Bedard is beast

Epic Carnival recently ran a story that listed how they would give baseball awards if the year ended today. While I agree with most of their rankings, I can't take that Orioles pitcher Eric Bedard is tied in third with just slightly more than half the points of league leader Dan Haren.

On Mullet's Cy Young watch, he is in 5th.

I recognize that he plays for the Orioles, but if the award goes to the best pitcher in the league, a bad offense and atrocious bullpen shouldn't be held against you.

Here a few stats for you guys to ponder that you may not have realized are on Bedard's resume:

League leading 207 K's, Santana is in second with 174.

League leading .210 BAA.

3rd among AL starters in ERA at 2.98, trailing only Haren and Santana.

2nd in AL starters in WHIP in WHIP at 1.08, trailing Santana's 1.07.

12-4 record ties for the best win percentage with Josh Beckett (15-5).

Whopping 10 no decisions, in which he has a 3.64 ERA. Taking away a 5.2 IP, 6 ER debacle, that's 9 starts with a 2.67 ERA. Further discounting a 6 IP, 4 ER effort, his only other no decision in which he didn't go at least six innings and give up fewer than 3 runs, that puts him at a 2.30 ERA in 8 starts with no wins to show for it. Would he be more in the public eye if he were 20-4 right now instead of 12-4?

Twice he has left the game after going 7 innings without giving up a run (8/16 @NYY, 5/9 vs. TB) and not gotten the win. Another time, he went 7 innings giving up 1 run and didn't get a win. Six times he has left the game with the lead only to see it given away. Get this guy Oki and Pap and see what his record looks like.

Dominant 15 K, CGSO of the Rangers in which he allowed two hits, 0 walks but faced the minimum amount of batters. Not nearly as much press as Buehrle and Verlander's no-hitters, but in my opinion a much better performance.

Lossless in his last 12 starts, going 82 innings, 2.20 ERA, 0.88 WHIP, 104 K (11.4 K/9)

If I'm a batter, I'm going to look forward to seeing Haren, Beckett, Lackey and Sabathia on my docket much more than Bedard. But that's just me.