And the Winner is Felix

Charlie Klein

One thing that has really been grinding my gears lately is all of the talk about how C.C. Sabathia is a lock to win this year's AL Cy Young Award for the league's best pitcher. I have never doubted Sabathia's talents, which are immense, nor have I ever denied that he has been having a great year. But when it is so painfully obvious that there is a better pitcher out there, it just seems like an act of ignorance to give him the award.

So who is this better pitcher? Quite simply, it is Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners. You might cry foul, saying how could you pick him! He plays for your favourite team! While that may be true (I do own a Felix t-shirt and wear it regularly), numbers do not lie ladies and gentlemen.

Felix Hernandez: (12-11), 2.35 ERA, 220 K's, 233.2 IP, 5 CG, 1.07 WHIP.

C.C. Sabathia: (20-6), 3.05 ERA, 183 K's, 224 IP, 2 CG, 1.18 WHIP.

While Sabathia has a definite edge in terms of wins, it is pretty obvious that in every other relevant pitching category that Hernandez has been the better pitcher this season. Especially when one takes into account that one player (Hernandez) plays for one of the worst teams in baseball this season while the other (Sabathia) plays for a division leader which has five players with over 20 homeruns this season.

Wins are fast becoming an irrelevant statistic in the evaluation of a pitcher's talent, and rightfully so. Let's say for the sake of argument that I did not post each player's record or name and left the rest of the statistics up for you to read. Which pitcher would you argue is better? It would have to be Hernandez.

Certain writers and fans alike prefer to look at wins because that's the way pitchers have always been evaluated. They do not trust new age statistics like WHIP (walks hits per innings pitched) which actually do a much better job of measuring a pitcher's dominance than his win-loss record. Whether a team wins or loses a game has more to do with the team's overall performance than that of a pitcher. If Hernandez played for a team with the offensive output of the Yankees, he would easily have at least twice as many wins this season. The relationship between wins and a pitcher's talent appears to be merely correlative and not causational.

Buster Olney, whose opinions on baseball I usually respect, declared that Sabathia is his choice for A.L. Cy Young. For the first time, I found myself in disagreement with Olney. Even some of the most die-hard Yankees fans I know agree with me that Hernandez is more deserving of the award. If it goes to Sabathia this season, the Cy Young is on the verge of becoming the Gold Glove Award, one which becomes a popularity contest and whose evaluation does not go beyond fielding percentage.

While I understand the hesitation inherent to giving a pitcher the Cy Young when he has only won 12 games, there really should not be any if he leads the league in strikeouts and ERA. All hail King Felix.