I was all fired up to write a Cahill for the AL Cy Young Award last night, but sadly he got shelled for 8 runs by the Yankees. His ERA ended up ballooning from 2.43 to 2.82 dropping him from second to third in ERA. He held the lead in WHIP with an amazing 0.99, but that ballooned to 1.07 after last night, and now he’s now second behind Cliff Lee in that department. He was going to need to lead those key categories if he was going to have any chance in winning a Cy Young. Cahill missed April with an injury, so he had some ground to make up in innings pitched to be considered. Since he doesn’t strike out a lot of guys he needed to keep that ERA and WHIP down to get any Cy Young votes. He’s about as dominating a ground ball pitcher as you can be, but voters value K’s A LOT, so falling out of the lead of those two major categories might have pushed him out of the Cy talks. Until last night, he’d lasted five or more innings, and given up seven or fewer hits in all 23 of his starts. That was broken up yesterday, but the streak was still good enough for an Oakland record, which is surprising thinking of all the pitching greats that have donned the green and gold over the years. I ended up posting Stealing First Base last night, because I was rattled by this rare ugly start for our 22 year old sensation. If he’d shut down the Yankees, there would be more optimism in his Cy Young candidacy. At this moment, I can’t really put him at the top, so I’d probably drop him down to the second tier where I have CC, Bucholtz, and Wilson. He’s got a month left to get a new streak of zeros going, but the way Felix has been firing on all cylinders he’s the man to dethrone now.
If it was decided today, I’d would crown King Felix with the AL Cy Young. He’s been phenomenal after a so-so May. If he played for any team but Seattle, he’d at least have 15 wins. If he was on the Yankees he’d probably have as many wins if not more than CC’s 18. A 10-10 record isn’t anything to write home about, but I care a lot more about the pure pitching numbers, and the 24 year old is having another great season. He’s lost a number of games where his team only scored one run for him or in some cases was completely shut out. Nothing surprising coming out of Seattle since they own the lowest total amount of runs scored in all of baseball. They can’t even score as much as Pittsburgh! Just checking out his game log, it tells the story of his lack of run support. Quality start after quality start, and nothing in the win column to show for it. Over his last 15 starts he’s pitched at least 6.2 innings, and has given up only three runs three times, and two or less runs in the other twelve starts. He’s currently second in K’s (192), second in ERA (2.47), third in WHIP (1.11), leads in IP (204.1), and is holding hitters to a .225 BA (sixth best in the AL). I’ve found myself feeling sorry for the guy. Every time he goes out there he gets the least run support of any of the candidates, and the Seattle crowd knows it, giving him standing ovations even when he leaves the game behind on the scoreboard, because they know they are watching a great pitcher that gave them everything he had. Maybe I’m picking him because I thought he deserved it last year or because he’s on one of my fantasy teams. If it weren’t for Greinke’s freakish year that made Felix an afterthought when the award was handed out, he could be going for back to back awards. Even Greinke got better run support in his Cy Young season last year than Felix has had these past two seasons. I know the award isn’t given out based on a two year period, but consistency can be taken into considered in a year that the award could go either way. Kind of like when Kobe and Barkley won their MVP awards in the NBA. Kobe wasn’t the overly obvious choice for the award, but sometimes you have to reward someone that is at the top for an extended period of time. Same went for Barkley, they might have been tired of giving it to Jordan, so they threw in a change up and gave it to the big man who finished runner up a few times. If Felix keeps doing what he’s been doing, he should win the award! Now that I’ve said all that, I bet Felix gets blown up by the Angels tonight…
By
cali4dre
chappy81
dyslecix
mceezy
Doin Work 
August 31st, 2010 at 8:21 pm
I definitely agree with you about King Felix but I don’t know how many voters will. They’ll look at the 10-10 record and dismiss him. I think that’s lame. Cahill will definitely get a mention, but he’s going to have to go nuts in the final month.
Since the award can only be given to a player whose team wins unless he has a freakish, Greinke season, I’d imagine CC, David Price and CJ Wilson will go 1-2-3, probably in that order. Really, I’d say Felix or Wilson 1-2 then Buchholz 3rd.
Of course, it’s all very close and the final month decide it all.
In the NL, it’s Waino, Halladay or Hudson for me. Ubaldo started so hot…but he’s clearly behind these three and maybe Josh Johnson at this point.
August 31st, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Yeah, it’s a shame that the baseball writers are so stuck in their ways of voting. I’m sure they’ll knock Felix for pitching at SafeCo as well, eventhough he shut down the Yankees in NY for 8 innings not too long ago.
I had to tune in to watch Felix pitch against the Angels tonight since I live in Socal. He just left the game, and his line was 7IP, 3 hits, 3 BB, 0 ER, 8 K’s, and of course a ND. Guess it’s time to change the channel! I agree though, CC is going to win it just because of NY, and how good they are. His numbers are impressive, but I feel like there’s other guys more deserving with better numbers!
The NL is much tougher for me to figure out. I might be a bias for Huddy, because of the obvious ties to the A’s, but I think Waino is deserving because he’s been consistent for two years straight. Kinda like the same thing with Felix, and the tie breaker! Domination for two straight years should get you some extra first place votes!
