2014 Cy Young Award Winners

I had mentioned to someone yesterday whether in the Cy Young Award voting we would see an upset and/or the favored choices winning the trophy. Well folks, we got a bit of both when the announcement for the awards came down from the Baseball Writers of America's mountain. Here goes.

- 2014 American League Cy Young Pitcher of the Year
Seattle Mariners fans, especially those of the King's Korner are undoubtedly still steaming from their ace Felix Hernandez being denied his second AL Cy Young Award. Corey Kluber of the Cleveland Indians is your 2014 American League Cy Young Award winner.

In a very close vote by the Baseball Writers of America, Kluber earned 17 first-place votes and 169 points with Felix Hernandez of the Mariners earning the other 13 first-place votes and 159 points. White Sox starter Chris Sale finished third with 78 points.

18-9 with a 2.44 ERA and 269 strikeouts in 235 2/3 innings. The right-hander led the league in wins, finished second in strikeouts, third in innings pitched and was third in ERA.

After failing to make the All-Star Team, Kluber finished the season with a 10-4 record with a 1.73 ERA with 127 strikeouts and 19 walks. He pitched deep into those last 14 games, only once failing to reach into the sixth and reaching the sixth once, the seventh three times, the eighth four times, the ninth five times, completing two with one shutout.

In terms of Hernandez, the article Corey Kluber edges out King Felix from ESPN.com dated November 13, 2014 states:

Hernandez went 15-6 with an AL-leading 2.14 ERA and 248 strikeouts in 236 innings. He set a major league record when he pitched 16 straight games of seven or more innings and allowing two earned runs or less. It was a brilliant stretch from May to early August that put Hernandez in the lead for his second Cy Young award.

In the same 14 game stretch after the All-Star Game, Hernandez went 8-6 with a 2.16 ERA with 94 strikeouts and 21 walks. In those last 14-games, Hernandez failed to reach the sixth four times. He finished the sixth three times, the seventh seven times and the eighth twice. Hernandez was a victim of his team's lack of offensive performance in those games.

Kluber becomes the fourth Cleveland Indians pitcher to win the American League Cy Young Award Gaylord Perry in 1972, C.C. Sabathia in 2007 and Cliff Lee in 2008.

As I told my friend Christopher yesterday, I think Kluber's strong finish and the complete games/shutouts were the determining factors that led to his winning the AL Cy Young. I would have been satisfied if either he or Hernandez won the award. Both were deserving of the recognition.

- Click Here for Corey Kluber's 2014 Statistics from Baseball Reference.com
- Click Here for Felix Hernandez's 2014 Statistics from Baseball Reference.com
- Click Here for the article Could Corey Kluber become the first Cleveland Indians pitcher to win two AL Cy Young Awards? by Paul Hoynes from The Cleveland.com website

- 2014 National League Cy Young Pitcher of the Year
What can I say about Clayton Kershaw that hasn't been said already. Kershaw is quickly staking his claim as being arguably the most dominant pitcher of our generation by winning the National League Cy Young Award for the third time in the last four seasons.

Kershaw won the award via a unanimous vote taking all 30 first place votes. Cincinnati Reds' starter Johnny Cueto finished second and the St. Louis Cardinals' starter Adam Wainwright finished third.

According to the article Clayton Kershaw wins NL Cy Young dated November 12, 2014:

Kershaw, who also won the award in 2011 and 2013, went 21-3 with a 1.77 ERA this past season, leading the Dodgers (94-68) to their second straight NL West title. Kershaw was baseball's most dominant pitcher despite missing over a month with a back injury. He led the majors in wins and ERA and had 239 strikeouts in just 198 1/3 innings.

Kershaw also threw his first career no-hitter on June 18, when he had 15 strikeouts and did not walk a batter against the Colorado Rockies.

In doing so, he becomes the 14th National League pitcher to win the award unanimously. According to the BBWAA website, Sandy Koufax achieved it three times, Greg Maddux twice and once apiece by Randy Johnson, Bob Gibson, Steve Carlton, Rick Sutcliffe, Dwight Gooden, Orel Hershiser, Jake Peavy and Roy Halladay.

Kershaw is also the fifth NL pitcher to win the award in consecutive seasons. Maddux and Johnson each won four years in a row. The other back-to-back winners were Koufax and Tim Lincecum.

