Prospect Insider - King Felix Reigns

King Felix Reigns

By Rick Randall

By 11-18-2010

As many had predicted, and as our own Jason A. Churchill foreshadowed with his Tweet this morning, Seattle Mariners right-hander Felix Hernandez was voted the American League Cy Young Award Thursday. The Baseball Writers Association of America stepped forward, historically.

Following a phenomenal season which saw King Felix rank No. 1or 2 in the AL in 14 separate categories yet only go 13-12 on the season, the only real question surrounding the award was whether or not the voters would be able to see past the Win-Loss totals and truly give the award to the best pitcher in the league.

They did.

He was filthy all season, plain and simple; a 2.27 ERA for the year, 1.53 ERA in the 2nd half, 0.84 ERA in his wins and a 1.92 in his 9 no decisions. Opponents put up a very Mariner-esque .585 OPS and managed just 54 XBH in basically two seasons worth of plate appearances against the King.

Yeah, he's good.

Felix garnered 21 of the 28 first place votes and was in the top 3 on 26 of 28 ballots. Inexplicably, he was voted fourth on one ballot and fifth on another.

We all know that Felix was phenomenal this season, but think about this: he really saved this terrible M's club from tallying a club record of 105-110 losses by simply showing up every fifth or sixth day and pitching his heart out.

Even though they did avoid a record-worst season, Hernandez still becomes the first winner to pitch for a 100-loss club.

Hernandez was the runner-up last season to Kansas City's Zack Grienke, who also won the award despite a mediocre Win-Loss record (16-8) on a bad team. In fact, Greinke's mark of 16 wins and the NL winner Tim Lincecum's number of 15 (15-7) were two of the three lowest win totals among starting pitchers in the history of Cy Young Award winners not counting shortened seasons. NL winner Brandon Webb also won 16 in 2006.

Now Felix holds the low mark, and we aren't likely to see another season as dominant as his 'earn' only 13 wins in our lifetime, so that dubious record may be the King's to keep.

We are lucky as M's fans that this guy is under contract through 2014 and that we have his right arm to cling to for hope of better things to come. He is still getting better, make no mistake.

Congratulations to Felix Hernandez, and let's hope this is the first of many Cy’s for him.

king-felix-reigns

Comments
The following 4 comment(s) for this article are shown below:

1. By: baseballman on 11-18-2010 13:18:49
Congrats Felix! But seriously who voted 4th and 5th for him?? Those people need to have there voting privileges revoked...

2. By: PositivePaul on 11-18-2010 13:29:42
Nice. As a well-known Felix doubter even I'm man enough to congratulate him on a well-earned and distinctly deserved award!

King, indeed!

3. By: Mitchrapp on 11-18-2010 13:52:54
He had a monster season and was a horse, near 250 innings. Well earned.

4. By: maqman on 11-19-2010 13:17:49
Don't forget to tip the cap to the guy who signed him through 2014. If he stays healthy his next contract will be larger than any pitcher before him - and he'll be worth it.

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