Posted by dahsdebater on 10/2/2014 12:01:00 AM (view original):
I honestly think both Cy Young races are pretty close. I did vote for Felix, but Kluber is close.
And I know Koufax, errr, Kershaw, is going to run away with the NL award, but I honestly think the value is pretty close given that Cueto pitched 45.1 more innings. That's 23% more outs, which provides real meaningful value, and his 2.25 ERA was still great.
What I really don't understand is why everyone just assumes Kershaw runs away in spite of giving up a 45 inning advantage, while nobody really mentions Chris Sale in AL Cy Young discussions in spite of the fact that his ERA is right in line with King Felix, his ERA+ is substantially better (178 to 170), and his K/9 is better. Maybe it was because he only had 12 wins, but his W/L percentage was better than Hernandez's on a much worse team.
I'm not saying Sale should win. But if we're totally dismissing Cueto and Wainwright in spite of Kershaw being under 200 innings, then it seems like Sale should at least be involved in these conversations.
Sale and Hernandez had fairly equal ERA/WHIP type numbers, and Hernandez pitched 8 more games and 60 more innings. So, Sale isn't in the conversation.
Kershaw was easily better than Cueto, so Cueto isn't in the conversation. If Sale was easily better than Hernandez, he'd probably win.
I'd vote Hernandez.