Yesterday's Lineup Card featured nine fictitious awards that we'd like to see given to players for their efforts in areas not formally recognized. One such award was the Jeff Ballard Award, which honors “the most effective pitcher who can't strike out batters.”
We named this year's winner, and introduced two voting factions–the Effectivists (who favor good pitching to lack of strikeouts) and the Punchlessies (who lean toward lack of strikeouts). But because everything needs a historical context, here is the complete list of Jeff Ballard Award winners, as determined by yours truly (an Effectivist):
|
Year |
Player |
K/9 |
W-L |
||||
|
1989 |
Jeff Ballard |
215.1 |
3.43 |
2.6 |
18-8 |
4.09 |
1.7 |
|
1990 |
227.2 |
3.80 |
3.9 |
15-9 |
4.06 |
3.2 |
|
|
1991 |
226.1 |
3.90 |
3.6 |
20-9 |
4.01 |
2.4 |
|
|
1992 |
233.0 |
2.16 |
3.5 |
16-5 |
3.13 |
1.3 |
|
|
1993 |
239.1 |
3.20 |
4.5 |
22-6 |
3.99 |
2.5 |
|
|
1994 |
170.2 |
3.43 |
3.0 |
10-9 |
4.67 |
0.8 |
|
|
1995 |
213.1 |
3.75 |
3.4 |
12-14 |
4.62 |
0.9 |
|
|
1996 |
238.2 |
3.92 |
4.3 |
15-11 |
4.76 |
2.6 |
|
|
1997 |
208.1 |
2.89 |
4.9 |
13-9 |
3.69 |
2.6 |
|
|
1998 |
241.0 |
3.59 |
4.8 |
11-14 |
3.96 |
2.3 |
|
|
1999 |
205.2 |
4.16 |
3.7 |
15-11 |
4.81 |
0.5 |
|
|
2000 |
184.0 |
3.96 |
3.5 |
11-9 |
4.95 |
2.1 |
|
|
2001 |
233.2 |
3.16 |
4.7 |
17-13 |
4.32 |
1.8 |
|
|
2002 |
Kirk Rueter |
203.2 |
3.23 |
3.4 |
14-8 |
4.35 |
1.6 |
|
2003 |
73.0 |
1.48 |
4.0 |
2-4 |
3.85 |
0.7 |
|
|
197.2 |
3.78 |
4.0 |
14-11 |
4.70 |
0.8 |
||
|
2004 |
207.2 |
4.20 |
4.3 |
14-10 |
4.21 |
1.6 |
|
|
2005 |
195.1 |
3.46 |
4.0 |
14-8 |
4.10 |
2.7 |
|
|
2006 |
218.0 |
3.63 |
3.1 |
19-6 |
3.95 |
1.2 |
|
|
2007 |
166.0 |
4.12 |
3.3 |
8-7 |
4.52 |
1.7 |
|
|
Chien-Ming Wang |
199.1 |
3.70 |
4.7 |
19-7 |
3.86 |
1.7 |
|
|
2008 |
Aaron Cook |
211.1 |
3.96 |
4.1 |
16-9 |
3.73 |
2.5 |
|
2009 |
213.1 |
3.84 |
4.4 |
13-10 |
4.51 |
1.7 |
|
|
2010 |
Mark Buehrle |
210.1 |
4.28 |
4.2 |
13-13 |
3.87 |
2.8 |
|
2011 |
Mark Buehrle |
205.1 |
3.59 |
4.8 |
13-9 |
4.02 |
2.1 |
|
2012 |
160.2 |
3.64 |
4.8 |
12-8 |
3.91 |
0.4 |
The beauty of awards–aside from their questionable inherent meaning–is that in determining who is the winner, you follow a process. And that process can lead to fascinating questions: Why Browning over Greg Hibbard in 1990? Why not Hipolito Pichardo in 1993? Or Roger Bailey in 1997? Carl Pavano in 2010? Why did I soften my stance on the great Hasegawa/Anderson debate of 2003?
It never ends. Perhaps you have other ideas?
Thank you for reading
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