It’s 2012, in case you hadn’t heard, and by now I’d think most baseball fans are well aware that a pitcher’s win-loss record is worthless. It’s simply not a reliable way of charting performance. Wins, like RBI, are a function of opportunity, not ability. We know that, on the forefront of our consciousness. But then why does R.A. Dickey’s record of 11-1 give me such a sense of smug satisfaction? And why is Cliff Lee’s 0-4 line troubling Phillies’ fans, and more importantly, the pitcher himself?

Well, because behind the facade, our perception of baseball, like so many things, is rarely guided by the parts that help make us calm, rational, or logical. That much was made perfectly clear over the weekend when Bill Baer, who writes for ESPN and runs the Phillies blog Crashburn Alley, began re-tweeting some “phan” responses to Lee’s most recent performance. You don’t need to scroll through to figure out the message, most involved the pitcher’s name and a certain four-letter word, so I’ll give you one swear-free highlight: @GutterTheGreat said, “I think the man love for Cliff Lee needs to end – don’t give me this run support shit or about the poor fielding.”

Baer, being of sound mind, gave him something a little more in-depth. On Monday, he published an analysis of Lee’s performance, arguing that the pitcher’s woes have not all been of his own design. Baer gets plenty specific and sabermetric, but it’s simple enough to know that when a pitcher goes 10 innings without giving up a run, as Lee did on April 18, he should have at least one win. The article led to a retort from ESPN’s David Schoenfield entitled “Maybe Cliff Lee hasn’t been all that good,” I’ll wager you can figure out what that one was about on your own.

Baer’s piece began with a response to another, more collected tweet. User @alexrolfe said, “what’s weird to me is that the no wins makes people reevaluate lee instead of reevaluating wins. why is that?” You’ll get all the coverage you need on Lee specifically from Baer and Schoenfield, so here’s where I’m going with all this: Indeed, random internet person, why is that?

Let’s start by considering what a win is. MLB official rule 10.17 defines the winning pitcher as one “whose team assumes a lead while such pitcher is in the game, or during the inning on offense in which such pitcher is removed from the game, and does not relinquish such lead.” Of course, the rule is different for starters. In a game that goes the full nine innings, a starter has to pitch at least five to get a win.

You know you’ve got a silly statistic when it’s perfectly reasonable (number-wise) that Jon Rauch can have three wins and Lee none. Yet fans, players, and front offices still give the win-loss record a tremendous amount of undeserved influence. Even if every fan thought the way Bill Baer does, you better believe Cliff Lee would still be pissed off about his lack of a win. If concentrating on getting one is a good way for Cliff to self-motivate, so be it. But it shouldn’t go any farther than that.

There a million different stats and sabermetrics out there, but the Cy Young Award is given to the “best pitcher” in each league. It’s one of the game’s few simplicities. Want the Cy Young? Be the best. That’s it.

In 2004, Roger Clemens won the NL Cy Young because of his 2.98 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, and 218 strikeouts in 214.1 innings pitched. He was the best. Supposedly. We’re sane, we know that wins are entirely out of a pitcher’s control. Clemens was the best so he won the honor, right? In any other year perhaps, but not 2004. That was the year, Ben Sheets‘ line looked like this: 2.70 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, 264 strikeouts and just 32 walks in 237 innings pitched. Along with his 8:1 strikeout to walk ratio, the league’s best by a mile, Sheets outpitched Clemens based on every major pitching stat. He was in fact, though not in name, the best. So what gives?

Well, he outpitched Clemens in every major pitching stat but one, and I think you know which. Sheets had a record of 12-14, while Clemens was 18-4. Yet Sheets’ Brewers went 67-94 that year, while Clemens and the Astros brought home a record of 92-70. Given that, any sane person might consider Sheets’ 12 wins on that miserable squad to be the more impressive count. But the trophy sits on Clemens’ shelf, along with his other six Cy Youngs, and, I imagine, the cream and the clear. Try and tell me wins didn’t influence the voting, or that the best pitcher won.