Kershaw’s third Cy Young Award tied the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers’ franchise record that was originally held by Sandy Koufax and is the eighth Dodgers pitcher to win the award and the twelfth time that the a Dodgers pitcher won the award. Don Newcombe was the first in 1956, followed by Don Drysdale in 1962, Sandy Koufax in 1963, 1965-1966, Mike Marshall in 1974, Fernando Valenzuela in 1981, Orel Hershiser in 1988, Eric Gagne in 2003 and finally Clayton Kershaw in 2011, 2013-2014.

Kershaw is also the sixth pitcher to win three Cy Young Awards in a four-year span since the award was first given in 1956. The other pitchers are Randy Johnson 1999-2002, Pedro Martinez 1997-2000, Greg Maddux 1992-1995, Jim Palmer 1973-1976 and Sandy Koufax 1963-1966.

What's even more impressive that Kershaw has only been in the league for seven years and has been a full-time player for the last six years. At the current age of 26, it is scary to think how much more he will improve and how many more awards he might be capable of winning. Now if the Dodgers can only get him a better bullpen so he can win a post-season game.

- Click Here to see Clayton Kershaw's 2014 Statistics from Baseball Reference.com

Later on today will be the Most Valuable Player announcement. Will it be a Southern California clean sweep with Mike Trout and Clayton Kershaw winning the award? Or will it be a Tigers player once again spoiling it for Trout, this time in the form of Victor Martinez. Can the Indians make it another upset in the form of Michael Brantley? Can Andrew McCutchen make it two in a row in the National League? Will Giancarlo Stanton grab the NL MVP trophy and further use that as a bargaining chip in his extension negotiations with the Marlins? We'll have to wait for 6pm to see who wins the awards.

Until Then Keep Playing Ball,
Baseball Sisco
#baseballsisco
#baseballsiscokidstyle

Can Matt Harvey's 2013 Season Be A Repeat of Felix Hernandez's 2010?

After last night's start Matt Harvey of the New York Mets sits with a 7-1 record with a league leading 2.00 ERA, 132 strikeouts and 0.85 WHIP in 17 games started. He has nine no-decisions so far this season and the lack of more wins due to his team's lack of run support and bullpen's inability to hold leads are causing the Mets' faithful to get more and more frustrated (or disappointed for Harvey as Sean stated yesterday). I can't help but wonder if Harvey continues as he is as a victim of his team, can he win the National League Cy Young in the same kind of fashion that Seattle Mariners starter Felix Hernandez won the American League Cy Young with a 13-12 record in 2010.

The winning of the American League Cy Young by Hernandez was historical in the sense that never had a starter won the award with so little wins (in a non shortened season) and leading (or being close to the top) of most of the major statistical categories. Also historical was the emphasis by the voters to overlook the wins and loss record of Hernandez and realize that he was a league leader that had no support from his offense throughout the year and that he shouldn't be penalized for that. Here are Hernandez's statistics from the 2010 season:

Player		W	L	ERA	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV		IP	H	R	ER	OBA	BB	K	WHIP
Felix Hernandez		13	12	2.27	34	34	6	1	0		249.2	194	80	53	.221	70	232	1.057

Here are Harvey's statistics up to today's date:

Player		W	L	ERA	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV		IP	H	R	ER	OBA	BB	K	WHIP
Matt Harvey		7	1	2.00	17	17	0	0	0		117	76	26	26	.184	24	132	0.85

Here is the breakdown of Hernandez's starts in 2010 by season halves:

1st Half: 19 starts, 7-5, 2.88 ERA, 137.2 IP, 131 K, 42 BB, 44 R, 42 ER 

2nd Half: 15 starts, 6-7, 1.53 ERA, 112 IP, 101 K, 28 BB, 31 R, 19 ER

Harvey's first half performance is better than Hernandez's by a significant amount (with probably two starts to go) with the exception of innings pitched. Hernandez just tore it up in the second half.

Here is a little more statistical analysis by Bob Roarman from November 19, 2010 on the White Sox Interactive forum page:

Last season Hernandez had 30 quality starts. There was only one of those quality starts that could be considered "cheap" in where he just barely met the requirements. Pretty damn good, led the MLB, and I hope by god that we can all at least agree that quality starts is a legit stat, something that can help measure a pitcher's performance. Help to measure, understand I'm not going on that one stat alone, I'm just using it as a jumping off point.

