Give Sale Some Respect

Chris Sale, the ace of one a team that is still flirting with the regular season wins record in late August, has now been a dominant force in the majors for nearly nine years. Since coming up with the White Sox in 2010, he has never had n ERA higher than 3.46 and never had a k/9 lower than 9.0. Yes, you read that right. Sale has never finished a season where he did not strike out at least one hitter an inning. That level of swing and miss stuff has literally never been seen before. If he retired today, he would with the highest K/9 rate of all time. Seriously. The most surprising thing about Sale, however, is that he still has never won a Cy Young award.

Sale has always been a fixture of curiosity for me. His weird side-arm deliver that somehow manages to push 97-100 regularly has always baffled me. The science of his pitching mechanics do not seem to make any sense. Because of that, hitters never really look comfortable at the plate. He manages to mix his devastating fastball with a. wipeout slider that probably ranks among the best in the history of the game. The craziest thing is, despite his velocity, Sale has never had a control problem. He allows only 2.1 walks per nine in his whole career, and his K/BB ratio currently is the best of all time. It almost isn't fair when you realize how good the guy really is. I could probably write another 20 pages about my fascination with Sale, but for simplicity I will leave it at this; the dude can PITCH. 

As good as I believe he is, the voters do not seem to agree. Sure, he's a 7 time all-star and in those years never finished lower than 6th in the Cy Young. However, even with those impressive accolades, his career is still undergoing a severe injustice. He has never won a Cy Young award. The man who has the most efficient strike-out statistics of all time has never won pitching's highest honor. I simply cannot wrap my head around it. He always come close, but the writers seem to refuse to put him higher than the number 2 spot he was awarded last year. The most annoying part of it is it is almost certainly due to wins. Playing half of his career in Chicago, Sale rarely pitched with a decent offense during the first several years of his career. This has limited his ability to get wins, as his career high is 17. It probably is no coincidence that the his first year in Boston, where he again won 17, managed to finish with his highest vote count. I hate that they go by that, but voters consistently give it to the wrong man because of their incredulous fixation on winning games despite the proof that they aren't a good measure of a pitcher's talent.

Hopefully, this year if finally when he will bring it home. He is leading the American League in bWAR, ERA, FIP, ERA+, WHIP, H/9, and, shockingly, K/9. Although, because of two late DL stints, he could end up falling short in yet another year where he deserved it. Hopefully, he comes back strong enough to finish his case for the award. Only time will tell, but for a player who is almost certainly a future Hall of Famer, you have to think that he'll finally take it home someday.