Three times Arizona Diamondbacks players were robbed of awards
Let's look at three different times an Arizona Diamondbacks player was robbed of an award they deserved more than the voted upon winner.
There are always winners during MLB’s award season where you wonder, “How did that player win that?” Rick Porcello won the Cy Young over Justin Verlander in 2016, Ryan Braun took home the MVP over Ryan Braun, or Derek Jeter won a Gold Glove with -16 defensive runs saved at shortstop in 2006. Sure, some awards are statistical hindsight, but there are cases every few years where the voting is egregiously bad.
What I want to look at today is three times when Arizona Diamondbacks were robbed of any sort of honor, whether that be an MVP, Cy Young, Silver Slugger, Gold Glove, and everything in between. There have been plenty of times this has happened in the Diamondbacks’ history. The only thing I won’t include is All-Star game snubs because that can be a whole topic of its own.
Note that I am only looking at seasons where the award in question was not robbed by another Diamondback. For example, Curt Schilling finished second place in Cy Young voting in 2001 and 2002 but lost to Randy Johnson (plus, in both cases, Johnson deserved the award).
Brandon Webb
2003 Rookie Of The Year
Brandon Webb will go down in baseball history as one of baseball’s most “what could have been” stories. After his 2008 season, Webb had over 30 bWAR, three straight All-Star appearances, a Cy Young award, and two more second-place finishes. But injuries derailed what once looked like a potential Hall of Fame career. On top of that, Webb should have been able to add Rookie Of The Year to that impressive but short resume.
Webb came up and dominated opposing batters, owning just a 2.80 ERA, 3.34 FIP, and 1.15 WHIP across 180.1 innings of work. The right-hander also had some solid peripherals, including a 22.9% strikeout rate, 9.1% walk rate, and 0.60 HR/9. Webb, in total, racked up +4.3 fWAR and +5.9 bWAR.
Florida Marlins’ lefty Dontrell Willis took home the National League ROY award this season after pitching to a 3.30 ERA, 3.45 FIP, and 1.28 WHIP. Willis had a 21.3% K-rate and 8.7% walk rate, as well as a quality 0.73 HR/9. He would pitch 160.2 innings and finish the year with a +3.4 fWAR and +4.4 bWAR.
Willis had a strong rookie season in his own right, but it was not better than Webb’s rookie year. Webb pitched more innings and owned a better ERA, FIP, WHIP, strikeout rate, and home run rate. The difference in walk rate was less than 1%. However, Webb still finished with a better K:BB ratio.
But Willis had a 14-6 record, while Webb finished the year 10-9, which likely swayed the vote in Willis’ favor. Something like this wouldn’t happen today. If a pitcher was leading his competition in every meaningful category besides win/loss record, they’d more than likely take home the award. But this was still an era when voters let wins and losses dictate their vote, at least significantly more than it does today. Baseball is a team game until it comes to the pitcher. Then it’s all on him to win or lose the game, apparently. This isn’t the first time win/loss record stole an award from a Diamondback pitcher. Heck it won’t even be the last time on today’s list.
Luis Gonzalez
1999 Gold Glove
Luis Gonzalez’s first year in Arizona was a turning-the-corner moment in the left fielder’s career. Gonzalez had been a solid hitter from 1991 to 1998 with the Houston Astros and Detroit Tigers. But while 1999 would be the best season of his career up to that point, it would be the start of one of the best five-year stretches in Diamondbacks history. But what while Gonzalez was mostly known for his hitting, his fielding prowess went unjustifiably unnoticed.
In Gonzalez’s first year patrolling left field for the Snakes, he racked up +19 total zone runs. Only two National League outfielders had more than Gonzalez did. That was Andruw Jones and Mike Cameron. So it would only make sense that Gonzalez took home one of the Gold Gloves, right?
Well, nobody was going to argue against Jones getting a Gold Glove. He had +36 TZR and is historically one of the greatest defenders of all time. The second Gold Glove went to teammate Steve Finley. Finley didn’t steal the award from Gonzalez. Sure, his +17 TZR was inferior to Gonzalez and Mike Cameron, but his glovework in center field was definitely deserving of some recognition.
The man who stole the award from Gonzo was now Hall of Fame outfielder Larry Walker. Walker had -8 TZR. This is easily a case where notoriety and hitting played a part in Gold Glove voting. Walker had taken home a Gold Glove in four prior seasons in the 1990s. The Rockies outfielder also led all NL hitters in each of the three triple-slash categories, taking home what I like to dub the Triple-Slash Crown.
It happens less frequently today, but there have definitely been times when offensive performance swayed voters' opinions on an award that should only consider defense. As we see with some winners, name recognition and pedigree influence votes much more than it should.
Randy Johnson
2004 Cy Young
Randy Johnson won four straight Cy Young awards from 1999 to 2002 while playing for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Those were the only four he would win while wearing a Diamondbacks’ uniform. But when looking back at it, Johnson truly deserved a fifth Cy Young award in the year 2004 over Roger Clemens.
Johnson pitched in 245.2 innings, working to a 2.60 ERA, 2.30 FIP, and 0.90 WHIP. The Big Unit struck out just over 30% of the batters he faced with a 30.1% K-rate, and in total, struck out 290 batters. Johnson paired that with extremely good control, having just a 4.6% walk rate. Plus, he was great at limiting home runs with a 0.66 HR/9 rate. There was only one stat Johnson didn’t rank in the top five in, and that was HR/9 at seventh in the NL.
Now, it’s not as if Clemens didn’t have a great season. He pitched 214.1 innings, working to a 2.84 ERA, 3.11 FIP, and 1.16 WHIP. Those are good numbers, and his 24.8% K-rate, 0.63 HR/9, and 9% walk rate were also great. Clemens also ranked in the top five in multiple stats, including ERA, FIP, and home run rate.
But there's no comparison between the two legendary pitchers in 2004. Johnson had the better ERA, FIP, WHIP, innings pitched, K%, BB%, fWAR, and bWAR. Clemens's only edge over Johnson was home run rate, and even then, we are talking about a difference of 0.03.
This was, unfortunately, another instance where a pitcher's win-loss record swayed the vote way too much. Clemens finished the season 18-4, while Johnson was 16-14. Meanwhile, the Astros had 92 wins, while the D-Backs had 111 losses. Is it unfair to vote for Clemens because the Astros gave him 4.81 runs of support on average, while Johnson’s Diamondbacks only averaged 3.51 runs of support in his starts? Absolutely, but it’s just how voters of the time choose their winners. Luckily, voters have wisened up for the most part have gotten better at leaving the pitcher's personal W/L record out of the equation.
In my opinion, the voters this year in general were just completley out of their minds. The NL ERA leader Jake Peavy didn't even recieve one vote. While Johnson was still more deserving than Peavy, the fact Peavy didn't get a single vote is insane.