BSB MLB Awards: Cy Young

Roy Halladay was awarded his second Cy Young award on Tuesday, and today MLB announced that Seattle’s Felix Hernandez captured the AL award for the first time.  BSB weighs in:

NL Cy Young:

BRY:

1. Roy Halladay
2. Adam Wainwright
3. Ubaldo Jimenez
4. Roy Oswalt
5. Tim Hudson

DOOGAN:

1. Roy Halladay
2. Adam Wainwright
3. Ubaldo Jimenez
4. Tim Hudson
5. Mat Latos

No surprises here, as BSB is fully on-board with handing the Cy Young award to one of our Phillies for the first time since 1987, when Steve Bedrosian won the award as a closer.  Doc becomes the first Phillie starter to win the award since Steve Carlton won his 4th in 1982.  Just an incredible season by a guy who is really establishing himself as one of the all-time greats.  Wainwright and Jimenez both had seasons that would win them this award in many years.  Bry put another Phil, Oswalt, onto his ballot. 

AL Cy Young:

BRY:

1. Clay Buchholz (17-7, 2.33 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 173.2 IP)
2. David Price (19-6, 2.72 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 208.2 IP)
3. CC Sabathia (21-7, 3.18 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 237.2 IP)
4. Felix Hernandez (13-12, 2.27 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, 249.2 IP)
5. Cliff Lee (12-9, 3.18 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 212.1 IP)

DOOGAN:

1. Felix Hernandez
2. David Price
3. CC Sabathia
4. Rafael Soriano (1.73 ERA, 0.80 WHIP, 45 SV, 62.1 IP)
5. Mariano Rivera (1.80 ERA, 0.83 WHIP, 33 SV, 60 IP)

This looks like it will be the most debated award this year, and certainly Bry’s and Doogan’s ballots are vastly different (I put the stats above because of the differing opinions).  In fact, Bry’s winner didn’t even make Doogan’s Top 5, while Bry had Doogan’s winner just 4th on his ballot.  Why the huge difference?  Well, it comes down to the won-lost record.  As Bry said, “I can’t vote for a guy who was 13-12.”

I’ll defend my choice of Hernandez.  I agree with Bry that the backlash against wins has gone too far, but when determining who is the best pitcher, I still put win-loss record behind other statistics, namely ERA and WHIP.  As has been well-documented, the Mariners had an epically, historically bad offense this year, and that’s why Felix only managed 13 wins.

Hernandez led the league in ERA and was second (to Cliff Lee) in WHIP.  Most importantly, in my mind, he led the league in innings pitched, at 249.  You can blame a pitcher for not gutting it out and fighting for wins when his team needs him, but if the guy threw 249 innings with a 2.27 ERA, I think it’s hard to blame him for only winning 13 games.  Hernandez threw 1 less inning than Halladay, had a WHIP .02 higher, an ERA .17 lower, and he did it in the American League.

I don’t put Buchholz up there with Hernandez, Price, and Sabathia because he only threw 173 innings.  If I’m going to vote for a starter for Cy Young that didn’t really get close to 200 innings, he needs to have been way more dominant than the other contenders, and a 1.20 WHIP (despite his sparkling ERA) just doesn’t cut it.  I go Hernandez over Price because, despite winning 6 less games, his ERA was a half run lower and WHIP was .13 lower.  And I go Hernandez over Sabathia because his ERA was almost a full run lower, which makes up for the 8 win difference, at least in my mind.

I probably gave a little to much credit to the closers, Soriano and Rivera, but those ERAs and WHIPs while closing games for the two best teams in the American League, are really spectacular.  In a season where we’re handing the Cy Young to a guy that only won 13 games, it seemed like giving some credit and votes to the elite closers made some sense.