It’s time for the End of the Year Awards. This is one of my favorite articles to write
each year. It’s also a mandatory article
per my affiliation with the Baseball Bloggers Alliance. However, it’s not a problem as I love writing
these and always hope my vote helps pick the individuals I deem as the correct
recipients of each individual reward. So
let’s continue with the….
Walter Johnson Award (Cy Young)
AL
1.
Felix Hernandez
2.
Corey Kluber
3.
Chris Sale
4.
Jon Lester
5.
David Price
The Walter Johnson Award is one of two awards where we list
more than 3 people. And that’s where it
gets hard. It’s often easy to pick out
the best player at a position in any individual year. However it is far more difficult to make a
list of the top 3 at any position, much less the top 5. But I did my best.
There were plenty of talented pitchers to consider. In addition to the 5 I listed above, I
thought long and hard about Garrett Richards, Dallas Keuchel, Alex Cobb, Sony
Gray, Max Scherzer and James Shields.
All those pitchers had great years.
The one thing that all of them had in common with my top 5 (save one
addition and one abstention) is that they were in the league’s top 10 in ERA
rankings. I don’t think that earned run
average is the be-all and end-all of pitchers stats, but it is one of the better
ones. We now know that wins are an
overrated stat. We love strikeouts and
know they are important. But you can be
a successful pitcher without recording a ton of strikeouts. So while I weighed a number of stats, one of
the heaviest was ERA. However I also
gave a lot of credence to WHIP and BAA.
They give you an idea of how dominant a pitcher is in any inning. And all of the guys I considered were ranked
highly in those stats as well. So while there
were a ton of talented pitchers who great seasons in the AL this year, I spent
a lot of time studying the stats before I settled on my top 5.
Fifth on that list is David Price who split his year between
the Rays and Tigers. He is a dominant
lefty and the only person that wasn’t in the top 10 in ERA that I considered
(the only pitcher in the top 10 of ERA I didn’t consider was Yordano Ventura
who was good, but not as dominant as others on the list). He still had a very good ERA though, ranking
12th in the AL with a 3.26.
But he made up for not ranking as highly there by being a
workhorse. He led the league with 248 IP
and 271 Ks. And in addition to his
strikeout dominance he kept hitters off base with a low WHIP. The 240 BAA wasn’t as strong as the numbers
his fellow hurlers put up, but that’s why he’s ranked 5th. His ability to go deep into games and shut
down offenses with the strikeout was overwhelming. Add to that an ERA and WHIP that are both
very gppd, and you have a top pitcher in the AL, as he has proven he is year
after year.
Number 4 on my list was Jon Lester. He was another guy who split time between two
teams: the Red Sox and Athletics. While a lot of people aren’t sure if the A’s
made a good trade when they acquired Lester, the discussion never focuses on Lester’s
contribution. He ended the year at 16-11
with a 2.46 ERA, fourth best in the AL.
He was also fairly dominant in the strikeout category with 220 in 219
IP. Similar to Price, he was a workhorse
who had the ability to strikeout out the opposing offenses to take over games. He wasn’t as dominant as Price and had a 236
BAA, which didn’t stack up as well to the other pitchers on this list. But his low ERA and high strikeout rate put
him fourth on my list, which is very impressive in this stacked AL Cy Young
race.
The man who was third on my list was Chris Sale. Sale was a guy who’s overall numbers don’t
stack up as well, but that’s because injury limited him to only 26 starts. The reason he still made my list was because
of how dominant he was in those starts.
He pitched enough to qualify for the ERA title and came in second in the
AL with a 2.17 ERA. In addition, he went
12-4 in his 26 starts with a mind blowing 208 Ks in 174 IP. That was the best K-rate in the league. What was even more impressive to me was his
0.97 WHIP and 205 BAA. WHIP measures how
many runners you allow in an inning.
1.25-1.30 is average. To pitch to
a WHIP close to 1 is very impressive. To
pitch to an ERA UNDER 1 is downright phenomenal. And that’s what Sale did in his
injury-shortened season. It’s not easy
to make the list of top pitchers in the league at all. It’s even harder when you have about 6 fewer
starts. The fact that he not only made
the list but also made it as high as third shows how dominant he was.
The number 2 man on my list was Corey Kluber. He is the least-known name, but was one of
the most dominant pitchers in the game.
He was tied for the league lead with 18 Wins. And those wins came for a Cleveland Indians
team that didn’t make the playoffs. But
the win total wasn’t what impressed me.
It was everything else. He had a
2.44 ERA, third best in the league. He
had 269 Ks, second best in the league.
He had 235 IP, also third best in the league. His WHIP was 1.09. His BAA was 233. Not only did he hit all the numbers I look
at, he also ranked in the top 3 of all as well.
Kluber is one of the few pitchers who can overpower you with the
strikeout, while still pitching with the finesse of the best control guys in
the game. He may not be a household name
yet, but he will be if he continues to pitch like this.
However, my winner of the Walter Johnson Award has to be
Felix Hernandez. King Felix really never
had much competition when you break down the numbers. The gap between him and the rest of the
league was huge (though it should be said that for me the gap between Kluber
and the guys behind him was just as big).
Hernandez went 15-6 for a resurgent Mariners team that came within one
game of the playoffs. But that’s not
what did it. It was everything
else. He won the ERA title with a 2.14
final total. It was only 0.03 points
lower than the next nearest competitor, but that competitor started 8 fewer
games. And beyond him the next nearest
guy was at 2.44 (Kluber). His 0.92 WHIP
was the lowest in the AL. That means he
put fewer men on base per inning that any pitcher in the American League. His 200 BAA was also the lowest, meaning that
hitters did worse against him than any other starter in the league. And on top of that, he still had an
overpowering 248 Ks, good for fourth in the league and 236 IP which ranked
second. He could come into a game and
shut the other team down with the best power pitchers. However, his low WHIP and ERA are the
building blocks of successful pitching.
And he is the textbook example.
Bad things happen when men got on base whether it is via a hit, walk or
taking a pitch in the back. No one kept
hitters off base better than Felix Hernandez in the AL. And that’s why he’s my winner for the 2014 AL
Walter Johnson Award.
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