[clydepepper]

Bill- once again, you have proved yourself the master researcher....thanks for allowing the rest of us to continue having lives (little lol)

As a retired lefty who struck out more than my share many moons ago, I will point out that as seductive and sexy the punch-out can be, it, in higher numbers lends itself to the other fielders being back on the heels and not being as prepared to handle batted balls.

I can certainly see your point about FIP, but what I just mentioned is the down-side of such 'dominance' in a team game.

Again from the left-handed perspective - I would not be unhappy if Kershaw won again- even though that would break Sandy's Dodger record for Cy Young awards won - I could always fall back on the fact that Sandy's awards were during time when only a single award was given for all of MLB - that's still amazing!

As far as the teammates canceling each other out- ideally, it is a flawed argument, but the reality is that the votes are from geographically specific media organizations and thusly are prone to choose a pitcher from their 'area', thereby voting for one and not the other - and, in general, that would play out for the entire 'area' - the human homey-bias is identical to the regional disparity you see with every Heisman selection.

As you have said these guys are incredibly close in performance. I just think it would be more of a shame if either Arrieta or Greinke didn't win since this year in particular, you cannot say, as you could last year, that Kershaw was clearly the best.

-and it takes a lot out of me to go against the southpaw - and so I believe it adds to the validity of my conclusion.
.
.