The Cy Young Award is given to the best pitcher in each of the American and National Leagues every year based on regular season statistics. This year, the American League Cy Young should be Felix Hernandez, the runner-up for the award last season.
Wait, what’s that you say? He had 12 losses and only 13 wins?
Right, I knew that already.
I don’t care that C.C. Sabathia had 21 wins and only 7 losses, nor that Jon Lester and David Price both got to 19 wins.
All Felix Hernandez did was to lead the American League in strikeouts, ERA, and innings pitched. Only six pitchers have lead their league in all three categories in MLB history. All have won the Cy Young.
Why the 12 losses? Here’s a key stat: in those 12 losses, the Mariners have only supplied 7 total runs in innings where Felix is pitching. SEVEN.
In 7 of Hernandez’s last 13 starts, Seattle didn’t score a run while he was in the game. What has Felix done since the start of August? 11 runs over 81.3 innings. That’s a 1.22 ERA. That dominates his competition. (Roy Halladay is allowing 2.95 for the Phillies, but he’s in the National League, so we won’t compare those two.) Sabathia over the same time period has 86 innings pitched with 31 total runs allowed. Crunch time for the Yankees, trying to make the playoffs, and their ace is allowing 3.24 runs per inning? Sure, Sabathia has 73 strikeouts over that span with 22 walks, but Felix has 83 strikeouts to 24 walks. Sabathia has given up 73 hits over that span, Hernandez only 50.
Felix Hernandez has vowed to make one more start before the end of the season, and regardless of whether or not Seattle scores any runs for him, he’s likely going to give yet another great performance and he should be this year’s AL Cy Young winner.
Those stats are amazing, and even as a Yankees fan I agree about Felix probably deserving the Cy Young, but allow me to play some devils advocate.
Sure, Felix is pitching in the same league as CC, Lester, but is the quality of the competition the same? Batting lineups alone, I think most would agree facing the West teams more frequently would be easier than taking on the lineups from the AL East.
Also, what pressure or adversity has Felix faced this year? One could argue that he feels obligated to be lights out due to knowing his team won’t score runs, but look at the flip side. In the second half of this season, does he really have that pressure and stress of being his teams “stopper” when they are losing? No. They are always losing. Hernandez hasn’t had the eyes of the world bearing down on him each start, with fan bases and playoff implications bearing down on each and every pitch he makes. Felix Hernandez does not have to battle the mental game as a Lester, CC, or Price would.
What adversity? ohw about the pressure if you give up A… ONE… UNO run? You’re basically looking down the barrel of a loss… if you give up TWO?! Forget about it.
So you are saying there is more pressure worrying about a win/loss on a team no where near the playoff hunt than opposed to one who is?
David Price has the pressure of an entire fan base, and team riding on him when he goes out to pitch. With his start a win or loss has significant meaning to not only his award chances, but the entire implications of how his organization may do in the playoffs. (Home field, etc)
You can’t say Felix (after getting the record he has due to his lesser team) is worried about HAVING to win or lose his next game. Hell, unless he is pitching on the road against a playoff team (other than Tampa) he will barely face a hostile crowd at this point.
I fully agree on Felix probably winning and deserving it, but I certainly would not question Price winning the award with things such as quality of division, and significance of games pitched to being contributing factors.
not at all… I was saying he has performed with pressure. He has no margin for error.
I don’t think his adversity compares to either CC’s or Price’s. But I think there is some there. The pressure to feel like you have to be perfect every time out to only have a CHANCE of winning has to weigh heavily on a 162 game season, and to continue to go out there and want the ball and perform. The fact that he wants one more start is impressive. Even if he’s trying to make one more argument for the CY… How easy would it for him to have “phoned it in” after the All Star Break?
I’d argue that for Felix to have phoned it in after the All Star break, his record would be much worse than it is.
The motivations are totally different. Sabathia doesn’t want to let his team down by losing a game, because it might’ve meant they wouldn’t have made the playoffs. For Hernandez, their post season play was nixed a long time ago, so it’s not like his team mates can say “we’re doing OUR job, now you need to do YOURS”. He’s one of the only ones pushing himself, and at times it probably seems to him like he’s the only one performing at a high enough level to win games.
