The point is in 2003 it was a down year for starting pitching and no one had a fantastic season. Scmidt and Prior were good but neither pitched well enough to deserve the Cy Young in an average year. I am not sure how the starting pitching was in those other years - but with guys like Fingers, Lyle, and Marshall winning it with less then 30 saves I'm sure they must have had a starting role at one time or another OR the pitching those years really was horrific.
Marshall pitched 208 innings in 106 games (all in relief) in 1974. Lyle pitched 137 innings in 72 games (all in relief) in 1977. Fingers pitched 78 innings in 47 games (all in relief) in 1981. That was a strike-shortened season and the Brewers only played 109 games. In those seasons closers usually worked more than one inning. Then Tony LaRussa changed all that in the late 1980s. The interesting ones to examine are Davis in '89 and Bedrosian in '87. Bedrosian had a high ERA for a closer- 2.83. Other NL pitchers with good seasons in 1987: Dwight Gooden, 15-7, 3.21 ERA Rick Sutcliffe, 18-10, 3.68 Mike Dunne, 13-6, 3.03 Todd Worrell, 8-6, 33 saves, 2.66 John Franco, 8-5, 32 saves, 2.52 Mike Scott, 16-13, 3.23 Other NL pitchers with good seasons in 1989: Greg Maddux, 19-12, 2.95 Mike Bielecki, 18-7, 3.14 Joe Magrane, 18-9, 2.91 Dennis Martinez, 16-7, 3.18 Rick Reuschel, 17-8, 2.94 Mike Scott, 20-10, 3.10
I was only making a prediction and I wanted to make a unique one. I hadn't seen anyone anywhere predict a reliever for a 2006 Cy Young Award and I figured Wagner has a shot. What the heck, there's no money involved here. I didn't expect to have to defend the prediction, but what the heck I dropped some historical stuff here (which I like to do anyway), so it was okay.
My over/under picks and those of my opponent, which were made April 1: He took the: Mets under 91.5 Indians over 89.5 White Sox over 91.5 Angels over 88.5 Giants under 83.5 Astros over 82.5 I took the: Brewers over 80.5 Dodgers under 85.5 Cardinals over 92.5 A's under 89.5 Tigers over 78.5 Rangers over 81.5
ALE ALC ALW NLE NLC NLW ALWC NLWC NYY CHIW ANA ATL STL COLO BOS NYM BOS CLE OAK NYM HOU AZ TOR MINN TEX WASH CHIC LAD BAL DET SEA PHILLY CINN SD TB K.C FLA MIL PITT ALDS NYY OVER CHW BOS OVER ANA NLDS NYM over COLO STL OVER ATL ALCS NYY OVER BOS NLCS STL OVER NYM WS NYY OVER STL in 7
I really overshot that one. And the Delmon Young one. Fortunately, the only thing I actually have action on is my over/unders and they are looking real nice right now: Brewers over 80.5 Dodgers under 85.5 Cardinals over 92.5 A's under 89.5 Tigers over 78.5 Rangers over 81.5
It's pretty funny how nobody even picked the Tigers like 3rd place in the division, and they made is to the World Series and have a good chance of winning.
