Why New York Mets’ R.A. Dickey deserves CY Young Award for 2012 regular season?-Part 2
Knuckleballer significance was just being limited to the novelty they offer as opposed to the services they can render for a team to take them into the play-offs or something more substantial like winning a World Series.
Dickey boasts the distinction now that he has come a long way in tearing off the stigma hitherto attached with the knuckleballers. He has upgraded their standing among the rest of the hurlers prevailing in the world of baseball today.
By stealing strike-outs in the season on a regular basis, he is close to become an inspiration for those pitchers who leave baseball without making their mark because they do not possess the quality of throwing fastballs. Thus they do not fall into the conventional
fold of hurlers that are considered acceptable.
As Dickey has outperformed most of the starters that host incredible fastballs in their repertoire in the National League, he has negated the traditional parameters of success for the hurlers. Therefore, the media members and all those who are going to vote
the pitcher for the CY Young Award will cause a disbelieving attitude in case they brush aside Dickey for the honour.
There are other reasons than even the best numbers maintained by Dickey in the National League that suggest he should earn the CY Young Award.
The club he plays for and the stage he has taken them to in the face of the fundamentals flaws embedded into their ranks indicate that there must have been something outstanding unleashed by Dickey to reach his present level of success.
Although the Mets are out of contention at this moment, they were not so at the beginning of the second half and were in fact all set to winning a potential playoff spot.
The starters that rival Dickey for the award are the Washington Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez and Jordan Zimmermann. Similarly there is Johnny Cueto who plays for the Cincinnati Reds and Matt Cain who is on the rotation of the second placed
San Francisco Giants on the National League West Division.
Except for Dickey, all other starters pitched for the teams that boast accomplished offence and hold either the top position on their respective tables or second place. Therefore, it must have been far easier for the hurlers like Strasburg and Johnny Cueto
for that matter to record wins. Even some of their poor starts will have been compensated and resulted into the avoidance of the losses that they will face otherwise.
In contrast, Dickey confronts an offence which other than David Wright or occasional shows by Lucas Duda on the plate has barely experienced anyone else for production on consistent basis. Therefore, he has defied all the odds on his way to mark the glory
in the on-going season.
Knowing that the runs are least likely to be scored, Dickey went out of his way to throw complete games and ascertained the opposition remains scoreless. He has progressed as per the requirements of the respective games. While generally a pitcher puts a
gap of reasonable number of outings between throwing complete games or even some take years to replicate a one splendid show, Dickey did not relent in the face of the indispensability of the shut-out games for victories.
Dickey was able to leave the team believing that they can qualify for the post season until the All-Star break. However, in the second half as the Mets’ offence took a deep nosedive, the effectiveness of Dickey had to be finally rendered meaningless.
Continued in Part 3
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