The highest British attention to the wrong detail
The other day I was trying to think of a way to argue that CC Sabathia is better than Felix Hernandez that didn’t involve pointing out that Sabathia has won more games, because it would be clever and thus virtuous.
Sabathia has pitched less, struck out fewer batters, walked more, given up more hits and home runs, pitched seven or more innings less frequently and pitched eight or more much less frequently. He’s faced easier competition, having pitched nine games against teams in contention right now against Hernandez’s 14, and worked in front of a better defense, as New York leads Seattle in turning batted balls into outs. He may have pitched in worse weather. I don’t know that he has. If it he has it would be a point for him.
A credible case for Sabathia will have to work, then, from one of two points. The first would be essentially aesthetic, grounded somehow in the experience of watching them.
I’ve seen both Sabathia and Hernandez a lot this year, including in person. Sabathia is basically a man of pitcherly virtues; he moves the ball around a lot, hits the catcher’s glove just so, throws a lot of different pitches, throws each of them in different registers and maintains a certain rhythm, so that hitters stay slightly jumpy. His main strength is that he more or less never has a bad start. He’s Mark Buerhle with more gifts from God.
Hernandez mauls people. He may as well be throwing marbles and bowling balls for all the chance anyone has to really crack him. Half the time he looks as if he’s one whispered suggestion away from ripping the batter’s arm out of the socket and using it to beat him to death. I don’t think the idea that he’s somehow less ace-like than Sabathia is supportable.
This leaves the second point, which would be that New York is world capital of politics, finance, the arts and baseball while Seattle is a miserable shithole full of sad, small people living unimportant lives, so that what happens in one place counts for more than what happens in the other. I don’t know if this is a position you can really argue someone out of. The best you can do is encourage them to really own it. (Incidentally, people who argue this point, no matter how many euphemisms they use, always sound to me like Mark E. Smith in ‘The Classical’: ‘HEY THERE FUCKFACE!! HEY THERE FUCKFACE!! There are twelve people in the world! The rest are paste!’)
All this so, the most interesting thing about the Cy Young race is probably just how little credit Hernandez is getting for even running up a winning record while being supported by a lineup that may as well comprise two winos drinking Sterno strained through stale bread, a Mongolian who learned how to hit by playing Bases Loaded, Alan Partridge, and five cardboard cutouts of Ski Melillo. The following teams had better offenses than this year’s Mariners:
—1983 Seattle Mariners. Scored 3.44 runs per game in a league scoring 4.48. Their main leadoff hitter was Spike Owen, who hit .196/.257/.271; primary catcher Rick Sweet hit for the exact same OPS; nine players had OBAs worse than .260 in at least 50 ABs.
—1992 California Angels. Scored 3.57 runs per game in a league scoring 4.32. Their best hitting regular, by far, was (of all people) Chad Curtis, who maintained a robust 100 OPS+. After him it was probably Luis Sojo, who brought a .299 OBA, or Luis Polonia. (Did you know the Torre dynasty was forged in the Rodgers-Wathan crucible? I didn’t...)
—1999 Minnesota Twins. Scored 4.26 runs per game in a league scoring 5.18. This was the year when Doug Mientkiewicz hit .229/.324/.330 from first base in 118 games, while Cristian Guzman rocked an OPS+ of 38 in 131 games. Famously couldn’t find playing time for David Ortiz coming off a year when he hit .277/.371/.446 in 86 games at age 22.
—2003 Detroit Tigers. Scored 3.65 runs per game in a league scoring 4.86. Of their many impressive accomplishments, I was always most taken by this: This team ran out Dean Palmer for 100 ABs where he posted an OPS+ of 12. Also of interest: Both Andres Torres and Omar Infante played for the aught-three Tigers, raising the question of whether this team was as great a source for 2010 what the hell performances as the 1992 Angels were for gritty Torre Yankees.
The Mariners are scoring 3.23 runs per game in a league scoring 4.47. The one American League team I can identify that has had a worse offense since the adoption of the designated hitter rule was Toronto in 1981, and even that’s arguable. Consider for example that the Mariners have scored two or fewer runs in 45 per cent of their games, which is actually worse than what the Blue Jays did even though they’re playing in a much higher run environment. (My favorite wacky Mariners statistic, by the way: They’ve given 57 per cent of their plate appearances to players with OBAs of .303 or below.)
