White Sox 2005 Rewind: Bartolo Colon shouldn't have won the '05 Cy Young

Share

Times change, don’t they?

The White Sox faced off against former mate Bartolo Colon and his Los Angeles Angels on May 24, 2005, and he turned in the kind of performance that propelled him to that year’s AL Cy Young Award. He allowed just one run on three hits, silencing the White Sox bats long enough that they needed an 11th-inning RBI double from Tadahito Iguchi to win the game by a narrow 2-1 score.

But back to Colon, who pitched for the South Siders in 2003 and again in 2009. He was voted the Junior Circuit’s top pitcher when the 2005 regular season came to a close, but here’s a question: Would he still win that vote if it was held today?

Priorities change when it comes to evaluating players, whether that evaluation is being done by front offices, writers voting on end-of-season awards or fans watching on TV. On the offensive side of things, the value of on-base percentage has skyrocketed as the general baseball rule that a walk’s as good as a hit has come into greater acceptance. On the pitching side, folks have realized that wins aren’t quite as impressive as they used to be, what with so many other factors out of the pitcher’s control determining his record.

Well, it appears that even as recently as 15 years ago, folks still held wins in very high esteem. Colon won 21 games in 2005 and lost just eight times. But let’s compare his numbers — and not even advanced stats, just other commonly understood ones like ERA and strikeouts — with the guy who finished two places below him in the vote: Johan Santana.

Colon: 21-8, 3.48 ERA, 157 strikeouts

Santana: 16-7, 2.87 ERA, 238 strikeouts

Santana is obviously familiar to White Sox fans as a longtime tormenter with the division-rival Minnesota Twins. By today’s standards, those numbers he put up in 2005 — including in five starts against the eventual world-champion White Sox, who lost all five times — are clearly significantly better than Colon’s. Colon won just five more games with a significantly higher ERA and way fewer strikeouts. Santana even threw nine more innings. But those five wins were enough for Colon to receive 17 first-place votes, compared to just three for Santana, who won the award the year prior and the year after.

It should’ve been a three-peat.

Even Mark Buehrle, who went up against Colon on this night in May and twirled an even more impressive gem with nine innings of one-run ball, arguably had a better season than Colon. Buehrle finished fifth in the 2005 AL Cy Young vote and received zero first-place votes. He had a lower ERA (3.12) than Colon, threw 14 more innings and gave up just 20 home runs compared to the 26 Colon allowed.

A similar phenomenon occurred in the National League. Chris Carpenter had a terrific year for the St. Louis Cardinals, don’t get me wrong. But take a look at his numbers compared with those of Roger Clemens, who the White Sox saw in the World Series.

Carpenter: 21-5, 2.83 ERA, 213 strikeouts

Clemens: 13-8, 1.87 ERA, 185 strikeouts

The difference there perhaps isn’t as great as it is between Colon and Santana, but Carpenter still crushed Clemens in first-place votes, with Carpenter getting 19 and Clemens only getting two.

Both third-place finishers probably would have won the awards in 2020. (Sorry to not mention the second-place finishers to this point, Mariano Rivera in the AL and Dontrelle Willis in the NL.) And while it’s easy to spot the differences in the game when watching these #SoxRewind games, there were plenty of differences in the way people thought off the field, as well.

So Buehrle for retroactive 2005 AL Cy Young? Certainly watching him go nine in this one was a convincing argument. But even when looking at the whole picture, he was better that season than the supposed best pitcher in the American League.

What else?

— More on Buehrle, who just to reiterate went nine innings in this game and only gave up one run, a nice foreshadowing of the complete-game effort he had against these same Angels in Game 2 of the ALCS in October. Of course, he didn’t get a complete game in this one because it spun into extra innings. Still, it was one of his four regular-season outings that lasted at least nine innings.

— Iguchi got clutch.

— What a busy top of the ninth for Scott Podsednik as the White Sox wasted a huge opportunity to break that 1-all tie before extra innings came along. Pods walked to lead off the inning and went to second on an Iguchi bunt. He made it to third still with only one out when Scot Shields threw a pickoff attempt into center field. But the Angels played things perfectly by drawing the infield in and throwing Podsednik out at home when Aaron Rowand bounced a ball to the shortstop.

— The Angels had their own prime opportunity in the bottom of the ninth, with Buehrle walking Chone Figgins to lead off the inning. Figgins, like Podsednik, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. The White Sox opted to follow that with an intentional walk of future teammate Orlando Cabrera. 2003 Home Run Derby champion Garrett Anderson then helped bail Buehrle out by popping up the first pitch he saw, then Paul Konerko made a nearly inexplicable play to end the inning, knocking down a hard-hit ball off the bat of Juan Riveria that got away from him and somehow feeding Buehrle for the out. Talk about drama. Buehrle and the White Sox escaped a walk-off defeat.

Since you been gone

While #SoxRewind is extensive, it doesn’t include all 162 regular-season contests, meaning we’re going to be skipping over some games. So what’d we miss since last time?

May 18, 2005: Konerko had three hits, including a home run, and Buehrle threw 7.1 shutout innings as the White Sox pasted the Rangers. White Sox win, 7-0, improve to 29-12.

May 20, 2005: Crosstown, baby! The White Sox got home runs from Jermaine Dye and Joe Crede to back seven innings and no earned runs from Freddy Garcia. White Sox win, 5-1, improve to 30-12.

May 21, 2005: The White Sox trailed the Cubs, 1-0, heading to the eighth inning but exploded for four runs against the North Side bullpen. Konerko and Carl Everett came through with two-run hits in that frame. White Sox win, 5-3, improve to 31-12.

May 22, 2005: Brandon McCarthy made his major league debut and performed well, with Jason Dubois’ game-deciding three-run homer coming after McCarthy departed in the sixth. Mark Prior threw a complete game for the Cubs but gave up three solo homers to Iguchi, Konerko, and Dye. White Sox lose, 4-3, fall to 31-13.

May 23, 2005: The White Sox were shut out by Ervin Santana, getting just five hits. Had Santana pitched more like that 14 years later, his White Sox tenure would have lasted longer than just three starts. White Sox lose, 4-0, fall to 31-14.

Next up

#SoxRewind rolls on Saturday, when you can catch the May 25, 2005, game against the Angels, starting at 4 p.m. on NBC Sports Chicago. The White Sox get all their runs on homers by Konerko and Chris Widger, and Garcia throws a gem.

[embed]

[embed]Click here to download the new MyTeams App by NBC Sports! Receive comprehensive coverage of your teams and stream the White Sox easily on your device.

Contact Us