The whole debate leading up to the American League Cy Young was about the importance of win totals and record, as Felix Hernandez finished at 13-12, while, say, CC Sabathia went 21-7. Some voters excused Felix because he pitched for a bad team that offered him little in the way of run support, but other voters gave Sabathia and other guys credit for "knowing how to win," because that's ultimately a pitcher's primary job.
Felix Hernandez’s 2010 A.L. Cy Young May Signal Changing Views Among Voters
In the end, though, Hernandez won out, despite his record. And this could signal some changing perspectives.
In previous years, we've seen win totals get an awful lot of weight. Barry Zito, for example, won the A.L. Cy Young in 2002 with a 23-5 record even though Pedro Martinez's ERA was nearly half a run better in a smaller ballpark. But now look what we've seen. In 2009, Zack Greinke won the A.L. Cy Young with 16 wins, which was the lowest for an American League winner in history among starting pitchers. And Tim Lincecum won the N.L. Cy Young with 15 wins, which was the lowest ever for a starting pitcher overall.
And now Hernandez has taken it home with 13 wins, even though a competitor finished at 21-7. One doesn’t want to rush to sweeping judgments based on annual sample sizes of 28 voters in the A.L. and 32 in the N.L., but it sure seems like wins are getting less and less consideration, while other statistics that better reflect a pitcher’s actual ability and performance get more. And that can only be a good thing.
The Cy Young voting process isn’t perfect, and it still has a long way to go. But it is getting smarter, and the winners we’ve seen in 2009 and 2010 stand as evidence.
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