR (.520)	15-9	198.0	2.68	1.04	168	4.94

The two frontrunners seem very close at first glance with Lee holding more wins and Halladay more innings and strikeouts. Lee currently leads the AL in ERA, K/BB ratio (5.42), wins, and win percentage (.900). Halladay is first in the AL in IP and complete games, second in WHIP and strikeouts, and third in K/BB ratio (4.94).

I wouldn’t be surprised if Lee and Halladay stay as close as they are now statistically, which means the two major points of contention will be wins and quality/quantity of innings.

If I had to choose between two similar pitchers, I would tend to go for the guy who will give me more quality innings (in this case, Halladay). First, I’d like to peel back a few more layers before definitively choosing anyone here.

Alternative Stats for Lee vs. Halladay as of 8/22/08

Player	CG	SHO	ERA+	FIP	Lead or Tie Blown	RS per Start	OPP QUAL OPS
C. Lee	3	1	180	2.63	5	5.24	.725
R. Halladay	8	2	158	3.09	2	4.25	.762

If you remove team defense from the equation, Lee has actually pitched much better than Halladay in terms of FIP. Lee posted a 2.63 FIP, despite having the fifth worst team defense in the AL in terms of defensive efficiency (.694). Halladay’s FIP of 3.09 indicates the groundball-heavy pitcher’s stats would be a bit worse if it weren’t for the All Star defense playing behind him. Toronto owns the third best defensive efficiency in the AL at .709.

Lee has also had to dodge bullets from his own bullpen, watching five potential wins go to waste after he left the game. Cleveland’s relief pitching has been the ultimate oxymoron this season with a 5.29 ERA. The fact that Toronto has a sparkling 2.98 bullpen ERA would be more of a factor if it weren’t for the eight games that Halladay finished himself this season. Granted, Lee may have incurred more losses by pitching deeper into games, but if Lee had even two of those decisions back he would already be at 20 wins with six starts to go.

Halladay earns some points by getting a full run less from his offense than Lee per start. Halladay also had to face a slightly tougher collection of hitters this season with a .762 opposition OPS to Lee’s .725. Still, Cleveland’s leaky bullpen closes the gap on the run support argument, in my opinion.

Finally, if you compare each pitcher’s ERA+ (adjusted for ballpark factors and measured against the league average; 100 indicates an average pitcher), Lee is 22 points ahead of Halladay (a sizeable margin). The first thing I thought of to explain this was that Halladay plays in the cavernous Rogers Centre with a superior defense. Odds are, a lot of potential hits are stolen in that ballpark, thus aiding Halladay’s numbers.

Taking into account adjusted stats like FIP and ERA+, it would appear that the quality of Lee’s innings partially negates or surpasses Halladay’s quantity. Combine that with Lee’s lead in the all-important (to the voters anyway) wins and traditional ERA and I think Lee has enough of a buffer from Halladay to take home the CY this year.

Where does K-Rod fit in?

Don’t worry, I didn’t forget about all the buzz surrounding Anaheim’s ace reliever. Personally, I’m not a fan of giving the CY to a closer. The disparity between innings compared to starters and the fact that the save tends to be the main benchmark for evaluating closers (basically a win in reverse, it mostly depends on who’s played before you to set up the opportunity) are my two main points of contention on the matter. The CY has been awarded to a closer 10 times between both leagues though, so it still deserves a look.

K-Rod’s claim to fame in 2008 has been his chase of Bobby Thigpen’s record of 57 saves in a season for the 1990 Chi Sox. Thigpen received just two first-place votes for the CY that year with Dave Stewart, Roger Clemens, and Bob Welch all receiving more votes than him. Since there’s only one record, how do K-Rod’s other stats compare to past CY winners out of the pen?

Past CY Winning Closers vs. Rodriguez Through 8/22/08

Player	Team	Year	W-L	SV	IP	ERA	K	WHIP	1st Place Votes^
F. Rodriguez	LAA	2008	2-2	48	53.3	2.70	58	1.37	N/A
E. Gagne	LAD	2003	2-3	55	82.3	1.20	137	.692	28
D. Eckersley	OAK	1992	7-1	51	80.0	1.91	93	.913	19
M. Davis	SDP	1989	4-3	44	92.7	1.85	92	1.04	19
S. Bedrosian	PHI	1987	5-3	40	89.0	2.83	74	1.20	9
W. Hernandez	DET	1984	9-3	32	140.3	1.92	112	.941	12

While Rodriguez is having a very good season, he’s not even close to the dominance shown by previous CY closers. K-Rod has just allowed more baserunners and runs period, as shown by his ERA and WHIP. Only one of the five previous winners had an ERA above 2.00 and no one had a WHIP above 1.20, while K-Rod currently has both.

If the race between Lee and Halladay comes down to the wire I don’t see many first place votes trickling down to Rodriguez.

All stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, Baseball Prospectus, and FanGraphs.

Finally…

I owe Cliff Lee an apology.

Lee posted a 6.29 ERA in 16 starts before being sent to Buffalo to finish out the remainder of the 2007 season. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Lee didn’t do himself any favors in mocking a booing throng of Jacobs Field fans before exiting from his final start in Cleveland that season. The air of apathy and apparent lack of respect for the fans and his teammates (there was a definite tension between Victor and Cliff back then) caused me to balk at the thought of Lee ever pitching in Cleveland again.

Where was the work ethic and focus that had accompanied Lee in his breakout 2005 season?

Lee ended up digging himself a hole he could not escape in 2007, but looking back on that season, I can’t say I blame him. It’s hard enough to maintain the intense focus and physical abilities needed to pitch at an elite level, but Lee also had to cope with his young son’s illness over the course of the season. I honestly can’t imagine the level of frustration he must have felt as the season wore on. Combine that with a nagging abdominal injury suffered in spring training and the pressure to hold down his spot in the rotation and it’s easy to see why the season snowballed on Cliff.

Sometimes fans get so caught up in the game that they forget the guys on the field have lives to deal with off the field as well; I’m certainly guilty of this at times.

Lee proved all the doubters wrong in 2008, coming into spring training relaxed, healthy, and motivated to win. To come back from such a terrible season, half of which was spent in the minor leagues, and evolve into one of the best pitchers in baseball in less than a year is an amazing achievement. While no one expected Lee to contend for the Cy Young in 2008, I have been especially hard on him. So, proving once again, I really have no idea what I’m talking about half the time.

Congratulations on the turn-around Cliff, you earned it.