Set aside for the moment what player you want to win it, what team you root for, and who you think will win it. Who, in your opinion, is most deserving? This stems from this discussion and this thread. Clay Buchholz, Boston Red Sox: 16-7, 2.39 ERA, 47.8 VORP, 1.23 WHIP Felix Hernandez, Seattle Mariners: 12-12, 2.31 ERA, 66.8 VORP, 1.06 WHIP Jon Lester, Boston Red Sox: 19-8, 2.96 ERA, 52.7 VORP, 1.16 WHIP David Price, Tampa Bay Rays: 18-6, 2.84 ERA, 49.9 VORP, 1.22 WHIP CC Sabathia, New York Yankees: 20-7, 3.26 ERA, 47.9 VORP, 1.21 WHIP ESPN stats, Baseball Prospectus I posted the top candidates. If you feel someone else not listed deserves it, feel free to pick Other and explain why.
Felix should get it. Altho I could easily see CC, Lester or Price get it because baseball writers dig the W total, as pointless as it may be. Also, Lester is a Red Sox, not a Devil Ray.
A couple weeks ago I would've thought that it would be a loooooong shot for Felix to win. But there seems to be a lot of support for him. I wouldn't be stunned to see him get it.
Felix deserves it, but I voted Lester just because he hasn't gotten nearly the consideration he deserves, at least from what I've heard. He's been better than Sabathia and Price, and a lot of his ratio numbers are as good or better than Hernandez, yet those three are the only ones I hear mentioned.
Felix, but honorable mention to Lester. That guy has been lights-out. I'd also like to nominate AJ Burnett for the 'Tanyon Sturtze Worst Pitcher of the Year Award'.
Felix is in no way going to win it because then baseball writers would have to kowtow to sabermetricians. They'll never do that as long as the Murray Chasses of the world are still relevant. I accidentally tuned in to PTI on Friday and caught Kornheiser and Simmons debating this, and no one thought to bring up the irrelevancy of wins, other than when Kornheiser crowed about Carlton dominating for the Phillies that year they sucked. You cannot use one of the greatest pitching seasons of all time as a benchmark. That's retarded. Instead, someone should have talked about how irrelevant wins are as a statistic. No one thought to point out seasons like this: Steve Trachsel 2006- Went 15-8 while posting a 4.97 ERA and .285 BAA Garrett Stephenson- 2000 16-9 with a 4.49 ERA Russ Ortiz- 1999- 18-9 5.42 BB/9, 3.81 ERA I think .500 is rough, but when you look at the numbers it's clear he's on an exceptionally bad team. Felix Hernandez team is likely to score fewer than 20 runs more than the 1972 Phillies with the luxury of a designated hitter. That's abysmal. -X-
I think it should be Felix, but I voted for who it should be otherwise, knowing the wins will play a part, and otherwise, I think it should be Lester. He's finishing strong and is having a better year than Sabathia. -X-
I did an analysis a few weeks ago regarding Felix vs. CC vs. Lester. Felix Hernandez hasn't just been the best pitcher overall, he's dominated the best teams in the league. I don't have an updated stats to post here, but his stats against teams over .500 were equal to his total numbers. CC's stats were slightly worse. Hernandez has given up 1 or 0 runs 16 times this year. I don't care about wins and losses when you give up 1 or less runs 16 times and are only 12-12
yeah, I posted about that in the other threads. Against the AL East, he's 5-1 with an ERA of 0.63. That includes 3-0 with a 0.35 ERA against the Yankees, and 2-0 with a 0 ERA in Yankee Stadium (17 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 6 BB, 22 K). So the argument that he does well because he's in the AL West doesn't really hold water. Felix leads the AL in innings pitched, btw. 12 and a third innings ahead of Sabathia (who's 2nd) going into tonight. Price, Felix, and Sabathia are all starting tonight.
tonight in Texas: 8 innings, 5 hits, 1 run, 2 walks, 5 Ks he now leads the AL in Ks, along with about every other meaningful category aside from wins. This is actually one of the best seasons by a pitcher in recent memory. Seattle managed to scrape together three runs for once, so Felix got the win.
