The 'W' is for 'Woops.'

It's time for a major rule change in baseball.  Not really a rule, but a statistical notation.  I know, baseball has been pretty much the same for over a century and half, but this one little oddity has really only come about in the last 40 years, when the "save" was born.

It was just a week ago that the Cardinals' closer, Jason Isringhausen, came in to pitch the ninth and earn the save for Ryan Franklin.  It was an off day for Izzy, and he coughed up two runs to nullify a great comeback for the Birds.  But he escaped the inning in a tie game, and the Cardinals rallied again in the tenth to beat San Francisco 8-7.

Instead of Isringhausen, Anthony Reyes got the save by pitching a scoreless tenth inning.  Instead of Franklin, Izzy got the win... for one inning pitched, 3 hits and two runs allowed.

In my mind, a pitcher who enters a game eligible for a save should not be eligible for a win.  MLB has added a new statistic recently: The blown save.  In this game Izzy got a "BS" and a "W."  Talk about mixed messages.  Did he blow it or did he win it? That's not a "yes" or "no" question.

If my rule were in place for this particular game, Ryan Franklin would still have earned the win, because that is how it would have been had Isringhausen done his job.  Had the game gone to the 11th before the Cardinals scored, and had Reyes pitched the 11th as well as the 10th, then you give the win to Reyes because he pitched longer than Franklin (1 inning).  But it could be open for an official scorer's judgement to assign the credit for a victory, and when logic fails, the scorer could fall back on the old way (the current way) of deciding.

It's simple enough: Stop rewarding a guy for messing up.  I'm willing to bet that ANY pitcher who blows a save would admit, "I don't deserve to be the winning pitcher for this game."

I'm going to write to Izzy right now and ask him...