I Demand a Recall!

ESPN.com ran a couple polls this week relevant to Johan Santana.

The first asks readers, "Which AL pitcher would you most want to anchor your team's rotation in 2006?" and gives the options of Santana, Bartolo Colon, Roy Halladay, Mark Buehrle, and Randy Johnson.

The response from 38,883 voters to date:

Santana, 61.2%
Halladay, 14.9%
Buehrle, 10.8%
Colon, 6.8%
Johnson, 6.0%

The second poll asks, "Who is the best pitcher in baseball?" and gives the options of Santana, Colon, Chris Carpenter, Roy Oswalt, and Dontrelle Willis.

The response from 43,272 voters to date:

Santana, 47%
Oswalt, 18%
Carpenter, 16%
Willis, 15%
Colon, 4%

Santana is the favorite in 45 states and the international vote in this poll, including Minnesota, of course, where he is the pick of 87%. Carpenter is tops in Missouri and Arkansas. Oswalt is king in Texas, carries a bare plurality of 33% to Santana's 32% in Louisiana, and also can claim 8 of 18 voters in Wyoming so far. Colon carries no states. Even in California, Colon only has 14% of the vote while Santana has a plurality of 45%.

This follows the Internet Baseball Awards poll at Baseball Prospectus, in which 61% picked Santana as the top AL pitcher this season.

It's too bad we can't vote to recall the Cy Young and bounce the bad BBWAA voters like Dover, PA, bounced its crazy rogue school board. I mean it--why shouldn't there be a fan review of the results on MLB.com? When the BBWAA voters are so clearly out of touch that they can't see what is obvious to nearly everyone else who follows baseball, why should their decision be allowed to stand without some formal review in the internet age?