We’ve come a long way from Zoilo Versalles.

Zoilo, of course, was the gritty (oh, wait, Zoilo doesn’t quite fit the characteristics of a “gritty” player.  Let’s go with “fiery” instead) shortstop on the 1965 Minnesota Twins who managed to win the MVP Award while hitting .273/.319/.462.  It wasn’t too long ago that a shortstop could lock up the MVP award by having a decent year at the plate coupled with a Gold Glove, even when there are players who contributed more to their team’s success.

But, we don’t need to go all the way back to 1965 to find these questionable award recipients, do we?

1983: LaMarr Hoyt of the Chicago White Sox wins the Cy Young Award over Toronto’s Dave Stieb, who pitched more innings and had a higher ERA+ by over 30 points.  But, LaMarr had TWENTY FOUR WINS, he knew how to win ballgames, simple as that I tells ya!  When Hoyt steps up on that mound, he just channels Iron Joe McGinnity, he just knows how to scatter runs around the board.  He wills his team to victory!

1987: Steve Bedrosian of the Philadephia Phillies wins the Cy Young Award while throwing only 89 innings.  But, no pitcher in the league won 20 games, which means that pitchers simply did not know how to win.  Steve had FOURTY SAVES, the magic number, and he had a stereotypical 1980’s closer beard, thick and brambly, just like Bruce Sutter and Jeff Reardon and a slew of other guys who were too shitty to be starters!

1991: Terry Pendleton of the Atlanta Braves wins the MVP award over Barry Bonds (the skinny, 5-tool version of Barry), Ryne Sandberg, and about 10 other more deserving candidates.  But, the Hot-Lanta Braves went WORST TO FIRST, BABY!  They are a relevant story again, selling hats and jerseys by the truckload, so we need to have someone from this team win the MVP.  It might as well be the guy with the highest batting average!

There are other examples, such as Barry Zito, and as recently as 2 years ago, Jimmy Rollins.

So, you could imagine my surprise when I agreed with all four Cy Young And MVP winners this year.  The Cy Young recipients both made history for having the lowest win totals for a starting pitcher honoree in their respective leagues.  Joe Mauer won the MVP over a big market shortstop with “intangibles” and overrated defensive skills.  Albuert Pujols was a softball, but his coronation capped off an impressive 4 for 4 run for the Baseball Writers Association of America.

We can only come to one conclusion here.  The BBWAA is…learning.  Like Johnny Five from Short Circuit, they are absorbing the data made available to them, using it to make prudent and logical decisions.

Fascinating.

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