There has been some late buzz around baseball pushing Felix Hernandez for the award, and I am hopping on that train. The major problem many have with giving it to King Felix is he's a .500 pitcher (12-12). So how can someone vote for a guy with 12 wins over a guy with 20? There are several ways to defend the decision. First, Sabathia plays for the Yankees and King Felix plays for the Mariners. The Yankees are one of the best teams in baseball with over 90 victories and Seattle is one of the worst not even reaching 60. Furthermore, the Yankees probably have the best offense in the league. Seattle has the worst. King Felix has received the worst run support in all of baseball (3 runs per 9 innings). Just to give an example of how well he has pitched without getting results, this week he pitched a complete game against Toronto, losing 1-0. This has been a common occurrence for the Mariners offense in his starts. In his last 13 starts, the Mariners have scored zero runs in 7 of them. For his season totals, he has 24 starts in which he allowed 2 earned runs or less. How do you win games when your team does not score runs? Besides Ichiro, no one in their starting line up could make the Yankee roster. I don't think I could name 5 guys in their lineup.
Starting pitchers win totals have a lot to do with the team they play for. Pitchers playing for good teams have a major advantage. They could be average and still pull off 15 wins (Phil Hughes has 17). King Felix has managed to win 12, despite being on an awful team. He leads the league in ERA, strike outs, and innings pitched. He has been the most dominant pitcher in the American League. If he played for the Yankees, he might have 25 wins. Sabathia is a well deserving candidate, but take away the win totals and his overall numbers do not compare to the kings.
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