Should Felix Hernandez Win the Cy Young Award?

[JosephC]

There has been a lot of buzz about Felix Hernandez possibly having a (decently good) shot at winning the 2010 American League Cy Young Award... So I think it is only fair to throw up this thread in order to see what everyone else feels about Felix possibly taking the Best Pitcher in the American League title.

I think most people would all agree that Felix has pitched better than C.C. Sabathia. His ERA is better and he has more punch outs. The only thing important that C. C. leads Felix on is wins, and you cannot blame Felix for the horrible run support he is given.

The person I would like to draw your attention to is Clay Buchholz. This guy has pitched amazingly well. After only pitching 92 innings last year, he has dominated with already 151 innings pitched (not close to Felix though!). He has an ERA of 2.25 and a Win/Loss record of 15-6, respectively.

I would venture to say that if I had to vote between Felix Hernandez and Clay Buchholz, I would be watching this last month very closely. They both are great pitchers and both have their upsides. Right now, I'd lean towards Buchholz just because he has EVERYTHING going for him (even the win-loss records), but Felix would come at a close second. With the way Felix has pitched the last two months, Felix would come out on top if he can hold that down. I don't think C.C is deserving of the Cy Young Award and it would be disgusting to see him take it away from either Felix or Buchholz.

Alright, your turn. Tell me who YOU would vote for, and why. Looks like Geoff Baker (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/marinersblog/2012831061_numbers_dont_support_contentio.html) is pretty convinced Felix is deserving this year.

[Igoe4Mariners]

He definately deserves it. The only thing holding him back is his record, which shouldn't even be a deciding factor in my book. The award should go to the best pitcher, not the best pitcher surrounded by the best team. And right now the best pitcher overall is Felix Hernandez.

[kiowaman]

Felix has shown lately that he deserves a shot, but if he didn't get it last season which he should have, come on, it is unlikely with the kind of team he is on he will win! If his so called teammates would have stepped up and played like major league baseball players he certainly would have it won. But since they can't get him runs to add to the win total it will hurt him. My biggest vote against him is what happened in Cleveland the last time they were there. Game three, two outs, seventh inninng, a small lead, a Figgins error and he came unglued and gave up six runs. Of course Brown is no better than Wak at being a manager up here should have had a quick talk with him after a couple of batters to get his head out but he didn't and Felix showed us why he still is not the so called King. Until he shakes off stuff like that, and gets nasty all the time at there he will come up short more times than not. Too bad because he has the stuff to be great and even though he has done much better lately, he still lacks the overall killer instinct and maturity level to be the best out there. So, although he is kicking butt lately, thanks to the so called team he is on it is unlikely he will win.

[Jared]

Shocked to be the first to suggest David Price. What gives, gentlemen?

[clarknova]

Shocked to be the first to suggest David Price. What gives, gentlemen?

What I find shocking are all the articles that suggest David Price but don't even mention Felix (http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100914&content_id=14646082&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb), who leads the AL in strikeouts (Price isn't in the top 10), ERA (Price is 4th), WAR (Price tied for 4th), Quality Starts, Innings Pitched etc. etc. In fact, the only meaningful category in which David Price is in the top 2 is wins. See here: http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/AL/2010-pitching-leaders.shtml . That guy in the article above is still ready to hand the award to Sabathia. What?!
To me Felix Hernandez has CLEARLY been the best pitcher in the AL this year. The stats back it up, unless you count wins as a huge part of the deciding factor and that means you're giving part of the award to the team that scored the runs that created those wins, which is all kinds of dumb when trying to figure out who the best pitcher was. If it's most valuable pitcher, and his value is only counted on a team with a meaningful season, then we should just let all the pitchers know that if they're on a crappy team, then can either give up zero runs the whole season, or forget about the Cy Young award.
There are 33 statistical categories on that page I posted a link to. Felix is #1 in 11 of them. The pitcher to lead the second most statistical categories is Cliff Lee with 4. Sabathia is #1 in wins. Price leads no statistical category.
Statistics show that if Felix pitched for the Yankess or even the Rays, he would have AT LEAST as many wins as these other guys. How is that statistic meaningful?
That's my take. (Liiiittle bit of homerism though!)