For years the measure of a really good pitcher was how many wins he was able to rack up.

Last season, though, something happened: Zack Greinke of the Royals won the Cy Young Award despite only racking up 16 wins.

CC Sabathia currently leads the American League with 16 wins and has been the Yankees’ most dominant pitcher this season. This has some fans beginning to include his name in the conversation for the Cy Young Award.

The problem is, when you look at the numbers, CC isn’t really close at all at this point.

Here are the AL league leaders by ERA+:

Rk   Tm W L ERA G CG SHO IP BB SO ERA+ WHIP
1 Clay Buchholz BOS 14 5 2.36 21 1 1 133.1 50 89 185 1.193
2 Trevor Cahill OAK 12 5 2.50 21 1 1 140.2 42 81 164 0.981
3 Jon Lester* BOS 13 7 2.80 24 2 0 161.0 55 165 157 1.130
4 Felix Hernandez SEA 8 10 2.62 26 5 1 189.0 52 172 154 1.138
5 Cliff Lee* TOT 10 6 2.77 21 7 1 169.0 10 147 150 0.947
6 David Price* TBR 15 5 2.85 23 2 1 151.2 64 141 148 1.259
7 C.J. Wilson* TEX 11 5 3.19 24 2 0 149.1 70 116 136 1.239
8 Jered Weaver LAA 11 8 3.11 26 0 0 168.0 43 186 135 1.095
9 Jeff Niemann TBR 10 3 3.12 22 1 1 141.1 44 102 135 1.167
10 Colby Lewis TEX 9 9 3.28 23 1 0 148.1 49 150 132 1.153
11 John Danks* CHW 12 8 3.33 24 1 1 162.1 49 125 130 1.146
12 Jason Vargas* SEA 9 5 3.15 23 0 0 145.2 42 92 128 1.195
13 CC Sabathia* NYY 16 5 3.12 26 2 0 181.2 61 143 128 1.244
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated Aug. 19, 2010

 

Sabathia is ranked 13th on this list despite leading the league in wins. Yes, at times Sabathia has been dominant this season, but other times he has merely been average, and the Yankees’ potent offense has managed to snag him a couple extra wins here and there.

So despite the fact that he could finish with 20 wins for the first time in his career, Sabathia’s 2010 campaign pales in comparison to the likes of Clay Buchholz, Felix Hernandez, and even David Price.

Perhaps it is possible that things could change between now and the end of the season, but Sabathia would have to go on one hell of a tear.

 

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