Pat Caputo: Verlander Has One More Frontier -- And It Isn't MVP

The Tigers' Justin Verlander will be named Cy Young Award winner today as the best pitcher in the American League for 2011. The results of the voting will be released, and it will revealed that Verlander won in a landslide.

He was substantially better than any pitcher in the American League during the regular season. Verlander led the AL in wins (24), ERA (2.40), WHIP (0.920), strikeouts (250) and innings pitched (251). He was the first American League pitcher to win 24 games in a season since Roger Clemens in 1986. It was a brilliant year.

The ballots for the Cy Young, and all of baseball's postseasons awards, are due before the start of the playoffs. And that is where Verlander did not stand out this year, nor previously. Verlander did have a 2-1 record in the postseason, but his ERA in both the American League Division Series against the Yankees and the American League Championship vs. the Rangers was over five. In the ALCS, he averaged less than six innings in his two starts. Coupled with his performance in the 2006 playoffs, Verlander's postseason numbers are decidedly mediocre: 3-3, 5.57 ERA, 1.548 WHIP.

I maintained, even before last season to the chagrin of many people who disagreed vehemently with me, that I would take Verlander over any starting pitcher in baseball.

Read the rest here at The Oakland Press.