Yesterday, the American League players voted David Price the league’s top pitcher in 2010.  (Story here)

I don’t know if that is a precursor to Price winning the 2010 AL Cy Young Award but, frankly, the Cy Young feels

image courtesty of ESPN.com

like a long shot.  The old bulls of the Baseball Writers Association likely voted for CC Sabathia’s 21 wins and the new generation of that organization seemed ready to use Felix Hernandez’s season as proof that the old measures of pitching performance — which are reliant on good play by players other than the pitcher– are outdated.

Certainly, the Cy Young Award carries more prestige for the average baseball fan that the vote among the AL hitters.  But it shouldn’t.  The Cy Young is prestigious because the people who write about its importance are also the people that cast the ballots.  Even the most fair-minded baseball writer will be inherently biased when evaluating which is the most important postseason award.

Unfortunately, when it comes to importance, it looks like we have the awards backwards.  If I were a pitcher, I think I would take more pride in knowing that the men required to dig into the batter’s box would, as a group, rather face any other pitcher in the American League than I would in knowing the BBWA thinks I was better than other pitchers.  So, no matter what happens in November, in my book, David Price was the AL’s best pitcher in 2010.