Lost in all the hubbub of baseball’s postseason was that Major League Baseball announced their Comeback Players of the Year award last week. Let’s see who won this award in both the American League and National League…
National League
2010 NL Comeback Player of the Year: Tim Hudson
After starting only 29 games combined the previous two years, Hudson came back strong in 2010. He went 17-9 and pitched a 2.83 ERA, which was his lowest since 2003 (2.70).
Where Hudson excelled was throwing groundballs. Hudson led the majors in Groundball Percentage with 64 percent of his pitches resulting in worm burners. Hudson was always a groundball pitcher with that heavy sinker he throws, but this year he mastered it.
American League
My Prediction: Francisco Liriano
2010 AL Comeback Player of the Year: Francisco Liriano
Sooner or later, Liriano was going to figure things out and 2010 was the year. Liriano became the ace of the Minnesota Twins pitching staff as he went 14-10 with a 3.62 ERA. His low win total and average ERA don’t do Liriano justice as he was pretty dominant in 2010.
Liriano’s 9.44 K/9 ranked fifth in baseball and his 6.0 WAR ranked eighth amongst all pitchers in 2010. Liriano is a tremendous talent and at the age of 27 should be coming into his prime.
Congratulations to Hudson and Liriano on two fantastic seasons.
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