Friday, September 09, 2005

Carpenter or Clemens?

Anyone else sick and tired of hearing about this? I guess I wouldn't be if I didn't have to read Jayson Stark's column & others that basically blame Carpenter for winning 21 games thus far. They want to put him in jail for getting run support when he pitches. First of all, Stark is a friggin idiot. For those of you who don't know, he's the leader of the "I wouldn't vote Palmerio in on the 1st ballot, I'd make him wait until the 2nd" bandwagon, which makes quite a statement now doesn't it? Anyway, he and several others have basically proposed that major league baseball retire Clemens jersey numbers (21, 12, & 22) league-wide and mandate that every major league stadium put up a statue of him in order to keep their major league team. Ok, I'm going overboard here, but I can't take it anymore. So I'm venting. Here's my take...
Clemens has had an unbelievable year. His numbers are off the charts good in regards to how well he's pitched. BUT, so has Carpenter. In fact, I'd probably agree with Stark and his cohorts if Carpenter's ERA wasn't 2.21. It's not like Carpenter is Bob Welch. Not only is Carpenter's ERA 2nd in the league to Clemens, but he also leads the league in wins, complete games, & innings pitched. And in addition to his ERA, he's also 2nd in the league in strikeouts and shutouts. Oh yea, he's had 26 quality starts in 28 total starts. In fact, if you throw out his worst outing (his 2nd start of the year against the Phillies--the same day Tiger made his chip on #16 at the Masters-I don't know why I remember these things, but I do) his ERA drops to 1.91.
I could go on and on, but I won't. I just feel someone needs to go to bat for Carp. He's had the 2nd best summer a pitcher has ever had in Busch Stadium and it'd be a shame if Jayson Stark held the deciding vote on who gets the Cy Young.

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