Two weeks after being defeated by a small rebel group called the San Francisco Giants, the sabermetrics empire struck back on Thursday….
“It is a dark time for Sabermetricians.
Although some of their theories have been destroyed,
Imperial pitchers and hitters have driven the
Rebel forces and beat writers from their mother’s basement
and pursued them across
the galaxy.
“Evading the dreaded WHIP, tERA, FIP and WAR,
a group of freedom
fighters led by Bruce Bochy
has established a new secret
way of winning on the remote summer ice world
of San Francisco.
“The evil lord Darth Felix Hernandez,
obsessed with taking over the galaxy,
has dispatched thousands of remote stats into
the far reaches of space….”
Darth Hernandez and the rest of the sabermetric community dispatched all the remote stats they could think of and got some revenge on Thursday, as the Seattle Mariners’ ace won the American League Cy Young Award.
Hernandez received 21 out of 28 first-place votes to become the second Mariner to win the award. Randy Johnson won the award in 1995. Tampa Bay Rays LHP David Price finished second in the voting, and New York Yankees LHP CC Sabathia finished third.
The big story of this voting was whether or not the voters would look at Hernandez’s 13 wins and dismiss his other statistics. As we know, wins aren’t the best way to judge a pitcher’s success, and now that thinking has trickled down to the voters.
Hernandez led the AL in ERA (2.27), H/9 (7.0), Batting Avg. Against (.212) and WAR for Pitchers (6.0). He also finished second in WHIP (1.06) and second in K’s (232). At the age of 24, King Felix has clearly established himself as one of the dominant pitchers in all of baseball.
Hernandez’s 13 wins represent the lowest total for a Cy Young winner in a non-strike-shortened season. Tim Lincecum won the NL Cy Young last year with 15 wins.
My preseason American League Cy Young pick: Jon Lester
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