Meet the New Boss; Same As the Old Boss

Q. What do you get when you put the worst defense behind the best pitcher?
A. Another Cy Young award.

That, in a nutshell, is Justin Verlander's 2012, another data point in his developing Hall of Fame resume. Prior to the season, I wrote that Roy Halladay remained baseball's best moundsman until he was dethroned. Consider the coup complete.

The Tigers without Verlander don't only fail to win their division or make the playoffs, they struggle to win half their games. Verlander was not only the best pitcher in the American League this year, he led the Majors in innings pitched, which means we was the best, the most, and consequently he rated first in baseball in pitcher value over replacement player. He placed second in the league in ERA despite a no-glove infield, second in WHIP and strikeout-walk ratio, and first in strikeouts, complete games, shutouts and quality starts.

Like the Venus de Milo, the numbers only represent part of the story. Justin Verlander is the unquestioned leader of the Tigers. He wants the ball every fifth day and he considers relief pitching a sign of weakness to be avoided. For the first half of the season, he was Detroit's only reliable arm. He's the best pitcher in the AL once again, and once again it isn't close.

All of which serves to overshadow the wonderful seasons posted by Tampa Bay's David Price (20-5, 2.56 in 211 innings, 25 quality starts and 205 strikeouts); the White Sox's Chris Sale (17-8, 3.05 in his first year as a starter, with 192 strikeouts in 192 innings); Seattle's Felix Hernandez (13-9, 3.06 for an offensively-null team and 223 strikeouts in 232 innings); Anaheim's Jered Weaver (20-5, 2.81 and leading the league in WHIP in 189 innings and 21 quality starts) and Yankee CC Sabathia (15-6, 3.38 in 200 innings of work in an offensive-friendly park).

In particular, it obscures the remarkable accomplishments of Jered Weaver in his still young career. The 6'7" Californian is now 102-52, 3.24 lifetime, and having just turned 30, there's plenty left in that right arm. In seven seasons, he's pitched to ERAs below 3.10 four times, with 20+ quality starts each of the past four seasons. Not viewed as an ace until recently, Weaver has earned his third straight top-5 Cy Young finish this year.

In the next post, I'll tell you whether R.A. Dickey or Clayton Kershaw should win the NL Cy Young award.