Assuming we can agree on that, let's delve deeper into those starts and start to expand analysis and not just spout off those darned tricky advanced stats like WAR and ERA+ and confuse everyone. So out of those 30 quality starts, Felix had 13 wins. His stat line in those 13 wins:

106+ IP, 0.84 ERA, 0.78 WHIP, 117 K, 19 BB, 10 ER.

About as good as you can possibly be. But there were still 17 games he either got the loss or a no decision. Of those 17 quality starts where he didn't get a win this is his stat line:

0 wins, 8 losses, 9 no decisions. 123 IP, 2.20 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 30 ER, 97 Ks, 103 H, 30 BB.

Wow, still great numbers. So how the hell did he not get a single win out of any those games? Going further into those 17 games while he was still the pitcher of record, this is what the Seattle offensive juggernaut supported him with:

24 runs (not even a run and a half a game) a .208 collective batting average, .268 OBP, .295 SLG and hit .149 (15-101) w/RISP.

That is what you call stunningly and shamefully ****ing awful. One of, if not the, worst offenses of the past decade. 7 of those games they scored jack **** while he was in the game. They scored a whopping one run 4 times and 2 runs twice. But let's go even deeper, just for fun, and see how the bullpen did in those same games.

Of those same 17 games, Felix completed two of them (both losses of course) and the bullpen pitched in the remaining 15 games. In 3 of those games, they actually did their job and let up nothing. In 12 of the 15 games this is how they fared:

31 IP, 45 H, 23 BB, 32 ER (!!), 9.29 ERA, 2.194 WHIP

That's Boone Logan bad. "No chance" bad.

Hernandez's overall numbers in his 30 quality starts are:
229.2 IP, 167 H, 40 ER, 56 BB, 214 SO, 11 HR, 1.57 ERA, 0.97 WHIP

Great numbers. Couldn't ask for those kind of numbers. But that's what he put up. And he has 13 wins to show for it. The funny thing is that if he's just a bit worse than a world beater in those games, he probably has even less wins. Maybe he's not even over .500, who knows. The point is looking at the number of wins he has does not even come within a mile of how well he pitched this season or how any other pitcher performed. You're putting way too much emphasis on something that doesn't account for near enough of how well or poorly a player pitched during the season.

Like I said, you don't have to be a stat geek or a "propeller head" to understand why Hernandez won the Cy Young. He just had an absolutely historically bad offense which gave him less than minimal support in the vast majority of games he pitched and the bullpen definitely was not doing him any favors either. You can't rack up 19-20 wins if your team struggles to score a little over 1 run a game in over half the games you pitch in. Period. You can pitch lights out (and he did in those games) and most of the time it won't matter and it was no different for Felix. He was fortunate to finish with 13 wins. That's insane to have to say that, but it's true.

Its hard not to make a comparison with Harvey (at this point in time) and with Hernandez's 2010 season. It just seems that Harvey needs to throw complete game shutouts just to preserve any lead that he might have. It seems that Mets manager Terry Collins is against the idea of leaving his pitcher out there to burn himself out throwing complete games. As has happened all season, Harvey will continue to be at the mercy of his teammates if he pitches solid games and leaves with leads.

I believe if Matt Harvey can keep up with the way he's pitching (barring an undefeated season by Arizona's Patrick Corbin or an injury to Harvey) he would be a favorite to win the NL Cy Young. The precedent has already been set in 2010. We'll have to wait and see if History can repeat itself in 2013.

For Further Reading
- Click Here for Matt Harvey's season statistics from MLB.com
- Click Here for Felix Hernandez's statistics from the 2010 season from Baseball Reference.com
- Click Here for Felix Hernandez's career statistics from Baseball Reference.com

Bittersweet Day In The Latino Baseball Community

I know it has seemed a bit of long time since my last post but today was a day in Baseball History that was both disappointing and invigorating...all within a number of hours. First the disappointment.

It was announced earlier that Dominican outfielder Melky Cabrera of the San Francisco Giants had been suspended for 50 games for the failing of a PED drug test. Melky seemed to find his full stride after a decent season in Kansas City and underachiving seasons in Atlanta and New York. At the time of the announcement, Melky was leading the Majors in hits (159), second in Batting average (.346), was a pivotal player in the San Francisco Giants lineup and field and not even a month ago was named Most Valuable Player of the All-Star Game. Now he is just another name added to those who were caught with performance enhancing drugs in their urine.

