Pardon the interruption, Pardon the Interruption

One of my favorite shows/podcasts is the ESPN warhorse, Pardon the Interruption. I’ve been a fan of Tony Kornheiser for decades (boy, does that make me sound old). And because of that, I tolerate Michael Wilbon. And out of loyalty, I hardly ever pay attention when they have guest hosts (especially Dan Le Batard).

Thanks to DVR, I can zip through the segments that don’t interest me. The ones that do are those which primarily deal with baseball or Jewish athletes. Yesterday’s show featured a segment on the topic of whether the Mets’ Jacob DeGrom should be considered for the Cy Young Award. Wilbon — ever the crusty “get off my lawn” type — firmly disagreed, saying that his paltry won-loss record was not worth of the honor while sub host Frank Isola tried to advocate for the hard luck pitcher, pointing to his Major league-leading ERA and high strikeout total. Not good enough, according to Wilbon. He went of on a rant about the old-time pitchers (relatively speaking) like Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver, and Ferguson Jenkins who completed a high percentage of their games. I could counter that it’s not the modern-day hurlers who are begging to come out, but the nature of baseball these days. They have no control (figuratively (usually)) over how many innings they pitch. How often does the media complain when Clayton Kershaw is doing well after eight innings, only to be lifted in the ninth and have the bullpen blow the game?

I’m about Wilbon’s age, but after having read Keith Law’s Smart Baseball: The Story Behind the Old Stats That Are Ruining the Game, the New Ones That Are Running It, and the Right Way to Think About Baseball, I have to admit my philosophy has been altered from the days when I took every stat on the back of a baseball card as the final authority.

When it comes to wins, Law — a senior baseball writer for ESPN Insider, among other things — writes

…the idea of a single player earning full credit for a win or blame for a loss exposes a deep ignorance of how the game actually plays out on the field.

Later in the chapter (“Pitcher Wins: One Guy Gets the Credit for Everyone Else’s Work”), Law notes

[A]wareness of the worthlessness of won-lost records has permeated front office and started to leak out into media coverage of baseball, but the mentality that a starting pitcher’s job is to win the game still exists among fans, players, and even coaches.

Including Michael Wilbon.

On the other hand, Law also writes that ERA isn’t a good indicator either because a lot hinges on the foibles of the (possibly biased) official scorer who has the power to decide if something is a hit or an error which, in turn, has an impact on whether a run is earned or unearned. Again, out of the pitcher’s control.

Regardless, DeGrom is having an outstanding season. It’s not his fault that his team isn’t scoring runs (in a couple of games, DeGrom was the sole source of run production). But that’s not good enough for Wilbon who believes you just have to be that much better to hold the opposition down.

Haven’t quite finished Smart Baseball yet, but highly recommend it. If you have an open mind, you can certainly learn a lot.