OK, so, Howie Stalwick of the Kitsap Sun newspaper in Tacoma obviously doesn't have his sights set on securing a better sports writing gig anytime soon. I reached this conclusion based on the amount of wrongness about the result of the 2010 AL Cy Young race that he was able to pack into merely one paragraph of his November 22 "column." (Come to think of it, maybe this was done in order to secure himself a better gig later on, as Colin Cowherd's continued success in sports media demonstrates.)
As you may or may not know, Felix Hernandez was named the AL Cy Young winner, despite compiling a somewhat mediocre 13-12 record. This caused every 135 year old baseball fan in the country to cough himself (and let's be real here, I mean him, because they didn't let women VOTE when he was watching Christy Mathewson win 80 games per year, much less watch baseball) into a conniption. I mean, 13 wins??? Why not just go ahead and give the Cy Young Award to a DH already???
Except that this result was a testament to how far Cy Young voters have come. Unlike years past, voters decided not to punish Felix Hernandez for pitching on the worst team in the American League (Mariners finished 61-101). Instead, it appears that the voters looked to less known, yet more important, statistics in order to decide who the winner was.
And by god Howie Stalwick just won't stand for it.
"Ultra classy of David Price to say Felix deserved the award."
Way to imply that Hernandez was completely undeserving without actually saying it. Also, way to ignore the fact that if David Price had come out and said "Screw King Felix, and let's see some papers while we're at it!" would have made him the biggest dick in the world. Seriously, outside of John McEnroe or Barry Bonds, is there any athlete who HASN'T congratulated someone who beat him out for an award?
"but we still maintain that a dude who goes 19-6 pitching in a season-long pennant race in the rugged AL East deserved the award over a 13-12 guy pitching in the AL Worst."
AL WORST!! Get it? Worst instead of West! CLASSIC Stalwick!
Also, for what it's worth, "rugged" seems a fairly homo-erotically chosen word to describe a division of teams in baseball.
" Earned run average might be the most overrated stat out there"
Actually, that award goes to "wins," the stat you just cited to prove that David Price had a better season than Felix Hernandez.
Run Support in 2010
Felix Hernandez: 3.75 runs per game (worst in AL)
David Price: 7.03 runs per game (12th best in AL)
So, maybe, just maybe, the fact that David Price's offense scored him almost twice as many runs per game than Hernandez's did helped account for the fact that he won 6 more games. Or maybe I'm not as good at logic as Howie Stalwick. One of those things is probably true.
"Price’s 2.72 ERA compares favorably to Felix’s 2.27 when you consider that Felix pitches half his games in the baseball equivalent of Yellowstone National Park."
1. It's interesting that we can surmise that Safeco's slightly larger dimensions helped account for a rather large differential in ERA, but a much larger difference in run support cannot account for a difference in wins.
2. Hernandez's road ERA: 2.42. Price's? 3.46.
3. Hernandez's ERA vs. teams with winning % of .500 or above: 2.26. David Price's? 2.67.
4. Other categories Hernandez led Price in:
§ Strikeouts
§ ERA+ (earn run average adjusted)
§ K/9
§ WHIP
§ BB/9
§ BAA
§ GB%
§ FIP (Fielder Independent ERA)
§ WPA (Win Probability Added)
§ WAR (Wins above replacement player)
§ Innumerable other important categories I'm too lazy to list.
If anyone ever tries to tell you that David Price was a better pitcher this year than Felix Hernandez, nod politely and make a mental note to forget everything they tell you, keeping in mind that this person undoubtedly believes that Derek Jeter is an incredibly "clutch" defender.
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