We like to think we’re living in a more civilized time. Everyone loves to point out that Felix Hernandez brought home the AL Cy Young in 2010 despite a 13-12 record. But 2004 wasn’t all that long ago, and the rabbit hole goes far deeper than awards.

You all know how I feel about closers, and “saves.” Well, I was wrong when I wrote that piece. Don’t worry, the notion of a closer is still ridiculous, but I shouldn’t have said “a save situation is the only time a manager makes a decision based on arbitrary numerals rather than what’s going to help his team win.” Wins will do that too. Imagine this scenario: your team’s up 8-2, the starter’s on the mound with two outs in the fifth when he suddenly gives up four runs that were inarguably his fault, and there are still a couple men on base. Any other pitcher gives up four runs in an inning and he’s getting the hook. But nine times out of ten your manager will leave him in there for a while longer, hoping he can get that third out and be in line for a win. Suddenly, the pitcher getting a win is more important than the team getting one.

Better offense, pitch counts, specialized relievers, and a thousand other changes have all contributed to the ever increasing worthlessness of the win-loss record. But the stat still affects contracts, awards, All-Star selections, fan opinion, and sometimes even a pitcher’s self-worth. It’s 2012, yet there are still those among us who give wins the respect they were due in 1912. To those people, listen closely: wins are a relic of a different era, whether or not it was a better era is entirely subjective, but the present can only be right now. And right now, wins and losses should not be anywhere but the periphery of statistical analysis.

In order to help get you ready for the MLB season, we’re doing division-by-division rankings with quick overviews on how each club could fair in 2010. Next to each team, you’ll also find a corresponding number written in parenthesis, which indicates where we believe that club falls in a league-wide power ranking. Be sure to check back throughout the next two weeks leading up to the season, as we will be updating our content daily. Enjoy.

All 2010 MLB Preview Content | AL East Preview | AL Central Preview | AL West Preview | NL East | NL Central | NL West

Next up is the AL West.

1. Los Angeles Angels (6)
When I started to do the prep work for the AL West preview, I filled the top slot with the Angels without even giving it much thought. And why should I have? They’ve won the division six of the last seven years and baseball fans have just grown accustomed to the Halos being in the playoff mix every season. But immediately after I slotted them in the top spot, my stomach started to hurt and no, it wasn’t from the fish I ate last night. (Although hey, fish is still good even when it turns green right?) There’s no doubt that the Angels took a hit this offseason. They lost their ace (John Lackey), their leadoff man (Chone Figgins) and their top power source (Vladimir Guerrero), and usually when a team parts with that much talent, it suffers a setback. But this is why I’m not overly concerned about this club: the additions of Joel Pineiro and Hideki Matsui should pay dividends and if Scott Kazmir could ever stay healthy, he would ease the loss of Lackey. Plus, in Erick Aybar (their new leadoff hitter), Kendry Morales and Torri Hunter, the Halos still have a solid offensive core and their starting pitching is still in good shape with vets like Kazmir, Jered Weaver and Joe Saunders. Times are changing in L.A. and the Mariners and Rangers will push the Halos this season, but in the end they should be right back on top.

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In a surprising twist, the Oakland Athletics have signed Ben Sheets to a one-year deal worth $10 million.

From MLB.com:

The agreement is for $10 million plus performance bonuses, SI.com reported. CBSSports.com said the contract is worth “more than $8 million.”

The 31-year-old right-hander has passed a physical and will be introduced to the media in Oakland at 1 p.m. PT.

Sheets missed the entire 2009 season after undergoing elbow surgery, but he reportedly wowed scouts during a throwing session in Louisiana last Tuesday. The Cubs, Mets, Rangers and Mariners were among other teams reportedly interested in his services.

Sheets is undoubtedly a valuable pitcher, spending all of his professional career as an integral part of the Milwaukee Brewers. Over those eight seasons, Sheets compiled a record of 86-83, a 3.72 ERA, and 1,206 strikeouts. Those are respectable numbers worthy of a large contract. However, $10 million is way too much money to spend on pitcher who didn’t pitch for a year after elbow surgery. This shows how desperate the A’s became in trying to acquire an ace. As the market thinned out, Sheets was their only option.

