Nope, Cardinals fans, Wainwright wasn't robbed of a Cy; nor would he have been a HOFer, Best Fans in Baseball

The claim I saw on Twitter, from some "Best Fans in Baseball" groupies responding to Buster Olney, was that Adam Wainwright would have been in the Hall of Fame if not for injuries, and that part of why he lacks a HOF case beyond that is that he was robbed of the 2009 Cy Young.

The latter, first.

There ARE legit cases of Cy Young or MVP robbery.

This ain't one of them.

Winner Tim Lincecum was a full WAR point ahead of Waino. And, given that WAR can be accurate within half a point, you'd have to assume both that Lil Timmy was too high AND Waino was too low. Anyway, I pointed that out to the BFIB Twitterer, who irked me because he said "robbed."

Had he said something like, "You could make a case that Adam Wainwright should have won the 2009 Cy Young award," different story. But, he said, and I quote, "robbed." I'm not going to embed, to spare him the BFIB jokes, which I as a Cards fan but not a total homer will laugh along with at times.

Either he or one other person on the thread said that Waino lost votes cuz Chris Carpenter. Things like that might have been true more than 20 years ago. They might be more true even today on the MVP. But, each pitching game is separate, unless it's a starter and a closer from the same team battling for the Cy.

Plus, the first dude said, "WAR doesn't mean much to me- especially for pitchers."

My response to that?

No, WAR is not perfect, but, in an actually good piece at Red Satan, I quote:

The goal of WAR is to give the most complete sense of a player's value to his team, and it's perhaps the best piece of data to compare the greatness of one player to the next.

There you go. Couldn't have said it better myself. Now, get off my lawn.

Besides, there were FOUR pitchers, not two, bunched within half a WAR of each other. Javier Vazquez was fourth in the voting and Dan Haren was fifth.

And, by either sabermetric or non-sabermetric stats, I can make a case for most of them.

Lincecum led the league in K's. Special pleader, what the hell, Dean Hartmann, I'm naming your ass — and for my "Unknown" trolling comments on this piece of mine about the Veterans Committee's recent fuck-up? I said "ass"; so sue me — said K's don't mean much to him. So, rejects WAR, but also rejects a non-sabermetric stat. Okayyyy ... (Timmeh also led in complete games and shutouts among non-sabermetric stats, and FIP among sabermetrics.)

Carp led in both ERA and ERA+. Good argument there.

Haren led in both K/BB ratio and WHIP.

Waino? Led in wins, definitely, as we all know, not directly tied to pitching prowess, and innings pitched, nice but not huge.

Vazquez doesn't really jump out for anything.

No, Timmeh earned the win.

As for injury? He missed all of 2011, near peak. Give Waino 6 WAR. For the most of 2015 he missed? Four WAR. For the most of 2018? Two more. That's 12 WAR. Added to his actual 44.5, he's at 56.5. Let's say I was 2.5 WAR stingy. That's still less than 60.

And? Other pitchers have had plenty of injuries and better track records. Near-peer Clayton Kershaw is a derp. Sandy Koufax from the past. Dizzy Dean from the Cards' way-back past. Kershaw broke 7 WAR three times. Koufax did it four times, including two 10-WAR seasons. Dean did it three times, including approximately 9 WAR in his 30-win year.

Waino never had a 7-WAR year and never knocked my socks off. On non-sabermetric stats worth something, he once led in complete games and twice led or tied in shutouts. And, he's a non-horrible batter for a pitcher, which is where he gets 4 WAR.

Or, another way to put it? B-Ref lists Roy Oswalt as his best comp, and that sounds about exactly right.

I told the group of Tweeters not to @ me, too, saying I was a long-time fan who was at the game when Glenn Brummer stole home. Bryan Bauer decided to be a clown anyway.