What a way to piss away a potentially lucrative contract in a free agent year. What a way to piss away an opportunity to move into the next level of players. Regardless what his reasons were, he just pissed them away. Now for the rest of his career he will have the scrutiny that is levied on all those who have failed a PED test. Sure he'll sign another contract and may even have a long career, but he'll forever have the stigma above him of a cheater. If he has a good season, people will suspect something foul. If he struggles, then he will be seen as someone who can't succeed without the help of a foreign substance. It really is sad and disappointing. I really thought that Melky shed that "lazy" title that he seemed to have here in with the Yankees with his performance with the Giants.

I'm really tired of my fellow Latinos continually getting caught taking this junk. I understand the pressure that they have to succeed. The pressure to often be the main provider. The pressure to be the proverbial "way off the island" for their family. I get it. Trust me, I grew up seeing how my Dad was the pivotal one here in NYC providing for those "back home" and he wasn't a professional Baseball player. Its much worse for them. But there is a system in place that catches those that cheat. Just work doubly hard to get to where you need to. Its just frustrating to me as a fan of both the game and of my fellow Latino brothers. It gets harder and harder to back them up with they go and screw things up. I guess I'll quote Alfalfa and the rest of the little rascals when I say "Don't Drink the Milk...It's spoiled". Not only was it spoiled but also tainted. Just sad.

Enough of the disappointment. After a few hours of the Cabrera announcement, another Latino ballplayer was making news for a much better reason. Seattle Mariners starter, former American League Cy Young Award winner and Venezuelan Felix Hernandez was making history. In a dominant performance against the Tampa Bay Rays, Hernandez became the 23rd pitcher to throw a Perfect Game in the history of Major League Baseball. I was lucky enough to turn the game on in the 9th inning and Hernandez was just nasty in his breaking balls and velocity. He hit 95 on the gun in the 9th inning. In total Hernandez Hernandez struck out 12 batters. Of those 12, eight were in the last four innings. And he is only 24 years old. The scary thing is that he can only get better with time!!! To bad the Mariners don't have a quality team built around arguably the best pitcher in the game. For years now I've avoided calling him by the nickname that has become synonymous with Hernandez. Now I can indeed call him King Felix. Felicidades hermano y muchas gracias for taking the sting of the day away for us for just a little bit.

On a side note to the perfect game, what is the deal with the Tampa Bay Rays and no-hitters and perfect games. Since their inaugural season of 1998, the Rays have been no-hit five times, all of them from 2002 and on. Four have come since 2009 with three of them being perfect games (Mark Buerhle 2009, Dallas Braden 2010, Felix Hernandez 2012). Talk about snake-bit. Maybe they need to throw a perfect game to break the curse.

On another side note. I have to apologize for being a bit neglecting in my blogging duties. Sometimes real life, primarily work takes a front seat other things. Yes, even Baseball. I've been trying to improve my bartending skills and have been focusing on a new endevour called Sisco Vanilla Serves and Drinks. Feel free to check it out. Let me know what you think.

FH

Bittersweet Day in the Latino Baseball Community

I know it has seemed a bit of long time since my last post but today was a day in Baseball History that was both disappointing and invigorating...all within a number of hours. First the disappointment.

It was announced earlier that Dominican outfielder Melky Cabrera of the San Francisco Giants had been suspended for 50 games for the failing of a PED drug test. Melky seemed to find his full stride after a decent season in Kansas City and underachiving seasons in Atlanta and New York. At the time of the announcement, Melky was leading the Majors in hits (159), second in Batting average (.346), was a pivotal player in the San Francisco Giants lineup and field and not even a month ago was named Most Valuable Player of the All-Star Game. Now he is just another name added to those who were caught with performance enhancing drugs in their urine.

What a way to piss away a potentially lucrative contract in a free agent year. What a way to piss away an opportunity to move into the next level of players. Regardless what his reasons were, he just pissed them away. Now for the rest of his career he will have the scrutiny that is levied on all those who have failed a PED test. Sure he'll sign another contract and may even have a long career, but he'll forever have the stigma above him of a cheater. If he has a good season, people will suspect something foul. If he struggles, then he will be seen as someone who can't succeed without the help of a foreign substance. It really is sad and disappointing. I really thought that Melky shed that "lazy" title that he seemed to have here in with the Yankees with his performance with the Giants.

