Felix Hernandez is the best starting pitcher with the worst run support in the last 18 years!

There has never been a winner of the AL Cy Young Award who was a starting pitcher that has had less than 16 wins (and only two in the NL : Tim Lincecum last year and  Fernando Valenzuela in 1981).  In fact in the last 10 years only Zach Grienke last year had less than 18.

This year Felix Hernandez is leading in a number of pitching categories including ERA, games started, innings pitched, strikeouts etc.  It has been quite well publicized that Hernandez has suffered from a pathetic Seattle team which couldn't score any runs this year.  But I was shocked at just how unlucky Hernandez has been to be on such a pathetic team.

Below I have listed all the starting pitchers in the AL who have started at least 28 games and who have had an ERA around 2.5 or below up until 1992 (Numbers listed a W-L, ERA, Run support avg).  You can see that most pitchers who have such a low ERA have had a decent number of wins with the exceptions being Pedro in 2003 and Kevin Appier in 1992.  But no pitcher has ever had more than 10 losses like Hernandez this year.  However no pitcher has had such pathetic run support as Hernandez this year, a measley 3.07 BA!!!!  No other pitcher even comes close, except Grienke in 2009 who had a 3.78 run support BA.

Therefore if there was ever a year where a pticher with 13 wins (possibly 14 he has another start) this should be the year.  He has had the worst run support for a starting pitcher with an ERA of less than 2.5 in the last 18 years!!!


2010 Felix Hernandez 13-12, 2.27, 3.07 ; Clay Buckholtz 17-7, 2.33,  4.81
2009 Zach Grienke 16-8, 2.16, 3.78 (won Cy Young); Felix Hernandez 19-5, 2.49, 4.37
2008 Cliff Lee 22-3, 2.54, 5.58 (won Cy Young)
2003 Pedro Martinez 14-4, 2.22,  5.09
2002 Pedro Martinez 20-4, 2.26,  6.09; Derek Lowe 21-8, 2.58, 6.14
2000 Pedro Martinez 18-6, 1.74, 4.51 (won Cy Young)
1999 Pedro Martinez 23-4, 2.07, 5.68 (won Cy Young)
1997 Roger Clemens 21-7, 2.05, 4.67 (won Cy Young); Randy Johnson 20-4, 2.28, 4.61
1995 Randy Johnson 18-2 2.48 5.75 (won Cy Young)
1993 Kevin Appier 18-8, 2.56, 4.52
1992 Roger Clemens 18-11, 2.41, 4.06; Kevin Appier 15-8, 2.46, 3.4; Mike Mussina 18-5 2.54 4.48