Could Britton pull out a Cy Young if he finishes with 50+/<.50?

[Bahama O's Fan]

Pretend you are the GM of any team needing a closer. What is the most you would give up for Britton in the offseason?

[OriolesMagic83]

Pretend you are the GM of any team needing a closer. What is the most you would give up for Britton in the offseason?

I could see the O's getting at least 1 top 100 prospect, maybe even another borderline 100 prospect. If the O's could get something like the Yankees return for Miller, they should make the deal.

[ExileAngelos]

I could see the O's getting at least 1 top 100 prospect, maybe even another borderline 100 prospect. If the O's could get something like the Yankees return for Miller, they should make the deal.

The Orioles are not sellers. The Yankees are old and clearly rebuilding. Teams don't sell their best players when they are in the midst of their window of opportunity to win.

[Big Mac]

Pretend you are the GM of any team needing a closer. What is the most you would give up for Britton in the offseason?

The Chapman equivalent easily. Not that we will even consider that strategy. A team who is a contender with arguably the best reliever of all time (currently at least) tends to keep him.

[OriolesMagic83]

The Orioles are not sellers. The Yankees are old and clearly rebuilding. Teams don't sell their best players when they are in the midst of their window of opportunity to win.

I wish the O's had been sellers at last year's trade deadline. For starters they would still have Zach Davies, now 9-4 w/ a 3.57 ERA. That would have saved signing Gallardo who is a borderline 5th starter to a 2 year contract plus saved the 14th pick in the draft.

[tinamodotti]

National media is now on the bandwagon

http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=17299675&ex_cid=espnapi_public

[Can_of_corn]

He's totally underrated guys....

Another fangraphs piece on Britton.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/zach-britton-could-have-a-real-cy-young-case/

I’m confident in stating my position that Britton, at the very least, would deserve to be in the mix if voting happened today. To me, that’s already a surprise. A couple years ago, I couldn’t have imagined being sympathetic toward a reliever’s Cy Young case.

[DrungoHazewood]

He's totally underrated guys....

Another fangraphs piece on Britton.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/zach-britton-could-have-a-real-cy-young-case/

Just wait. At some point he'll allow a few seeing-eye grounders, a walk, a wild pitch in the dirt, and everyone will be back on J. A. Happ.

[DrungoHazewood]

Interesting piece on Bill James' site, subscriber-only: http://www.billjamesonline.com/relief_pitchers_and_cy_young_voting/

Relevant part here is the Cy Young went to a five-slot ballot in 2010, and the primary impact has been dramatically lower vote totals for relievers. Seems that on the old 3-slot system many voters would give one slot to a reliever, now it's still maybe slot to a reliever but out of five.

Here's quote (by the way, Season Score is a metric that tries to sum up a player's contributions without a context adjustment):

Phase 6: The 2010s (the Craig Kimbrel/Wade Davis era)

Since the change to a five-man ballot in 2010, relievers have almost entirely disappeared from Cy Young voting:

Season Scores: Starters 144, Relievers 36

Cy Young Voting: Starters 175.5, Relievers 4.5

In this decade, relief pitchers have received only 12% of the Cy Young votes that they would have received, had the voting precisely paralleled the Season Scores.

<o:p </o In 1977, Sparky Lyle had 26 Saves and a 2.16 ERA. He won the Cy Young Award.

In 1979, Bruce Sutter had 37 Saves and a 2.22 ERA. He won the Cy Young Award.

In 1981, Rollie Fingers had 28 Saves and a 1.04 ERA. He won the Cy Young Award.

In 1984, Willie Hernandez had 32 Saves and a 1.92 ERA. He won the Cy Young Award.

In 1987, Steve Bedrosian had 40 Saves and a 2.83 ERA. He won the Cy Young Award.

In 1989, Mark Davis had 44 Saves and a 1.85 ERA. He won the Cy Young Award.

In 2012, Fernando Rodney had 48 Saves and a 0.60 ERA. He finished fifth in the Cy Young Voting.

Of course, you can say that Rodney happened to run up against better competition for the Cy Young Award than did these other pitchers. You can say it, but it isn?t true. David Price won the Cy Young Award over Fernando Rodney in 2012, going 20-5 with a 2.56 ERA in 211 innings. In 1974 Andy Messersmith, who lost the vote to a reliever, went 20-6 with a 2.59 ERA in 292 innings.

The other thing James didn't really bring up is advanced metrics like WAR. They have much greater influence now, and have served to kind of add weight to the long-assumed idea that it's hard to have as much value as a starter when you're throwing 68 innings. Even if they're high-leverage and you have a 1.00 ERA. Today nobody would even consider most of those 1980s relievers. Willie Hernandez had a great year, but Bert Blyleven or Dave Stieb would have won the award.

[Ruzious]

Just wait. At some point he'll allow a few seeing-eye grounders, a walk, a wild pitch in the dirt, and everyone will be back on J. A. Happ.

Not till next year - after we trade him.

[FlipTheBird]

He's totally underrated guys....

Another fangraphs piece on Britton.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/zach-britton-could-have-a-real-cy-young-case/

The buzz is starting, which is big for Zach's chances. Now he's just got to finish strong.

Guy's just been filthy all year.

[Ruzious]

I could see the O's getting at least 1 top 100 prospect, maybe even another borderline 100 prospect. If the O's could get something like the Yankees return for Miller, they should make the deal.

Miller and Britton are both free agents in 2019, and Britton's doing better, so I think we could get as much or more than what NY got for Miller. I'd expect in the neighborhood of a top 25 prospect plus another top 100 prospect.

[LookitsPuck]

There aren't any truly dominant starters in the AL. I think Britton can make a very, very strong case.

Eric Gagne won the Cy Young in 2003. Think it's fun to look at the first 52 games for both Gagne and Britton:

Gagne: 1.70 ERA, .137/.202/.169 - .371 OPS, 15 SO/9, 2.2 BB/9 only 1 HR allowed

Britton: 0.54 ERA, .145/.218/.198 - .416 OPS, 10.6 SO/9, 2.9 BB/9 only 1 HR allowed

Gagne has the edge SO/9 and Britton with the ERA.

It is interesting to note, that for the last 25 games Gagne pitched in to finish the season he allowed *1* ER. And it was a homer.

[Redskins Rick]

Miller and Britton are both free agents in 2019, and Britton's doing better, so I think we could get as much or more than what NY got for Miller. I'd expect in the neighborhood of a top 25 prospect plus another top 100 prospect.

NY is not in the playoff hunt, so they can afford to fire sale.

The Cubs are also desperate to win a WS.

There is NO reason to even think about trading Britton right now.

[Redskins Rick]

There aren't any truly dominant starters in the AL. I think Britton can make a very, very strong case.

Eric Gagne won the Cy Young in 2003. Think it's fun to look at the first 52 games for both Gagne and Britton:

Gagne: 1.70 ERA, .137/.202/.169 - .371 OPS, 15 SO/9, 2.2 BB/9 only 1 HR allowed

Britton: 0.54 ERA, .145/.218/.198 - .416 OPS, 10.6 SO/9, 2.9 BB/9 only 1 HR allowed

Gagne has the edge SO/9 and Britton with the ERA.

It is interesting to note, that for the last 25 games Gagne pitched in to finish the season he allowed *1* ER. And it was a homer.

If hitters got a 3-4th look at Britton, they are more likely to have more success.