THE KING IS CROWNED!!!!!!

YES!
Felix Hernandez won the Cy Young Award that was rightfully his.

And we can all breathe a nice sigh of relief that the writers voting didn’t say “Hey! He didn’t get as many wins… how good could he be?”

Best WAR for Pitchers.
The best ERA.
Best Hits per 9 IP.
2nd best WHIP.
Most innings pitched.
2nd in strikeouts (1 strikeout behind the leader.)
Most games started.
2nd most complete games (1 behind the leader.)
Best Adjusted Pitching Runs
Best Adjusted Pitching Wins
Best Base-Out Runs Saved
Best Situational Wins Saved
Best Base-out Wins Saved.

AND he won 13 games on a team that lost 101!

As I wrote before, he deserved it even if he was sub .500.

Good job writers… unlike the American Idol voters, you impressed me.

Hey Mariners… let’s compromise on Felix Hernandez starting

So the Mariners are at home for the last day of the season… and I guess it is fitting for a year where many people picked them to win the AL West and instead lost 100 games that they are giving their fans nothing to cheer for on the last day.

Felix Hernandez, looking to cement a Cy Young resume that has everything except the eye popping win total (although winning 13 games on a 100 loss team isn’t easy) has been shut down for the year.

You see, the young man has thrown too many innings. In fact he has more innings pitched than anyone in the American League.

He’s thrown 249 2/3 innings… and evidently his arm will explode if he throws 250.

I get it… innings limits. It works. Just ask Joba Chamberlain and Stephen Strasburg.

But do you really want the final moment of the 2010 Mariners season a start by Ryan Rowland Smith?

The guy let up 11 earned runs in one start in July. I know I am supposed to ignore win totals, but 1-10 just sucks… and the 6.90 ERA doesn’t help.

So here’s what I propose, Mariners… for the fans.

Have Felix Hernandez start and throw two innings. Inevitably he will strike out 2 batters in those 2 innings.

Then remove him to a thunderous ovation.

Why 2 innings and 2 strikeouts?

2 innings will give him 251 2/3 innings… 1 more inning than Roy Halladay who leads the majors in that category.

He is also 1 strikeout behind big league leader Jared Weaver.

So those 2 innings will give him the most innings pitched in the bigs, the most strikeouts in the bigs, the lowest qualifying ERA in the bigs, and tied for the most starts in the bigs.

Those 2 innings and 2 strikeouts could make a compelling argument to even the old school voters that he pitched better than anyone in baseball this year.

And hey! That would mean people would be talking about the Mariners in the off season.

How nice would that be?
I would say nicer than a Ryan Rowland Smith start.

YES… you can be a .500 winner and deserve the Cy Young Award

I heard the panel on MLB last night talk about the American League Cy Young Award today and they unanimously picked C. C. Sabathia, mainly based on his 20 wins.

John Hart said that Felix Hernandez had the great numbers but his win total wasn’t enough.

I don’t claim to know more about baseball than John Hart nor the panel.
That being said, that is “smearing feces on the wall crazy.”

And yesterday’s game is a case in point.
Hernandez let up one run in the first inning… the 50th home run of the season by Jose Bautista.
That was the only blemish. He pitched a complete game, retiring 13 in a row at one point. He let up only one other hit besides the Bautista homer, walked 4 and faced 28 batters in 8 innings for the complete game.

He got the loss. So in John Hart’s mind, 8 innings, 1 run and 2 hits is a performance that shows he is NOT worthy of a Cy Young.

Let me put it into clearer terms.

Here are the categories where Hernandez finishes ahead of Sabathia
(and he leads the league in the bold categories:)

ERA
INNINGS PITCHED
STRIKE OUTS
BATTERS FACED
ADJUSTED PITCHING RUNS
BASE OUT RUNS
SAVED SITUATION WINS SAVED
COMPLETE GAMES
COMPLETE GAME SHUTOUTS
WALKS AND HITS PER INNINGS PITCHED
BATTING AVERAGE AGAINST
STRIKEOUT PER 9 INNINGS
STRIKEOUT TO WALK RATIO
FEWEST HOME RUNS PER 9 INNINGS
ADJUSTED ERA +

Here are the categories where Sabathia finishes ahead of Hernandez
(and he leads the league in the bold categories:)

WINS
WIN LOSS PERCENTAGE

And that’s it.

I don’t even know what half of those stats mean for Hernandez… all I know he has pitched better all season. Was he supposed to throw more innings? Let up fewer runs? Strike out more batters? Nobody did ANY of those better than Hernandez!

I am not disrespecting Sabathia who is having a wonderful season. And I understand he has a role of the horse of the Yankee staff and has to shoulder the innings burden of a shaky rotation.

But keep in mind that 10 of his 20 wins have been against Baltimore, Seattle and Kansas City.

Nor am I putting down David Price who should finish in the top 3 in the Cy Young vote with Sabathia and Hernandez.

But both of them have All Stars in their line up and bullpen. I covered in an earlier post that with a team this bad, 12 wins IS an accomplishment!

And guess what? He is 3-0 against the Yankees.

In Hernandez’s 12 losses, his team has scored a GRAND TOTAL of 14 runs.

Nice support.

I can go through Hernandez’s line up that he had today… the fact that the number 3 hitter is a .236 batter and the clean up hitter is below the Mendoza line… but keep this in mind.

In a one run game they pinch hit for the #5 hitter.

Would the Yankees say “It’s late in a close game. Send in someone to bat for Robinson Cano”?

Nope.

He’s the Cy Young winner.
The numbers don’t lie.

If not, then just automatically award the Cy Young to the guy with the most wins.