Fernando Rodney.

 

 

Hard to argue with that, since he set the all-time ERA record for relievers (0.60), but it's just another kick in the nuts to this 2012 when Rios, Dunn, and Peavy all finish 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in an award everyone assumed the Sox had wrapped up.

 

EDIT: Apparently Joe Nathan finished 2nd. LOL WHAT? How do all 3 of those Sox players not even break the top 2? Just a case of them all stealing votes away from each other?

Edited October 19, 201213 yr by JoeCoolMan24

 

Oh well.

As I said in the other thread, what the f*** did Fernando Rodney come back from? Being a s***ty reliever his entire career? What a crock.

As I said in the other thread, what the f*** did Fernando Rodney come back from? Being a s***ty reliever his entire career? What a crock.

 

THIS

As I said in the other thread, what the f*** did Fernando Rodney come back from? Being a s***ty reliever his entire career? What a crock.

 

Well, then disqualify Dunn and Rios then. Peavy, at least, came back from years of injuries.

 

The only part that bugs me is that a closer doesn't change the team as much as your starting pitcher or everyday player does. If he had an ERA around 1.00, I'd be upset, but he DID have an insane ERA that broke an all-time record.

 

If you want to be uber-statistical about it, you COULD list them by who had the largest jump in WAR since 2011. Only thing is that it's not an even scale from SP to RP to position player. So take this for what it's worth.

 

Peavy - 3.0 to 4.4 (1.4 increase)

Dunn - -3.0 to 1.7 (4.7 increase)

Rios - -0.8 to 4.3 (5.1 incease)

Rodney - -0.2 to 2.4 (2.6 increase)

 

Rios showed the biggest increase of all the players involved. But for Rodney, as a reliever, you aren't ever going to come close to a 4.3 WAR like Rios had, so you could argue it's not far to compare the two, since reliever's WAR totals vary much less than any other position, but you could also use that to your advantage arguing that they affect the game less than all those other positions when they are awesome, and when they are bad, they don't change a whole lot because they are more easily replaceable.

Edited October 19, 201213 yr by JoeCoolMan24

Well, then disqualify Dunn and Rios then. Peavy, at least, came back from years of injuries.

 

What do you mean disqualify Dunn? The most consistent power hitter in all of baseball for ten years suddenly has one of the worst seasons in the history of the sport. People were questioning if he would ever return to his previous form and thought he might be done as a baseball player. That fits the exact definition of "comeback".

 

My understanding of comeback player is that you were recently an All-Star or near All-Star, then had a stretch of being absent and/or sucking, which may or may not have been due to injury, and then return to All-Star or near All-Star form.

 

Rodney doesn't meet the first criteria in that he was never All-Star caliber previously. He might win if the award were called "most improved" but he didn't really come back from anything. Dunn, Peavy, and Rios all clearly fit that category, though Rios has been so up and down during his career that it's hard to define the exact time frame of his 'comeback'

What do you mean disqualify Dunn? The most consistent power hitter in all of baseball for ten years suddenly has one of the worst seasons in the history of the sport. People were questioning if he would ever return to his previous form and thought he might be done as a baseball player. That fits the exact definition of "comeback".

 

I thought you meant you shouldn't be able to come back from being awful, and rather come back from an injury.

I thought you meant you shouldn't be able to come back from being awful, and rather come back from an injury.

 

Coming back from awful is fine. I meant that Rodney was never good in the first place. In my understanding, the award should go to someone that went from All-Star to injured/bad back to All-Star. Not mediocre forever to awesome like Rodney.

Coming back from awful is fine. I meant that Rodney was never good in the first place. In my understanding, the award should go to someone that went from All-Star to injured/bad back to All-Star. Not mediocre forever to awesome like Rodney.

 

Ok, I get that then.

Fernando Rodney

 

 

Fernando Rodney. Wow. Jamie Moyer is more deserving for the simple fact that he was able to throw a pitch over home plate from the mound without bouncing it during an official game.

 

Adam Dunn is the winner of this award. Rios and Peavy deserved it too, and any other year should have won it by miles- but their 2011 wasn't nearly as abysmal as Dunn's was. That's saying a lot.

 

 

Dunn wins Sporting News' AL Comeback Player of the Year. Correctly. Buster Posey takes it in the NL.

 

(If you're going to click on that link for the article, make sure to have your volume down- Sporting News has one of those obnoxious video ads that play when the page loads)