I don’t know if Hernandez should win the Cy Young over Sabathia. Awards are what you make them and voting for someone because everything and everyone outside of New York is insignificant makes as much sense as anything else. I do know that if Hernandez doesn’t get the Cy he ought to get a medal and a parade. 11-10 on a team more impotent than the 1999 Twins? That’s ridiculous. Lefty Grove wouldn't have cracked .500 with these jokers.
16 Comments
Reader Comments (16)
well put. Hope you don't mind, but I posted the whole thing, credited to you of course, over at my blog mostly dedicated to those jokers...
Of course not, everyone is free to copy, distribute, adapt or remix anything on this site so long as they attribute what I wrote to me.
Wait, you Yanks are aware of King Felix AND Alan Partridge? Nice one old chap!
These last three posts have all been terrific.
Being in NY I had some idea the Mariners were bad this year but apparently had no idea it was this bad.
Adding this on to the already open anarchy in the dugout with the recently fired Wakamatsu and trading for a player with a criminal past and then lying about having any knowledge of it.
I say KIng Felix deserves both the Cy Young and the MVP.
The Mariners are brutal. Dig this: Ichiro Suzuki is fifth in the league in times on base and sixth in steals and has scored just 61 runs, a ratio of .27 runs per time on base. Jason Giambi's ratio in 2007, when he was hauling a moped out to first to get around the bases, was .33.
I just can't wait for the awards to be announced, very much looking forward to hearing about music released during the most recent strike year.
Has any starter even come close to the Cy Young with a .500 record? Jered Weaver and Felix are pitching well, but not winning and I have never really noticed 2 players have similarly good pitching stats and mediocre records.
On another note, if Clay Buchholz was not hurt and missed 4-5 starts, would anyone (outside of Yankees fans) have an argument against him for the CY?
To be completely fair, you really can't Hernandez sympathy points for having such lousy offensive support
unless you also discount his stats somewhat for pitching for a team built around defense. In other words,
sure he would have several more wins if he had a good offense supporting him, but by the same token,
he would be giving up more hits and more runs and probably not pitching as late into games since his pitch
counts would be higher per inning.
Fair is fair.
Even if you discount for park and defense he's still better than Sabathia. Especially since the Yankees have a better defense than the Mariners.
This is forty different kinds of delightful. Thank you.
The idea is that the Mariners were built on defense. However, it didn't quite work that way this year. Sure, they have Kotchman playing first who committed ony his first error in nearly a decade. They have Death to Flying Things roaming CF and Ichiro in RF. They penciled in Jack Wilson and his magic glove to play SS, but he hasn't been healthy in 5 years.
The M's defense is a far cry from what it was last year. Gone is Beltre sucking up all things hit to the hot corner. In his place the M's hired a GG caliber glove defender in Figgins and moved him to 2nd base where he can't field a lick. The M's starting LFer was one Milton Bradley. While not as lumbering as Raul Ibanez, fangraphs still had him at -0.5 in LF for the M's. Left field is huge in Safeco. Lopez has moved from 2nd to 3rd and while hasn't been completely lost over there, I would be hard pressed to think of his defense as league average. At catcher, the M's had Rob Johnson getting most of the time in the first half of the season and who possilby leads the league in passed balls. Actually he is tied w/Miguel Olive at 9 in only 2/3rds of the games played.
Felix isn't doing it because of his defense, he's doing it inspite of his defense.
You would be sad and miserable too if all of your sports teams sucked royal ass. The only people who do any winning around here is crooked businessmen leaving town, and those with boobs and a vagina. We fucking suck.
Re: "On another note, if Clay Buchholz was not hurt and missed 4-5 starts, would anyone (outside of Yankees fans) have an argument against him for the CY?"
Yes. Yes we all would. Clay has pitched well, but about as well as CC has. Clay, however, trails Felix in nearly every pitching category. His LOB% is high, his WHIP is high, and Felix has been worth far more WAR than Clay on a per-inning basis. 4-5 more starts increases the chance that he'll crash back to earth, because his numbers thus far are not sustainable.
Would the next logical step be to identify young scrappers on the Mariners who will go on to Infante-ian glory with a contender in five years or so?
WTF ???? What do you mean by that reference to a Mongolian? I think that is plain irresponsible if not preposterous.