The selection of Bartolo Colon as the 2005 AL Cy Young is the clearest indication yet that the mainstream media is out of touch with the revolution fomenting in baseball today. Colon was a fine pitcher in 2005, but the choice of Colon over Johan Santana - or Mariano Rivera, or Kevin Millwood, or Mark Buehrle - is indefensible. This isn't a case of Old School Neanderthals versus Stat Wonk Futurists, to borrow a phrase from Paul Oberjuerge. I'm not asking them to use Win Shares or put a Baseball Prospectus subscription on their company account. When the league leader in wins takes the award running away but the league ERA leader garners a single third place vote - when a pitcher with 18 wins and a 3.79 ERA gets more support than a pitcher with 16 wins and a 3.12 ERA - it tells me that the voters didn't even take five minutes to fill out their ballots.
The same cabal that robbed Randy Johnson last year and Johan Santana this year is the one that shelters and protects the Bill Plaschkes of the world. Stupid, smug, pat idiocy masquerading as analysis, flying in the face of logic, and insulting baseball fans across the nation. There's a reason that I pay more attention to the Internet Baseball Awards than I do to the BBWAA and MLB awards. Amateurs and enthusiasts will always do the job better than journalists getting fat on their tenure.