Ridiculous: Felix Hernandez Wins Cy Young

Here’s what I wrote last month in predicting that CC Sabathia should easily win the Cy Young award, and that Felix Hernandez should not even be in the conversation:

There is no way a pitcher with 13 wins should get the Cy Young… If that happens, the sabermetricians win, and I’m done.

I believed that then, and I still believe it despite Hernandez winning the award in overwhelming fashion on Thursday, earning 21 of the 28 first place votes. Sabathia didn’t even finish second — David Price did.

I understand all of the arguments in favor of Hernandez — he led the league with a minuscule 2.27 ERA, was second in strikeouts with 232 and had superior numbers that the sabermetrics crowd love. I’m not saying Hernandez is not a great pitcher and did not have a solid season, but I’ll say it again — he only won 13 games (against 12 loses, mind you).

His advocates say he was plagued by poor run support. They are absolutely right, but you know what, too bad. That’s not an excuse to completely ignore the most important stat in all of baseball — wins. This game is judged on whether you win or lose. And Hernandez did not win, plain and simple

I think every part of a pitcher’s record should be taken into account when judging his season, and that includes won-loss. You just can’t discount one part of a pitcher’s record if it doesn’t suit your purposes, and that’s just what the voters did, in my opinion.

It would be different if there were no other solid candidates, but there were — Sabathia, Price and Jon Lester, who finished fourth were all deserving.

So I stand by my earlier statement. As far as the “I’m done” part, well, I’m not standing by that. Hell, I didn’t even know what it meant when I wrote it. It just sounded good!