Felix Hernandez has had a fantastic season. He and Ichiro are the sole bright spots on the Mariners roster. Last year Felix was dominant as well but lost out on the Cy Young award because Zack Greinke of the Kansas City Royals had a freak year. Greinke hasn’t come close to reproducing his stats from 2009 and Felix has gotten even better. Hernandez does have some competition, however if you throw out wins, a stat the pitcher has very little control over, he is the clear cut choice to win his first Cy Young.
Lets take a look at his closest competition:
W L CG IP ERA BB K WHIP
CC Sabathia 21 7 2 237.2 3.18 74 197 1.19
David Price 19 6 2 207.2 2.73 79 187 1.20
Jon Lester 19 8 2 204 2.96 78 220 1.16
Clay Bucholtz 17 7 1 173.2 2.33 67 120 1.20
And now lets look at Felix Hernandez
Felix Hernandez 13 12 6 249.2 2.27 70 232 1.06
Like I said above, we are going to take out wins and losses from the equation.
Felix has 3 times as many complete games than any other pitcher on the list. He has 12 more innings pitched than his closest competitor. Felix has allowed less free passes than anyone on the list minus Bucholtz, yet has thrown nearly 80 more innings. Felix leads the AL in strikeouts and his WHIP is also the lowest of his competition.
Hernandez leads the AL in strikeouts, innings pitched, ERA, is second in WHIP (only to Cliff Lee who never allows BB) and third in complete games (Cliff Lee and Carl Pavano, both of whom have much larger ERA’s).
Looking at the stats, it is easy to compare that Felix Hernandez is the obvious choice for the award this season. Had he been on a team with halfway decent run support, we could be looking at a low to mid 20 win pitcher.
Lets take a look at his closest competition:
W L CG IP ERA BB K WHIP
CC Sabathia 21 7 2 237.2 3.18 74 197 1.19
David Price 19 6 2 207.2 2.73 79 187 1.20
Jon Lester 19 8 2 204 2.96 78 220 1.16
Clay Bucholtz 17 7 1 173.2 2.33 67 120 1.20
And now lets look at Felix Hernandez
Felix Hernandez 13 12 6 249.2 2.27 70 232 1.06
Like I said above, we are going to take out wins and losses from the equation.
Felix has 3 times as many complete games than any other pitcher on the list. He has 12 more innings pitched than his closest competitor. Felix has allowed less free passes than anyone on the list minus Bucholtz, yet has thrown nearly 80 more innings. Felix leads the AL in strikeouts and his WHIP is also the lowest of his competition.
Hernandez leads the AL in strikeouts, innings pitched, ERA, is second in WHIP (only to Cliff Lee who never allows BB) and third in complete games (Cliff Lee and Carl Pavano, both of whom have much larger ERA’s).
Looking at the stats, it is easy to compare that Felix Hernandez is the obvious choice for the award this season. Had he been on a team with halfway decent run support, we could be looking at a low to mid 20 win pitcher.
Comment