In the year of the pitcher, the race for the Cy Young Award in the American League has been closer then ever. There has not been a clear cut winner all year and it is still completely undecided.
The best part about the Cy Young Award is that it is awarded to the best pitcher in each league, unlike the MVP Award, in which the overall best player may not win the award.
Dennis Eckersley is the only pitcher to win both the Cy Young and MVP in the same season since the award was first introduced in 1956.
In the AL, there are four major candidates that I would consider for the Cy Young. They are CC Sabathia, David Price, Felix Hernandez and Jon Lester.
I have to knock Lester out of the running because he did not perform well in July and August. He also had a chance to get the Red Sox to the postseason and win his twentieth game in his last start of the season, but he only went four innings, allowing eight runs.
Price definitely deserves to be mentioned as a candidate. He was the ace on a playoff team. His numbers were up there with Hernandez and Sabathia but in the playoffs, he got the loss in two games, allowing a total of seven runs.
He could not get the Rays past the Rangers in the first round, and that is a major reason why I cut him out.
CC Sabathia looks as if he should be the clear winner in the A.L. with a league leading 21 wins, but that is the only major category that he leads out of the four candidates. When I looked at his stats more closely, I found out that with the same amount of starts as Hernandez, 34, his numbers do not even come close.
Sabathia’s ERA of 3.18 is almost one point higher than Hernandez’s 2.27. Sabathia also had 21 more earned runs than Hernandez’s 63. An interesting fact is that even with the same amount of starts, Hernandez pitched 12 more innings. Hernandez also beat Sabathia’s 197 strikeout total by 35, for a total of 232.
I was trying to figure out why Hernandez’s numbers were much better than Sabathia’s while his win/loss record was a sub par 13-12 compared to Sabathia’s 21-7. I thought Sabathia’s numbers were not as good because he plays in a tougher division.
The Yankees play in the A.L. East, which is one of the most competitive divisions in baseball compared to Seattle, who plays in the A.L. West, which is considered a weaker division.
I looked up both team’s strength of schedule and found out that the Yankees have the 8th hardest while the Mariners are ranked 10th.
Hernandez is also 5-1 against A.L. East opponents, including 3-0 just against the Yankees. Seattle’s offense only gave Hernandez 3.75 runs per start while the Yankees powerhouse offense provided Sabathia with 7.31.
Many people believe that Sabathia should win the Cy Young because of his win/loss record, but I feel that the award should be focused more on overall stats. Felix Hernandez’s overall numbers are much better than Sabathia’s, and that is why I believe he should win the A.L. Cy Young Award in 2010.
If Hernandez were to win this award, he would set a record for the least amount of wins by a starter to win the Cy Young. Kansas City’s Zach Greinke tied the current record of 16 wins last year.
Joe Beaurdoin can be reached at jbeaurdoin@spartans.ut.edu.
Can’t believe Cliff Lee is not in the running, but CC is.
The best arguments in favor of CC and Price are based on pressure. The two of them pitched for playoff teams, while Felix did not. While I believe the post season should be excluded from Cy Young awards, it’s worth looking at CC’s and Price’s struggles. When the only argument is pitching under pressure, and you exclude pitching for a terrible team as not being under pressure, well then I think it’s best to look at everything.