For once in a very long time, the voters got something right.
Congress may be divided as oil and water after this year’s midterm elections, but there was public discourse on the Cy Young voters decision for this year’s AL Cy Young award. And the winner? Felix Hernandez from the last-place Seattle Mariners.
Hernandez won the Cy Young with a 13-12 record, but boasted a major league best 2.27 ERA. While the win column is deceiving, Hernandez is deserving of the nod.
He beat out 21-game winner C.C. Sabathia from the Yankees, and is the first player during a non-strike season to win the award with less than 15 wins.
So it brings up the great debate: do wins really matter? When you boast an ERA close to two and you are only a game over .500, there is something seriously wrong.
He played for a team that lost 101 games last season. Also take into consideration many people believed off-season free agent signees of third baseman Chone Figgins and first baseman Casey Kotchman, as well as landing Cliff Lee, put the Mariners in contention for the AL West crown.
It was quite the contrary, as the Mariners were last in nearly every offensive category, and provided virtually no run support in Hernandez’ starts.
The Mariners scored two runs or less in 15 of Hernandez’ starts, and were 2-10 in those games with an ERA of less than three, and an ERA less than two in nine no-decisions.
He might have been 18th in wins, but led the AL in many other statistical categories including ERA (2.27), innings (249 2/3), hits per nine innings (7.0) and opponents batting average (.212).
Imagine how many wins he would have gotten say the Mariners averaged four runs of run support?
You could easily be looking at a 20-game winner. And for once the Cy Young voters looked at the overall body of work, rather than just the amount of wins.
Sports is about winning, but if the body of work leads the league and you are 13-12, that in itself is deserving of a Cy Young award.
If anything, this exemplifies the parity of baseball, and allows fans to recognize how a pitcher was able to overcome adversity, making due with little to no run support.
The award is based on the league’s best overall pitcher, not merited on how many wins they compile.
Pitchers have control over ERA, opponents batting average, innings pitched, and the amount of strikeouts, but have no control over the amount of run support they receive.
Sabathia got his run support, David Price from the Tampa Bay Rays also had a more productive offense to back his decisions up.
My colleague David Lopez put it very well: justice has been served.
It is unfair to slight these pitchers who put up even better statistical numbers than pitchers on winning teams, and leave them on the outside looking in.
Amounting the winner of the award to wins in a season is solely arbitrary and takes the control out of the pitcher’s hands. The performance-based award should always be in the player’s control.
Anytime a different approach is taken, it sparks controversy, but the Cy Young voters did it for all the right reasons. Their decisive decision for the Cy Young turned an arbitrary system of judgment into something that can take into account all aspects of a pitcher’s performance, whether its ERA or number of victories.
Great players should be recognized, regardless of the team’s talent level or performance during the course of the season.
Justice has been served.
Even Cy Young cannot help but grin from high above at the way his award was recognized in 2010.