The BBWAA has acknowledged the internet folk of late, but their glasnost hit a snag in this year’s NL Cy Young voting.  Both ESPN.com’s Keith Law and Baseball Prospectus’ Will Carroll bucked conventional wisdom slightly, leaving St. Louis starter Chris Carpenter off their ballots.  This mild disparity may have cost Carpenter the award.

Each voter chose a top three. Law voted Lincecum, Vazquez, Wainright and Carroll voted Wainwright, Lincecum, Haren.  Lincecum won by just six points.  Had both writers not voted, Carpenter would have won the award.  Had Carpenter finished an average of second on both writer’s ballots, he would have won.

Their votes sparked outrage from multiple forums.  Sports Illustrated’s Jon Heyman gave them the vicious “dumbsportswriters” hashtag.  Participants on the ever-entertaining STLtoday.com messageboards confirmed Keith “Freaking” Law is a “total asshat,” as opposed to a partial one.

Getting new blood into the voting pool is a positive.  In the MLB package era, local newspaper writers have no discernible advantage for determining comprehensive awards.  How many Cardinals games is the guy who covers the Phillies six nights a week watching?  Focused on one team by necessity, they’re seeing less baseball than their Internet counterparts, let alone the dedicated fan.  Writers voting based on what they heard only hardens conventional wisdom.

This also shows statistics are not calcifying or dehumanizing baseball analysis.  The statistically-inclined Law and Carroll looked at identical data.  They came to different conclusions.

Wainwright got jobbed in Cy Young voting [Post-Dispatch]