September 1st, 2010 at 8:25 am
chappy
Given how the writers (BBWAA) are biased if the players aren’t on the East Coast they have a tendency to overlook the players out West. That being said I do believe that for the AL Cy Young winner it’s far too close a race to call. Especially with the likes of Sabathia and Price each having a solid season .
In the NL don’t overlook either Carpenter or Wainwright , albeit that the Cardinals are finding more ways to lose than Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton can get pulled over by the cops .
🙂
tophatal …………….. 🙂
September 1st, 2010 at 10:52 am
Price has been good, but he doesn’t go nearly as deep in games, so he has almost 50 less innnings pitched, and has a higher ERA than Felix. CC’s been good, but when you look at his game log were the games he won all that close? I mean how stressful are those innings pitched when he has a 8-0 lead in the 2nd inning? Every pitch Felix throws he has to be perfect, because he’s not going to get run support. That’s what I find amazing about it. He has to be nearly perfect every night he’s out there, and Felix does it again and again!
I guess you didn’t say you didn’t agree, and it sucks that the BBWAA leans on east coast players so much since Felix’s season has been so damn good this year!
September 1st, 2010 at 11:55 am
chappy
Members of the BBWAA are too pis_ed half the time to realize what’s going on on the field of play much less make a decision on the Cy Young awards much less the MVP awards.
Is it me but at the Cardinals and Padres falling like the draws on a cheap whore the way that they’ve been losing of late ?
Things I’m Now Trying To Understand In The World Of Sports ……
🙂
tophatal …………. 🙂
September 1st, 2010 at 12:03 pm
chappy
In all honesty I don’t see why the players themselves don’t come to a decision wherein they have categories where they vote on an award for their own peers within the game ! We have that in the UK with regard to soccer in the EPL (Premiership) and it’s well respected by the writers and tv pundits alike . But I guess here everything is somewhat done ass about face and is so damn arcane and archaic !
tophatal …………. 🙂
September 1st, 2010 at 1:58 pm
That would be a great idea. They should make it so the players vote! I wouldn’t second guess the players who are actually playing against the best, they must know who is the best! They should have NL guys vote for the NL, and AL guys vote for the AL. So simple, yet so easy to make sure the right guys get recognized!
September 2nd, 2010 at 9:24 am
chappy
One doubts that MLB hierarchy led by Selig would acquiesce and let the players have a say . But at the same time like I said the BBWAA are a bunch of buffoons to begin with ! Do you remember any of those guys ever actually addressing the steroid issue in depth either as an op-ed piece much less an article ? Never mind you’ve got two numb-nuts like ESPN’s Peter Gammons and Buster Olney who mainly proffer up their opinions and not much else. They’re all scared as to what MLB might do should they ever question their authority and to me that’s not the sign of a good journalist much less a good reporter but simply someone who’s lap dog to their paymasters as the case maybe !
tophatal …………… 🙂
September 2nd, 2010 at 6:33 am
Gotta throw in a little East Coast bias to keep you West Coasters in line.
I think we’re in for a VERY close race but I have to give the nod to either CC, Price, Lester or Buchholz.
Might come down to has the best final month of the season.
September 2nd, 2010 at 12:57 pm
Lester hasn’t been nearly as good lately, but I’d definitely throw Bucholtz in there. I just think that the innings pitched matter quite a bit, so Clay and Price would be in the same place as Cahill in my book. I agree though if any of them have an amazing last month it could be theirs for the taking. One more Felix fact, he has a 0.82 ERA since the beginning of August, so he’s rolling more than anyone at this point!
September 2nd, 2010 at 1:24 pm
chappy
In all probability though is he liable to win that Cy Young being a team that has a losing record (65-68) ? Just sayin’ that’s all !
There’s A Price To Pay And It’s Always Steep ……..
tophatal ……….. 🙂
September 2nd, 2010 at 4:32 pm
If Greinke can do it with a crappy team, why not Felix!?!
September 2nd, 2010 at 10:43 pm
After CC’s performance today, he may have locked it up. Lester has Buchholz and vice versa. Price has Garza and vice versa.
Sabathia’s been asked to hold the fort for the Yanks.
Media bias towards the Big Apple… I say the fat man gets the nod. And no, I’m not talking about David Wells.
Anyone care to wager?
September 3rd, 2010 at 8:17 am
chappy
But when was the last time the Royals won anything of note ? You gotta throw a starving dog a bone now and then haven’t you ? That’s not say that Cahill isn’t a viable candidate but as I stated before the writers will probably give it one of their favorites .
So the USC Trojans literally struggle to beat Hawaii in their opener . God forbid that they should a problem when they open up their PAC 10 schedule. Lane Kiffin is a putz ! If his coaching staff can’t get over on Hawaii then their season will definitely be a tough one never mind the sanctions.
USC Trojans’ schedule
🙂
tophatal ……….. 🙂
September 29th, 2010 at 6:01 pm
[…] post I’ve done on it, and I rarely go back to any subject I previously poured out my views on this post, but hearing people argue that CC should win it aggravated me enough to write a post on it again. […]