From the stats I’ve seen, Felix Hernandez has done REALLY well against AL East teams this year. I can’t remember his record against them, but his ERA was 0.64 I believe. That’s pretty damn good against those lineups.
That is impressive Rob – Yanks, Sox, Rays, and even Toronto can score.
Maybe he should start hitting… He can’t do WORSE.
I have a noted man crush on David Price, and I’ll admit I hope Price wins it, but I can admit King Felix has been the best pitcher in the AL this season. If he’s a yankee or Ray or shit.. A ROYAL – he’s probably 22 or 23 and 4 or 5.
Their offense is DREADFUL. And that may be an unfair comparison to “dread” who may not want to be lumped in with Seattle’s offense.
I Felix has the best pitching numbers… lets face facts, Wins and Losses can have a lot to do with luck/coincidence. CC’s only dominant number is Wins, and I don’t think he should win.
So here’s hoping CY goes to David or Felix (David, for my fandom’s sake)
The Halladay comparison is actually a good one to demonstrate Felix’s dominance, because ERA and WHIP are generally lower in the NL because of weaker lineups… but you get more IP in the AL because you don’t get pinch hit for.
In conclusion: NL CY – Roy Halladay, no brainer. He is what King Felix could be if Felix was on a good team. win 21 or 22 games. Lead in K’s and IP, and have a great ERA.
AL CY – David Price – he’s like the perfect medium between Felix and CC. Has wins and a nice low ERA… oh and is one of my favorite players. (but I’m still okay with Felix winning)
Felix Hernandez wins this hands down.
He doesn’t win because his team can’t score runs.
In terms of talented and holding up his end of the bargain – he’s done more than enough to be considered the best pitcher in the AL.
To further things along though including the discussion above, for all of the arguments about “pressure” in a pennant race. The Award is representative for an entire body of work, not just when it comes down to crunch time in the last month of the season. Prior to that its just baseball – things ebb and flow with ups and downs. Sure there is pressure now in September, but its not the same thing back in April and May. In fact, now, I’d almost give props to Felix for going out there and giving that kind of effort. He doesn’t have much to play for but he’s still bringing his A-game for his team every night.
Also, while there is pressure on Price now, and CC, you have to think there is a larger margin of error. One run and the Mariners could be done. The Yanks and Tampa can score runs. You give up a run or two in the first 4-5, you are still in that ball game. You can almost have a “hold the fort” mentality because you do have a lineup that can turn the game around supporting you.
Remember, it’s up to the baseball writers, and for the most part they are morons. That said, they finally got it right last year with Greinke in the AL and giving it to Lincy in the NL despite being behind others in wins. But that’s the exception. Bartolo Colon has a CY Young for crying out loud! Look it up. Not sure who he beat out, but I remember it being an injustice and he only got it because of his 20 wins.
Finally the writers are starting to catch up to the stats. With sites like baseball prospectus and all of the emphasis on stats players can actually control from our sabermetric friends, the media is finally making the important stats more mainstream. Like Ks, K/IP, pERA etc.
I think Felix should be unanimous. If he pitched for the Yanks or Sox, he’d have 20 wins most likely.
King Felix for Cy Young 2010. Get on board old fogy baseball writers.
Gools, I actually heard Buster Olney talking about the shift in voting focus for the Cy Young. It was actually great to hear the possibility that they were starting to consider the more individual stats as opposed to wins.
Here is a stat that will show how bad the Mariners were this year. If Felix pitched 9 innings in every start while only giving up 1 run each start. His record would still only have been 16-8. That’s right, if his ERA was 1.00 he would have only gained 3 wins and dropped 4 losses from his 13-12 record and he also would have 5 no decisions. To argue that the state of your team’s contention is a huge factor, it is not. Was last year’s winner from either league in the playoffs? No. Zack Grienke won last years award on the Royals, who last I checked were not even close to the top of their division. I understand why being on a playoff contending team would be a factor. But the award isn’t for Most Valuable Pitcher, it is for Most Outstanding, meaning the best in the league statistically. Another fun fact, Felix has 30 quality starts this year the most since ’02 when RANDY JOHNSON had 30, and Hernandez has thrown 209 scoreless innings of his 249.2. Felix is the best pitcher in the league period, he is the Cy Young of 2010.