Major League Baseball's awards season is the annual duel between the crotchety old timer talent evaluators and the new school saber-metrics geeks. The discussions over the deserving players become a Branch Rickey vs Billy Beane debate: Win-Loss Record vs WHIP, RBI's vs VORP, cigars vs graphing calculators. Baseball analysis has always been Dungeons and Dragons type pursuit. Replace ERA with Strength, VORP with Magic, and Innings Pitched with Hit Points and the Bill James congregation can roll dice in their mom's basement for a full 162 game schedule.   The numbers portion of our national pastime has a cherished place in American history.  But can algebraic formulas really tell you which pitcher was consistently the most dominant over the course of a season?

Zach Greinke was awarded the 2009 American League Cy Young and immediately his win-loss record and the quality of his team were called into question. As if pitching for the Royals should be considered a benefit instead of a detriment. If the Cy Young really represents “the best pitcher in the league” and not  “the best pitcher on the best team”,  then Greinke should receive bonus votes for having to suffer Kansas City's frequent waste of his quality starts. Because of the Royals offensive ineptitude, his won-loss record was low for a Cy Young winner. However the National League winner, Tim Lincecum, had less wins on a team that was in post-season contention during September. Luckily for Lincecum his lacking in the Strength category was more than made up for with a high Magic count, and probably a nifty wizard cap that added +2 K when rolling a 7.

What was significant about Greinke's win was the lopsidedness of the voting. Greinke had 23 more first place votes than his closest competition, while Lincecum didn't even have the most first place votes in his league. The Giants' ace led the league in strikeouts and opponents batting average; Adam Wainwright led the league in wins and innings pitched; while Chris Carpenter led in ERA, WHIP and winning percentage. The NL race was easily down to three almost equal candidates a Wizard, a Warrior, and some type of Bionic Commando.  However, two baseball writers with the most advanced graphing calculators and 12 sided die, Keith Law and Will Carroll, left him off their ballots all together.  Clearly Carpenter's Level 24 Axe Wielding and Charisma could not make up for his lack of innings. Although closers like Dennis Eckersley, Eric Gagne, and Mark Davis have previously won the award while throwing a fraction of Carpenter's total.

Greinke's victory was due to his 2.16 ERA , 1.07 WHIP and -5 Pitch Tipping, which are astounding for a pitcher who faces a DH every time through the lineup. Every one of the other American League candidates: Halladay, Hernandez, Verlander, and Sabathia, had more wins and more innings pitched than Greinke. Verlander led the league in strikeouts, Hernandez had the best Won-Loss percentage, and Halladay led in shutouts and complete games. Does this represent along overdue victory for the pocket protector crowd? Or is it merely a brief reprieve for a group used to getting it's lunch money taken every November?  Either way it seems much the way that Bob Dylan warned, the times they are a changing.  Perhaps in the next few seasons we'll start seeing players begin to wear Ricky Vaughan glasses in order to connect with the Harry Potter fans who cast the votes for their awards.  Or perhaps this is merely another phase of our National Pastime: The Dead Ball Era, The War Era, The Steroid Era, and the D&D Era.