Of course, this puts the A’s out of the running for Johnny Damon. The Yankees are only offering a one-year contract around $2 million and I doubt Damon is going to bite. He’d rather play for an also-ran than suck up his pride.

Since we focused on the offensive side last week when listing the Top 10 in active OPS in Major League Baseball, this week we’ll take a look at the active WHIP leaders for pitchers. That stands for Walks plus Hits per Inning Pitched, and is an extremely important statistic when you’re considering pitchers to draft for your fantasy team. Not only do most fantasy leagues count points for WHIP, but it’s a great indicator of overall pitching prowess. Here is that Top 10 in WHIP, and it includes only pitchers who are active going into the 2009 season:

1. Mariano Rivera, New York Yankees (1.0199)—Rivera has been the hammer in the Yankees’ bullpen for over a decade and still shows no signs of slowing down. At the age of 38 in 2008, Mo struck out 77 in 70 innings, and racked up 39 saves.

2. Pedro Martinez, free agent (1.0512)—True, Pedro is about a lifetime removed from his dominating days with the Red Sox, but dude can still pitch effectively and has no MLB team at the moment.

3. Johan Santana, New York Mets (1.1024)—Will Johan be the guy to lead the Mets to their first title in almost 25 years? He had a brilliant first season in New York but was hurt by lousy run support and an even lousier bullpen.

4. Curt Schilling, Boston Red Sox (1.1374)—It’s hard to believe Schilling is not done yet, because he hasn’t pitched in a real game in almost two years. But if and when he goes back out there, I’m still picking him for my fantasy team.

5. Randy Johnson, San Francisco Giants (1.1673)—The Big Unit is five wins shy of 300 for his career, and reaching 300 is something that seemed impossible when he had back surgery before last season. But dude is still a beast and still blowing the ball past hitters, and he’s in his mid-40’s.

6. John Smoltz, Boston Red Sox (1.1697)—It’s going to be strange seeing Smoltz in a Red Sox uniform, but as a diehard Mets’ fan, I couldn’t be happier about that.

7. Jake Peavy, San Diego Padres (1.1864)—When you think of the game’s top pitchers, do you think of this dude? Well, you should. Peavy has already racked up 1256 strikeouts and he’s only 27.

8. Roy Oswalt, Houston Astros (1.1979)—Another amazing young pitcher, Oswalt is 31 years old and has a lifetime record of 129-64 for a usually-less-than-awesome Astros’ team. That’s just sick.

9. Ben Sheets, free agent (1.2010)—If he ever pitched a full season, Sheets would be a lock for the Hall of Fame by now. But you just never see an injury report without his name on it.

10. Roy Halladay, Toronto Blue Jays (1.2076)—Playing north of the border, Halladay has won the AL Cy Young Award once and finished in the top 5 in voting three other times. How have the Yankees kept their paws off of this guy?

Source: Baseball Reference

According to MLB.com, the Rangers nixed a two-year contract offer to free agent Ben Sheets because the pitcher might need to have surgery before the start of the season.

The answer is that free agent right-hander Ben Sheets may need surgery to repair the torn flexor tendon in his elbow, and his former employers may be asked to pick up the tab. Brewers assistant general manager Gord Ash said on Thursday that the team has been in discussions this week with Sheets’ agent and officials from Major League Baseball about who would pay for the procedure.

The Texas Rangers and Sheets reached an agreement on a two-year contract late last week and only a physical stood in the way of the deal being completed. But everything changed once it was determined that Sheets had a torn flexor tendon that might require surgery.

The Rangers could still pursue Sheets with a deal that would allow him to do his rehabilitation work with them in hopes that he would eventually pitch at a high level again. But that doesn’t appear to be the case.

No wonder he lasted on the market so long. The Brewers offered Sheets arbitration, but he declined and therefore might have left at least $10 million on the table this season. Sheets could be one of the best pitchers in the NL, but he can never stay healthy.