I'm really tired of my fellow Latinos continually getting caught taking this junk. I understand the pressure that they have to succeed. The pressure to often be the main provider. The pressure to be the proverbial "way off the island" for their family. I get it. Trust me, I grew up seeing how my Dad was the pivotal one here in NYC providing for those "back home" and he wasn't a professional Baseball player. Its much worse for them. But there is a system in place that catches those that cheat. Just work doubly hard to get to where you need to. Its just frustrating to me as a fan of both the game and of my fellow Latino brothers. It gets harder and harder to back them up with they go and screw things up. I guess I'll quote Alfalfa and the rest of the little rascals when I say "Don't Drink the Milk...It's spoiled". Not only was it spoiled but also tainted. Just sad.

Enough of the disappointment. After a few hours of the Cabrera announcement, another Latino ballplayer was making news for a much better reason. Seattle Mariners starter, former American League Cy Young Award winner and Venezuelan Felix Hernandez was making history. In a dominant performance against the Tampa Bay Rays, Hernandez became the 23rd pitcher to throw a Perfect Game in the history of Major League Baseball. I was lucky enough to turn the game on in the 9th inning and Hernandez was just nasty in his breaking balls and velocity. He hit 95 on the gun in the 9th inning. In total Hernandez Hernandez struck out 12 batters. Of those 12, eight were in the last four innings. And he is only 24 years old. The scary thing is that he can only get better with time!!! To bad the Mariners don't have a quality team built around arguably the best pitcher in the game. For years now I've avoided calling him by the nickname that has become synonymous with Hernandez. Now I can indeed call him King Felix. Felicidades hermano y muchas gracias for taking the sting of the day away for us for just a little bit.

On a side note to the perfect game, what is the deal with the Tampa Bay Rays and no-hitters and perfect games. Since their inaugural season of 1998, the Rays have been no-hit five times, all of them from 2002 and on. Four have come since 2009 with three of them being perfect games (Mark Buerhle 2009, Dallas Braden 2010, Felix Hernandez 2012). Talk about snake-bit. Maybe they need to throw a perfect game to break the curse.

On another side note. I have to apologize for being a bit neglecting in my blogging duties. Sometimes real life, primarily work takes a front seat other things. Yes, even Baseball. I've been trying to improve my bartending skills and have been focusing on a new endevour called Sisco Vanilla Serves and Drinks. Feel free to check it out. Let me know what you think.

FH

Felix Hernandez 2010 AL Cy Young Winner

It was announced today that Venezolano Felix Hernández is the 2010 American League Cy Young Award winner. The voters recognized that though Hernández finished the season with a 13-12 record he led the league (or was at the top of the league)in most pitching categories. The voters placed emphasis on performance over results since the Mariners had the worst offense in the league and failed to score enough runs during Hernández's starts to win the games he started. It is believed that his record would be different (and more like prior Cy Young Winners) if he had a team like the Yankees or Rays hitting behind him. Regardless if that is true or not, history has been set with Hernández winning the award with the lowest number of wins in a non-strike season (Fernando Valenzuela won the award in 1981 with a 13-7 record).

Hernández is the second Venezolano to win the Cy Young since Johan Santana won the award in 2004 and 2006. In total there have been seven Latinos to have win the award. Here is the list:

1969 Mike Cuellar (AL)(w/ Denny McClain)
1981 Fernando Valenzuela (NL)
1984 Willie Hernández (AL)
1997 Pedro Martínez (NL)
1999 Pedro Martínez (AL)
2000 Pedro Martínez (AL)
2004 Johan Santana (AL)
2005 Bartolo Colon (AL)
2006 Johan Santana (AL)
2010 Felix Hernández (AL)

The breakdown by country is as follows:
Dominican Republic 2
Venezuela 2
Puerto Rico 1
Mexico 1
Cuba 1

Hernández's Cy Young Award is sense of pride for all Venezolanos and I believe it will be front page on every newspaper in Venezuela. Congratulations to Felix Hernández on winning the Cy Young Award.

