Today, Francisco Rodriguez, that whirling dervish of a closer for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, recorded his 50th save. Aside from the man affectionately known as "K-Rod," only eight other pitchers have recorded as many saves in a season, including Mariano Rivera (twice), Eric "I Was Taking Horse Steroids" Gagne (twice), John Smoltz, Trevor Hoffman, and the man who revolutionized the role of the closer, Dennis Eckersley. He is now eight saves away from breaking the record, 57, held by the relatively obscure former Chicago White Sox closer Bobby Thigpen in 1990.


For the last twenty years or so, the buzz for both the AL and the NL Most Valuable Player awards has rarely gone to pitchers. The last pitcher to win Cy Young and MVP in the same season was the aforementioned Eckersley in 1991 (7-1, 51 Saves). Since then, arguably five of the most dominant seasons by starting pitchers have occurred (Greg Maddux in 1994 and 1995; and Pedro Martinez in 1999, 2000 & 2001), and neither of them really got close to sniffing the award. The primary argument against starting pitchers, usually, is that they only play every fifth day. Well, what should keep MVP voters from picking K-Rod this year? Josh Hamilton? Carlos Quentin? For one thing, K-Rod pitches in about every other game. And nobody in the American League is currently having an offensive campaign anywhere near as dominant as A-Rod's last year.


There are three things that might keep K-Rod from being our first Cy Young/MVP since the Eck: 1) baseball writers' aversion to giving pitchers the award (no NL pitcher has won both since Bob Gibson in 1968, for example), and; 2) the strong season of Cleveland Indians' southpaw Cliff Lee. Right now, Lee is 18-2 on a weak and injury depleted team. This last detail could either bolster his standing as a Cy Young (see Steve Carlton's masterful 1972 Cy Young winning campaign when he won 27 of the Phillies' 59 games that year), or hurt him, depending on how the voters feel about having a Cy Young winner from what will most likely be a fourth place team; 3) Lastly, if the Angels rest K-Rod down the stretch, since they have a 793209 game lead over the Texas Rangers, he might not make it to 58 saves, which might soften the impact of his dominance this season. If things keep up at this pace, he should win both awards. His dominance is impressive. Let's put this in perspective. He currently has 14 more saves than Joe Nathan of the Minnesota Twins. There are eight pitchers in-between Nathan's save total and the pitchers he has 14 more than. Yes, K-Rod is that far ahead of the pack.