Anyhow, hit the jump for baseball number goodness.

5/16

Oliver Perez: 27 K, 28 BB, $12 million. Carl Pavano: 34 K, 7 BB, $7 million.

I ripped Pavano as much as anyone for the shit he pulled with the Yankees, but he has been legitimately good this year (outside of his last start after this post, naturally). Perez’s contract was, is, and will forever be terrible.

5/18 (belated 5/17)

Brett Gardner: 17 SB, 1 CS. Baltimore Orioles: 9 SB, 10 CS.

This is me just making sure everyone knows how awesome of a base stealer Gardner is. He’s really, really awesome. At this point, he has taken away the title of “New York’s Most Exciting Player” away from Reyes. Shit, Angel Pagan is his closest competition at the moment, not Reyes.

5/18

Pedro, 1997-2003: 1408 IP, .940 WHIP, 213 ERA+. Koufax, 1962-66: 1377 IP, .926 WHIP, 167 ERA+.

I’m going to whip out FIP here. Pedro over his years: 2.39, 3.40, 1.39 (!), 2.17, 1.61, 2.24, 2.21. Koufax over his years: 2.54, 1.88, 1.74, 2.04, 1.73. Basically, other than the 3.40 in 1998, Pedro was as amazing a pitcher as Koufax was. Only Pedro pitched in one of the highest-scoring eras in baseball history. In Fenway Park. In the AL East. Koufax pitched in the greatest pitching era since the dead-ball era in Dodger Stadium. This is what accounts for the MASSIVE discrepancy in ERA+. In case you don’t know, that 213 ERA+ means Pedro was 113% better than the average pitcher (67% for Koufax).

I just want to get across that Pedro Martinez was better than Sandy Koufax. But the old people that still think otherwise don’t read this blog, unfortunately.

5/19

No-hitters by people with one hand: 1. No-hitters by New York Mets: 0.

Jim Abbott > Tom Seaver.

5/21

Ubaldo Jimenez: 8-1, 0.99 ERA, 58 K. Zack Greinke, 2009, thru 9 starts: 7-1, 0.82 ERA, 73 K.

I remember many people saying Greinke had already locked up the AL Cy Young at this point last year, but considering the way Roy Halladay is pitching (and his team), Jimenez has some work left ahead of him.

5/21

Pedro Martinez, 2000: 1.74 ERA. Roger Clemens, 2000, 2nd in AL: 3.70 ERA.

Almost a full 2-run difference. That season Pedro’s ERA+ was 291. In closing, Pedro Martinez in his prime was the greatest pitcher baseball has ever seen.

I know I asked the general question, and I still would take Lincecum over him, but I figure Zack Greinke deserved a post. He’s been the best pitcher in baseball this season, and he SHOULD win the AL Cy Young in a landslide, but somehow the sportswriters will figure out a way to be total retards and vote for C.C. Sabathia or Justin Verlander. WINS!!!

I can throw out some stats with Baseball-Reference’s new embedding feature!

Only 13 wins?!?! He obviously doesn’t elevate the team around him! Not good enough! He doesn’t pitch to the score! He’s not deserving of the Cy Young, even though he leads the league in ERA, shutouts, and WHIP. And also FIP, but let’s not bring “made-up” statistics into this. But really, his ERA+ is 200. Holy fuck.

I was about to make this into a Cy Young argument post, complete with stats of other candidates, but I think such work can be left until the season is actually over. I just wanted to give Greinke some props. I don’t think the results on my poll are necessarily wrong, because Lincecum has been the best pitcher in the NL for two straight years (and I picked him too), and Halladay has been so consistently great for years in the toughest division in baseball — but Greinke seems to be somewhat forgotten.

Or maybe people just figure he’ll lose his mind again next year.