Title Page Introduction 1890-1916 1917-1943 1944-1970 1971-1997 1998-2011  (Plus Multiple Winners Table) National League Data American League Data Comparative Analysis Saint Louis, MISSOURI -- Four years of painstaking solo research, trial and error, gathering data, punching numbers, and formatting graphics has finally come to an end. The bow has been tied on the package, known only to me as the Walter Johnson Awards . The "Big Train" should have his name on the trophy; he was the league's best pitcher in more seasons than anyone. Trouble is, Johnson died 66 years before anyone could hand him that distinction. If you haven't been following along with my blog, Pitcher Rating is my baby. It is an oft-tinkered with, secret Excel formula that will stay with me to my grave (or until someone wants to pay me millions to see it). It has ten variables that were repeatedly checked and double checked against a sample size that filled my notebooks. Needless to say...

W. Ross Clites Your City Sports-Cleveland Saint Louis, MISSOURI--The rosters have been set for the 2011 Major League Baseball All-Star Game next week in Arizona. Yet again, it appears that the managers who make the tough decisions need some serious help. These guys obviously make it more difficult than it needs to be, by not to relying on objective data. They do not have the time to watch every single pitcher around the league, keeping tabs on their nightly performances. This year's scapegoats are San Francisco skipper, Bruce Bochy, and Texas' Ron Washington. For appearing in the 2010 World Series their prize will be a handful of angry colleagues from the teams in their respective league, a few scorned players, as well as thousands of fans of said scorned player. The solution is quite simple: give people parameters/rules of the game and the complaints magically dissipate. If Major League Baseball would simply adopt a minimum criteria a player must meet for selection, the ...

W. Ross Clites Your City Sports-Cleveland Saint Louis, MISSOURI--Roy Halladay became the odds-on favorite to win the 2010 National League Cy Young Award when he signed with the Phillies last December. Switching to the Senior Circuit, where the opposing pitcher would only add to his strikeout total, made him an enticing pick. Most experts had him as the winner. Few expected him to win it quite like this. Many, myself included, gave up on his chances early. Nothing seemed to go smoothly for the Phillies or Halladay. He took several tough-luck losses in quick succession and his walk total began to mount, uncharacteristically. By the end of July, Halladay already had a number eight hanging in his loss column. This was more defeats than he usually has in an entire season; Halladay had only nine losses in 2005 and 2006 combined. His struggles were only part of the reason he appeared to be a long-shot by the All-Star Break. The other piece of the equation was a certain ace in Colorado named U...

W. Ross Clites Your City Sports-Cleveland You have to go back to 2003 to find the last National League Rookie of the Year Award that was handed out to a pitcher. Jaime Garcia is doing everything in his power to end the six-year drought. His Sunday outing, a complete-game 9-0 victory against the Giants, brought his name back into the RoY discussion. 2010 was supposed to be the year of Steven Strasburg and Aroldis Chapman. Yet these two prodigies have combined for just twelve Major League starts and two trips to the Disabled List (all statistics accumulated by Strasburg alone). In effect, the RoY predictions of baseball insiders were looking towards the wrong horizon for the next great National League pitcher. The incredible start of a 24 year-old Cardinal caught the entire Major Leagues off-guard--including the St. Louis organization. Unfortunately for Garcia, there was one position player on everyone’s radar in Spring Training that has panned out. The Braves' Jason Heyward burst on...

W. Ross Clites Your City Sports-Cleveland Saint Louis, MISSOURI--Are we that naïve to believe that a confession of “past” usage in a press conference or 60 Minutes segment signifies that the player is currently clean? This country is too quick to forgive. If someone says “I’m sorry, I did it” the smoke screen goes up for that player to go right back to cheating. You think Jason Giambi is not back to using some type of performance-enhancer? Do you think Alex Rodriguez has ever stopped using? Short of an angel on their shoulder, there is nothing in place for them to change. What needs to be put into perspective is the behavior that drives these people to cheat. We are talking about people that have very limited roles in society after baseball. Professional athletes have a small window of relevance. Their careers are essentially a cash grab; stockpiling as much fame, notoriety, and millions--like a squirrel nearing winter--to hopefully last for decades to come. If some drug-assisted recor...