2010 AL Cy Young Award Goes to King Felix

With a plethora of dominating pitching performances, 2010 had been dubbed the "Year of the Pitcher". Today, Seattle Mariner Felix Hernandez was crowned the 'King' of pitchers in the American League when it was announced that he won 2010 AL Cy Young Award.  Hernandez received 75% of the first place ballots, with Tampa Bay Ray David Price finishing a distant second. King Felix defied the traditional odds of winning this prestigious award, which usually counts wins as a heavy determinant. As a matter fact, his 13 wins is the lowest ever for a Cy Young award winner. His 2.27 ERA and 232 strikeouts for a team that finished with over a 100 losses was stellar. I congratulate Hernandez and in no way want to diminish his accomplishments, but I contend that pitching with the pressure of a playoff push should weigh heavily. Pitching while your team is languishing in the cellar does not bring the same pressure that it does for those hunting for the post season.  A lot of baseball experts predicted that Hernandez would win over the likes of Price and New York Yankee C.C. Sabathia. Most of these experts expressed that they had significantly more support than Hernandez. I do agree with that fact but I feel you can't penalize these guys for it. If Price's ERA was 9.00 and he won 19 games then I would fully support that argument but his ERA was 2.72, not much higher than Hernandez. I think that Price should have won the Cy Young.  His numbers are somewhat comparable to Hernandez's but he pitched for a division winning team that had pressure games all year long. I definitely would have voted for Price but that is not to say that Hernandez was a terrible choice.