FH

For Further Reading
- Click Here for the official BBWAA webpage listing the results of the 2010 AL Cy Young Award
- Click Here for the list of past Cy Young Award winners since 1956

Felix Hernández 2010 AL Cy Young Winner

The news came down from the proverbial mountain of the Baseball Writers Association of America and after a big proud pat on the back of many of the Baseball writers, it was announced that Seattle Mariners ace Felix Hernández with a 13-12 record is the 2010 American League Cy Young Award Winner. This is the lowest amount of wins a Cy Young starter has won the award with since the strike shortened season of 1981 when Fernando Valenzuela won the award with a 13-7 record.
Hernández is the second Seattle Mariners pitcher to win the award with Randy Johnson being the first in 1995. Though it was believed that the vote would be close between Hernández and New York Yankees ace C.C. Sabathia, this proved not to be so.

Hernández led the voting with 21 of 28 first-place votes for a total of 167 points (21-2-3-1-1). David Price of the Tampa Bay Rays who had a 19-6 record came in second with 4 first-place votes for a total of 111 points (4-15-7-1-0). C.C. Sabathia, with 21-7 record finished with 102 points (3-10-12-2-1). Jon Lester of the Boston Red Sox with a 19-9 record finished with 33 points (0-0-1-9-12). Jered Weaver of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim with a 13-12 record finished the top five with 24 points (0-1-2-6-2).

The reason that I keep listing the records for the runner-ups is that a big issue was made for wins not being the paramount reason for Cy Young consideration. I keep reading about situations like 2005 when Bartolo Colón won the award with a 21-8 record and a 3.48 ERA over Johan Santana 16-7 record with a 2.87 ERA and the 1993 Cy Young race when Jack McDowell won the award with a 22-10 record and a 3.37 ERA over Kevin Appier who had a 18-8 record and a 2.56 ERA. I'm not going to go into those two races aside from just showing them as an illustration of years where wins and losses played a big part in the Cy Young race.

I personally feel that by writers and analysts saying that "wins don't count" are an insult to those pitchers who did win games. Price, Sabathia and Lester all won 19 or more games and let's be truthful, none of those players had any "gimmies". It wasn't as if those guys had wins come easy. Sure they had the potent offenses of the Rays, Yankees and Red Sox (respectively) but at least with Sabathia, I saw him grind out wins, often at times when he or the team didn't have it. Maybe if the writers said that Hernández won the award exclusively based on his performance then I'm OK with that. But for them to say that "wins don't count then I have issue with it. The wins count for Hall of Fame consideration, right? Then why not now. In past posts, I have stated where I stand in terms of this year's race and if you are so inclined, you can check them out here: October 6, 2010 and September 8, 2010.

So, just don't you nice people out there think I'm a sour Yankees fan I do believe that Hernández deserved and earned the Cy Young award here are some impressive stats that were posted by ESPN's Jayson Stark on his Twitter feed earlier today:

Here's a Cy Young stat to consider: Felix had 0.54 ERA in 4 starts vs #Yankees & #RedSox. Price had 3.61 vs them in 7 starts.

And another one:

Another Felix stat: Had a 2.26 ERA in 22 starts vs teams w winning records. Price 2.67 in 21 starts. CC had 3.32 ERA vs winning teams

Trust me, I saw those two games against the Yankees this season. He was flat out dominant.

Another small issue that I have with this year's vote is whether or not will be see a continuing trend in dismissing wins in the Cy Young voting. As seen with the voting for the 2009 Cy Young vote both winners had the then lowest amounts for starters to win the award: Tim Lincecum with 15 and Zack Greinke with 16. Will we see a starter win the Cy Young with less than 13 wins? Who knows, maybe next year will be the year.

FH

For Further Reading
- Click Here for the official BBWAA webpage listing the results of the 2010 AL Cy Young Award
- Click Here for the list of past Cy Young Award winners since 1956

Felix Hernandez for AL Cy Young?

