Hernandez was easily the best pitcher in the AL this past season. With 232 Ks, 249 IP and an amazing 2.27 ERA, King Felix showed he was deserving of the award. He did everything he could control. Had he been on, say, the Yankees for instance, he would have easily won twenty games. And there would have been no debate. Instead of winning 21 of 28 first place votes, he might have gotten them all, like Roy Halladay did. But that doesn't matter at all. What matters is the man who deserved the award got what he should have.
Hernandez was the obvious choice. As you pointed out, he did everything in his control right. He struck out a mind-boggling 232 in 249 innings pitched, that's nearly 8.5 strikeouts per 9 innings pitched. Even when he lost, he still very, very good.
ReplyDeleteBaseball talks about this every year - what statistics are important to a pitcher. Are wins the most important? ERA? Should a pitcher be determined by strikeouts? Or is WHIP a better determinant of a pitcher's ability? Who should the Cy Young be awarded to? Should it be the best pitcher or the most valuable pitcher?
To start off, the Cy Young should be awarded to the best pitcher, not the most valuable pitcher, which I would define as the one with the most wins. There are so many statistics beyond a pitcher's control. As Bill James and other sabermetricians will argue, a pitcher should neither be awarded nor penalized for the success and failures of his defense. In essence, anything that is beyond his control on the mound he should be held accountable for. Unearned runs are a great illustration of this.
Wins are great. They demonstrate that a pitcher can pitch well enough consistently to help his team win. Of course, how good is good? How consistent is consistent. Felix undoubtedly had to be more consistent in Seattle that he would otherwise be in the Bronx. As vital as Sabathia was to the Yankees throughout the season, he would have won just as often as Hernandez did, if that much, had he spent the season in Seattle.
ERA and WHIP are the two big statistics of pitchers. A pitcher can control these. And he should be held accountable.
As nice as strikeouts are, they are certainly not everything. For a batter, a strikeout is the worst out you can make. You did not put the ball in play, thus did not put pressure on the defense to make a play. It is an easy out. From a pitcher's standpoint, however, too many strikeouts can be detrimental. More strike outs means more pitches, more pitches means fewer innings pitched and less distance into a game. We have seen pitchers who have won Cy Young awards without a lot of strike outs. Take Brandon Webb, for example, a recent winner.
I agree with nearly all of your points. As strikeouts aren't everything, they help to establish the dominance of a pitcher. While they can hurt the IP of a pitcher, such was not the case with Hernandez. He was a standout in all the major stat categories, as you said, which is why he was the obvious choice.
ReplyDeleteI also liked what you said about the "best pitcher" vs. the "most valuable pitcher." While Hernandez wouldn't even be in the Cy discussion if it went to the "most valuable" pitcher, simply because his team wasn't a contender. If the most valuable pitcher always won the Cy, the winner would never come from a non-playoff team. It would have to have gone to Sabathia, with his over 3 ERA, simply because he led the league in wins, and helped lead his team to the postseason.