One of my free agent pickups got completely hosed in the AL ROY voting.

Which of these two pitchers do you prefer? Which do you think had a better season?

Is there any great difference here? The seasons are almost identical except in a few respects; K rate, xERA and Wins. But by any account, if you were choosing who had a better season or which season you would prefer you would be hard pressed to find a significant difference.

Unless you are voting for the Rookie of the Year award of course. In that case the difference is so great that pitcher X garners nary a single vote while pitcher Y finished third. Not surprisingly, pitcher X is Jeremy Guthrie and Pitcher Y is Brian Bannister.

I could justify voting for Bannister, but there is no justification for the gulf in votes between Bannister and Guthrie. Quite simply, this is an absolute joke.

Guthrie is clearly preferable going forward. Not only does he have a higher K rate and K/BB ratio, his xERA is above league average, while Bannister appears to be a fringe pitcher who got lucky. If you own Bannister trade him now while the getting is good, and if you can nab Guthrie for him so much the better. Don’t make the same mistake as the voters.

articleId=’17478′;