No Justice

David Justice has left the scene after a successful career with the Braves and Yankees. There is also a matter lacking justice in the way "W"s are awarded for pitchers. Take the case of Nick Blackburn of the Twins. Last week in Kansas City, Nick breezed through 8 1/3 innings of shutout ball, put two men on in the ninth, and was removed. The Twins lost their 3-0 lead on a fluke inside the park home run by Mark Teahan but scratched out a tenth inning win. So Jesse (One good inning) Crain picked up the W and Nick received a no decision. Yesterday, Nick was on the mound again and held the Yankees to one run while cruising through the fifth inning with a 4-1 lead. He took a line drive off his face and was removed from the game. Brian Bass pitched well to 5 batters and the Twins held on to win 5-1. So Bass picked up a W, and once again Blackburn is credited with a No Decision because a starter must go 5 innings to be credited with a win. This is crap. Official scorers are not turnips, and should be given latitude to give credit where credit is due. To make the mountain higher, Blackburn was also involved in a 1-0 loss earlier this year. He could be 8-3 right now with any justice.

Boof got a no decision the other night after allowing 5 runs, 2 earned, and was not even on the mound when an earned run scored!

Want a better example? Yesterday, future Rookie of the year Tim Lincecum of the hapless Bay area Giants threw 7 innings of one run baseball against the equally hapless Padres. A couple of relievers got one, two, or three outs and the 1-1 game went to extra innings. Hinshaw came in to the tenth and promptly allowed the Padres 2 runs to take a 3-1 lead. Trevor Hoffman was equally ineffective as the Giants scored three in their half to win the game. Winning pitcher? Hinshaw, loser- Hoffman. No Decision - Lincecum. Geez.

If MLB and their fans are going to put so much glory on a pitcher's W-L record, and in many cases a player's future salary can depend on this statistic, then maybe it should mean something.