For those of you who know me personally know that I can be both modern and old fashioned when it comes to the game of Baseball. I try to stay up-to-date with the modern methods of statistical and player analysis and comparison but I also try to be old fashioned in thinking in certain areas. One of these areas is with the Cy Young Award and what it means to be a starting pitcher. I believe that an effective starter and a quality start is not one that lasts just 6 innings. No, I believe that a starter should pitch seven or more innings a game in order to be labeled a quality starter. In addition, analysis of said starter should take wins and losses into account. It is in that last sentence that I feel things are changing. Maybe it is me, but I seem to have seen a growing trend among Baseball writers to dismiss wins and losses, especially when it comes to the example of the Seattle Mariners' Felix Hernandez. (Photo Credit Aaron Reynolds from the Hardball Times website)

For the last few weeks I've been reading how Felix Hernandez is generating Cy Young buzz and consideration with a sub .500 record. Granted, Hernandez is playing on the most under-achieving team of the 2010 season and as of late it seems that any game they win is when he's on the mound. One of the writers who believes that Hernandez is Cy Young worthy is Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times.

A few weeks ago, Baker wrote about Hernandez's chances on winning the Cy Young award. As he noted in his article Felix Hernandez selling East Coast on his Cy Young Award credentials. How about the West Coast?, take the wins and losses out of the equation, then Hernandez leads (or is near the top) most of the vital pitching categories for Cy Young. After this his performace a few weeks ago on an Eastern road trip where Hernandez dominated both the Yankees and the Red Sox, Baker is even more confident in his stance of Hernandez being the front-runner for the award. I don't dispute most of what he is saying. But I don't believe that it is (his belief) an East Coast bias and a West Coast disbelief that is going to keep Hernandez from winning the award. No, I believe that his wins and losses are what is going to decide whether or not he wins the award.

Bad enough last year's Cy Young winners for the American and National Leagues won the awards with 16 and 15 wins respectively. At the very least they had a 2-to-1 win-to-loss ratio. It was always my understanding that winning games was the goal for all starters, especially the ace. Now I'm not knocking Hernandez for his losses. He's gone out there game after game and has given his all often a victim of a lack of production from his offense and/or a lack of defense behind him. In a prior post called The Resurgent Seattle Mariners, I highlight how impressive both Hernandez and Cliff Lee looked together before Lee was traded to the Texas Rangers. I'm not a Felix Hernandez hater. Far from it. Trust me, I've watched Hernandez dominate the Yankees in three starts this past season (3-0 and almost logged his fourth complete game against the Yanks in a row). But I do believe that any Cy Young winner should at the very least have an over .500 record and at the least a 2-to-1 win-to-loss ratio.

Currently Hernandez is 11-10 with a 2.30 ERA with a league leading 209 K's in a league leading 219.1 IP with 30 games started having completed five. Hernandez wouldn't be the first pitcher to win the Cy Young on a bad team. Maybe this is an unfair comparison, but Steve Carlton won 27 games during the 1972 season (27-10) while the team in total won 59 games (59-97). He won the Cy Young. Playing for a bad team shouldn't disqualify anyone from winning the award. But the pitcher should (in my opinion) fit the criteria of having over a .500 record and at the least a 2-to-1 win-to-loss ratio.

What can Hernandez do to improve his standing in the eyes of the Cy Young voters? Keep winning games and at the very least try to get his record a few more games over .500. Last season, Hernandez went 15-1 in the second half to vault himself to a record of 19-5 placing 2nd in the Cy Young vote. He has the ability to do it. I'd be more open to change my position if Hernandez finished the season strong. Whether or not the team will let him do so is another story. In the end, I just hate to think that, in this era of metrics that dissect every little statistic and reorganizes them into infinite categories, wins and losses no longer have a bearing on who wins the Cy Young.

What do you think.
FH

For Further Reading:
- Click Here to see Felix Hernandez's game-by-game log for the 2010 season from MLB.com
- Click Here to see Felix Hernandez's bio page from MLB.com

The Resurgent Seattle Mariners

Arguably this season biggest disappointment has to be the Seattle Mariners. Coming off a 101-loss season (61-101) in 2008, the Mariners went 85-77 in 2009 and entered the 2010 season with high expectations. The free-agent moves made by Seattle GM Jack Zduriencik only added to the high expectations. But as things are in the game of Baseball, often expectations are often unfulfilled. As of today, table setter Chone Figgins is batting .232 with only 32 runs scored and 22 stolen bases, cleanup hitter Milton Bradley is batting .207 with 7 Hrs, 27 RBI and 23 runs scored. These numbers are hardly what the Mariners expected for their investment. Not only that, I doubt anyone in Baseball (including myself) thought that the Seattle Mariners would have a record of 33-44 and be 14 games behind the first place Texas Rangers. But thanks to the team's strength, things are finally looking up for the Mariners.

