Artist at work

Schilling's mound mastery makes him the Cy favorite

Consider two frontline starting pitchers, both of whom are leading candidates for their league's Cy Young Award. We'll call them Skinny and Stout. Each has two starts left this season. Here's how they break down numerically:

Peas in a pod   Skinny  Stout  Wins  23  23  Losses  5  5  ERA  2.40  2.81  Starts  34  33  Strikeouts  326  300  Innings  251  243  BB/9 IP  2.47  1.15  HR allowed  26  25  Opponents’ BA  .211  .216  Opponents’ slugging  .351  .350

Statistically, the duo is nearly indistinguishable. Skinny has the slight edge in ERA and strikeouts. Stout has better control and leads in wins -- the only category that really matters as far as the team is concerned. So who deserves the Cy hardware? "It's like having twin daughters and they are both up for homecoming queen," Diamondbacks manager Bob Brenly said last week. "They are identical, and I love them both. How do you pick? I'm glad I don't have to weigh in on that."

The two are Brenly's boys, though the twin-like resemblance stops at their numbers. Skinny, of course, is Randy Johnson. Stout is Curt Schilling, and for the second straight year Arizona is riding pitching's Odd Couple into October. A year ago at this time we wondered if two aces would be enough to bring a team a world championship. (Schilling and Johnson answered that question by going 9-1 in the postseason; the rest of the staff was 2-5.) This year the Big Two make the Diamondbacks the favorites to represent the National League in the World Series.

But back to the Cy race. Who wins? There haven't been dual winners of the award since 1969, when Detroit's Denny McLain (24-9, 2.80 ERA) and Baltimore's Mike Cuellar (23-11, 2.38) finished 1-2 in wins and split the AL vote. (The closest vote in recent years was in 1998, when Trevor Hoffman got more first-place votes than Tom Glavine but still finished with fewer points than the Atlanta left-hander. Candidates get five points for each first-place vote, three for second place and one for third place.) Granted, there's a clear-cut winner most seasons, but not this year. Still, I'm forcing myself to choose either Skinny or Stout.

If this were Little League and fairness was a factor, Schilling would be the favorite. Johnson, after all, already has four Cy Young trophies, including the last three in the NL. Schilling has never won, and chances are he'll never have a greater season than this one. At age 35 he's set a career high in wins and has a shot at breaking his career high in strikeouts (319). I'm a firm believer that voters should make their choices based solely on one-season samples, that awards shouldn't be handed out as recognition for past achievements. But it's hard to argue that the two-year run Schilling has put together in Arizona doesn't deserve some acknowledgement. His 45 total wins this year and last make him the first pitcher with that many over a two-season stretch since Jim Palmer had 45 in 1975 and '76. No one has done it in the NL since Steve Carlton won 47 in 1971 and '72.

Johnson has some pretty serious historical context on his side as well. He's the first pitcher ever to have five straight 300-strikeout seasons. He's tied with Nolan Ryan for the most 300-strikeout seasons in a career (six), and he accomplished the feat in 15 major league seasons, 12 fewer than Ryan pitched. The Big Unit is now fourth on the all-time K list, behind Ryan, Carlton and Roger Clemens. At age 39, Johnson appears to be as strong and durable as ever.

It's impossible to find a stat to differentiate the Diamondbacks teammates. In eight starts after an Arizona loss Schilling is 6-1; Johnson is 12-1 in 18 such outings. They've been equally brilliant in key games against divisional opponents: Schilling is 11-1 against the NL West, Johnson is 9-3. Johnson and Schilling are the first pair of teammates to have back-to-back 20-win seasons in the NL since Warren Spahn and Lew Burdette of the Milwaukee Braves back in 1958 and '59. They're inseparable in the record books and, seemingly, in the Cy Young race. But I have to go with Schilling as my winner.

Why? For lack of a better term, it's the artistry Schilling has demonstrated this year. I never saw Koufax or Ford or Gibson pitch, but I have a hunch that no one has ever mastered the art of pitching better than Schilling has this season. Not that Johnson isn't masterful and a mound savant as well, and not that Schilling doesn't often simply blow hitters away with his 95-mph heat. But Schilling, with his well-documented laptop work in the clubhouse and spiral notebook doodlings in the dugout, is the most prepared pitcher in the game today. You get the sense he could outline every pitch he'll throw in a game before he gets to the mound. That preparation -- along with a blur of a fastball, a devastating splitter and pinpoint command -- make Schilling this year's most dominant starter. There's something special about watching a player take his ability and his craft to their apogee, and it deserves Cy recognition.

Sports Illustrated staff writer Stephen Cannella covers the baseball beat for the magazine. Touching Base appears every week on CNNSI.com.

 

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