Who should win AL Cy Young?

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20101029&content_id=15904446&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb

The above link takes you to a preview of the AL Cy Young award to be announced at 1:30 PM EST today.

SportsReaction

I Don’t have a lot of time today so this is just a quick post today previewing the Cy Young.

Here’s a chart showing the contenders, and who should win--highlighted in orange (Min. 180 IP):

Pitcher	IP	W	L	ERA	K/9	BB/9	HR/9	FIP	WAR
J. Verlander	224.1	18	9	3.37	8.79	2.85	0.56	2.97	6.3
Cliff Lee	212.1	12	9	3.18	7.84	0.76	0.68	2.58	7.1
F. Hernandez	249.2	13	12	2.27	8.36	2.52	0.61	3.04	6.2
J. Weaver	224.1	13	12	3.01	9.35	2.17	0.92	3.06	5.9
J. Lester	208	19	9	3.25	9.74	3.59	0.61	3.13	5.6
CC Sabathia	237.2	21	7	3.18	7.46	2.8	0.76	3.54	5.1
D. Price	208.2	19	6	2.72	8.11	3.41	0.65	3.42	4.3

Cliff Lee is listed as a candidate in the above-linked article, but I don’t hear much discussion about him being named the winner.  It seems to come down to Felix Hernandez, David Price, and CC Sabathia.

I don’t know if it was because Lee played for two separate teams this season, or that he had a horrible August (45.1 IP, 6.35 ERA), but his overall body of work is clearly the best.  He does meet the traditional criteria of pitcher for a playoff contender (Texas Rangers), albeit not for a full season, but doesn’t meet those same criteria when it comes to his W-L record.  

Cliff Lee deserves this award but if it doesn’t go to him it should go to Felix Hernandez.  My prediction is that it goes to David Price though.  He had great traditional stats (W-L, ERA), and not enough voters care about the more skill-based statistics listed above where Price clearly comes up short.

We’ll see.