Thanks to the one-two punch of Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez, the Mariners are currently 10-5 in the last 15 games. In those 15 games, Lee and Hernandez are a combined 6-1 with 6 complete games (Lee is 3-0 in those games and Hernandez is 2-1). In a combined 62.2 innings, Lee and Hernandez have given up a total of 37 hits (6Hrs), 11 runs (10 Earned), 4 Walks and 44K's for an ERA of 1.45 and a WHIP of 0.59. This is what Seattle imagined as their pitching being like when they traded for Cliff Lee in the off-season.

The bats are slowly starting to wake up as well. In those last 15 games the Mariners have scored 52 runs including 7 runs in each of the last two wins against the Yankees. This was the first time this season that the Mariners have scored 7 runs in consecutive games.

Am I saying that here comes the big comeback in the A.L. West? Who knows. Remember in 2002 when the Oakland A's won 20-straight games, causing them to overtake the 1st place Mariners and win the division by 4-games with a 103-59 record? I'm not saying that this year's Seattle Mariners will win 20-straight games, catch the Rangers and win the division. What I am saying is that anything is possible, especially with two studs on the mound pitching in the manner that they are. An interesting question is, can the Mariners right the ship before the trading deadline? Cliff Lee is drawing a tremendous amount of interest throughout Baseball. Guess time will tell.

FH

This Weekend's Pitching Performances

The impressive year of the pitcher 2010 keeps getting better with some real good performances this weekend.

Ubaldo Jimenez
Colorado pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez beat the Minnesota Twins to improve to 13-1 which is the best start by a pitcher since Roger Clemens started 14-0 in 1986. In doing so, Jimenez lowered his ERA to 1.15.

Jimenez became only the second pitcher in the last 80 years to win at least 13 of his first 14 starts. Besides Clemens, Lefty Gomez went 13-1 for the Yankees in 1932

Stephen Strasburg
Stephen Straburg pitched 7 innings giving up 4 hits, 1 ER striking out 10 with no walks in a no decision against the Chicago White Sox. Strasburg lowered his ERA to 1.86 for the season in a much more impressive performance against a much more potent lineup than the Pirates and the Indians.

Cliff Lee
Cliff Lee beat the Cincinnati Reds on a complete game 1-0 shutout. In doing so, Lee earned his fifth career shutout and his 16th career complete game. Lee struck out seven in a six-hitter hurling just 110 pitches while lowering his ERA to 2.55. Lee has pitched at least seven innings in 10 of his 11 starts this season.

Phil Hughes/Mike Pelfrey
When Hughes and Pelfrey faced each other Saturday, they each had nine wins and a winning percentage of .900 or better. The only time in baseball history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, that two starters entered with better credentials was in 1900. Philadelphia's Bill Bernhard played host to Brooklyn's Joe McGinnity at the Baker Bowl. Both starters were 12-1.

Both pitchers played well with Hughes beating Pelfrey 5-3. Hughes held the Mets to three runs in seven innings Saturday to improve to 10-1 this season.

This victory leaves Hughes tied with David Price of the Tampa Bay Rays for most wins in the AL (David Price after Sunday's loss to the Florida Marlins is 10-3).

Jake Peavy
CG 2H. 2BB 7K's 1-0 against the Nationals

Colby Lewis
CG, 2H, 0 BB, 9K's 5-1 against the Astros

Jered Weaver
7.0IP, 2H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 11K's against the Cubs

Hisanori Takahashi
6.0IP, 4H, 0R, 0ER, 2BB, 3K's Yanks (12 shutout innings against the Yankees in two starts)

Felix Hernandez
CG, 5H, 1R, 1ER, 1BB, 9K's against the Reds.

Josh Johnson
8.0IP, 6H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 9K's against David Price and the Rays. This was Johnson's 8th straight start where he allowed 1 run or less. During that time, Johnson has allowed 5 runs, 4 earned in 57 innings for an ERA of 0.63. Overall, his ERA for the season is 1.80.

C.C. Sabathia
8.0IP, 4 H, 0R, 2 BB, 6K's against Johan Santana and the Mets

Carl Pavano
CG, 4H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 2K's against Roy Halladay and the Phillies

Talk about an impressive weekend for the pitchers. Wow.
FH