Who says fans don’t care about awards. Keith Law and Will Carroll became the latest targets for irate baseball fans as they were roundly criticized for leaving Cardinals pitcher Chris Carpenter off their Cy Young Ballot. Carroll voted for Adam Wainwright and Law for Tim Lincecum. After reading Carroll’s rationale at Baseball Prospectus it appears he used a more traditional method of making his picks. Law relied more on advanced statistics citing WAR, FIP, and VORP. Since leaving Carpenter out of the top three is unpopular this naturally led to the debate of advanced statistics and whether allowing the BBWAA to vote is the right process.

Of course the outcry reached the usual hysteria that accompanies an unpopular stance. Carroll tweeted that he received “400 hate emails” in the matter of a day.  WFAN’s Joe Benigno, who didn’t know who either Carroll or Law was before Friday’s show, took the opportunity to make fun of anyone who uses advanced statistics. “Joey Boombotz” basically said anyone who uses stats lives in their mother’s basement and works at Burger King. This was as stereotypical as me stating that Benigno fits people for cement shoes in his spare time. Once again we see people personally attack individuals for voting on an award based on their personal preference. Since there are no clear guidelines for the Cy Young no one can criticize the duo for their selections. It’s as ludicrous as mocking someone for believing Mark Teixeira should be AL MVP.

You never will get a perfect awards vote because the process is set up to be interpreted by each individual. The only alternative is to create a standard formula and allow the computer to pick the winner. Again, since there is no clear criteria, that is an unrealistic option. People must stop acting as if the Hall of Fame and postseason awards have a logical “if/then” scenario that must be followed. It’s pretentious to think there is only one way to look at something just like it’s equally pretentious to think SABR should only be voting on awards.

We should be applauding the diversity of the voting process instead of trying to fight for our individual preferred method of thinking. You can disagree with how Carroll and Law voted, but you can’t say they got it wrong. Remember, right and wrong is in the eye of the voter.

Tags: Adam Wainwright, Baseball Prospectus, Chris Carpenter, ESPN, Keith Law, NL Cy Young Award, St Louis Cardinals, Tim Lincecum, Will Carroll