Kuzul

So now we declare royalty to Felix Hernandez, the kid with such raw talent that he immediately dazzled as the most exhilarating attraction this side of the Gateway to Alaska.

At the age of 14, he already had the essentials to reach the big leagues, and as the world’s most talented teenager, he exposed his otherworldly talent in a substandard baseball town that suddenly fostered and became magnetized to his work of art by tossing incredibly.

For a while there, we had a strong feeling he would be handed the monumental award in baseball, given his engagement and knack to inspire an inferior ballclub that was essentially out of the pennant race by early May. There’s a reason Seattle devotees appeared at Safeco Field, particularly on the nights or afternoons that Hernandez, who gave the Seattle Mariners life during the regular-season, just to witness a breathless and singular moment as King Felix delivered and clearly negated much of the mediocrity. Much as the population adored him, he made his presence felt on the mound and awed his amazed supporters, generating endless romance in a town that constantly watches raindrops fall from the sky.

As they say to the noble one…

Long live King Felix.

By now, the masses in the Pacific Northwest have fallen in love with Hernandez. Rightfully so, he won the American League Cy Young Award on Thursday, and not by a tight margin, capturing 21 of 28 first-place votes. All along, he was the fruitful ace in the majors, despite that the Mariners were never in contention for winning the American League West division.

By now, in our insatiable society, he represents charmingly a wonderful story for a region that hasn’t witnessed enough happiness in a long time, and beyond posing as the most gifted teenager, he is the symbol of Seattle and has simply hypnotized the citizens into watching because of his subtlety and craft. The crazy twist is that Hernandez, after he was advertised as the world’s most talented teen, was lazy and complacent until he turned 21-years old and improved his work ethic, performed with diligence, and finally reached a climax by the individual accolades of his flourishing profession.

For once, as of which many were shortsighted of his unforeseen accomplishments, he was distinguished greatly for pitching far more superior in 10 starts. Within all his starts, he was paramount and had either shutouts or held his opponents to a mere run, but had been mostly in oblivion for the Mariners valueless hitting all season.

“This confirms the Cy Young award is a not only for the pitcher with the most wins, but the most dominant,” an emotional Hernandez said while he celebrated and gathered with relatives in Venezuela.

Whatever impact was made in Seattle, it was very heartfelt and enough to change the minds of voters, although he finished 13-12 this season for the Mariners. It was a universal discernment, vividly unanimous for voters to end a controversial AL Cy Young Award race in which Hernandez’s candidacy was neck-to-neck with David Price, who finished 19-6 this season and came in runner-up for the award or CC Sabathia, who settled for third place after a masterful season with the New York Yankees.

The beauty of such an exalted award, you might recall, ultimately favors a pitcher who win games and lead its team to the postseason, and Hernandez never had an opportunity to guide the Mariners to a postseason birth, simply for pitching on a mediocre club. To his credit, it is a well-deserving award and he is now rightly honored.

But the argument of the majors lies solely in a worthwhile debate, a nation puzzled as to how various voters can acknowledge Hernandez’s inferior 13 wins streak, brainwashed by his astounding feats and preferred to neglect the Sabathia’s 21-7 season or Price’s convincing year with the Tampa Bay Rays. Still, either way, he deserves the award because of his rare difference on the mound that isn’t seen frequently in the majors, especially from a developing ace.

All season, he led the league in a 2.27 ERA, along with 249 2/3 innings pitched in 34 starts. On worst imports, nonetheless, the Mariners scored merely 513 runs, less than any ballclub in the American League. Within a short span, the discontent front office was unhappy with manager Don Wakamatsu, and wasted no time in firing him as the Mariners began the season poorly and disappointed all believers that were optimistic Seattle could win the division.

Not surprisingly, he won the prize for which he threw more innings than anyone. Also, he finished second in the AL in strikeouts and even pitched better than most pitchers this season, but struggled from the most wretched run support. So, this is why it’s hard for some to make the assessment that he is worthy of the biggest award in baseball.

What we are witnessing here is the archetype of the best pitcher. And after all, he was capable of being given the award even if he didn’t earn plenty of victories, an issue that could have hindered him from winning it surrounded by an ineffective roster and limited depth.

Greater than ever, he received votes on all 28 ballots, an indicator that most of the voters weren’t so oblivious or bias and voted based on the dominance Hernandez exhibited this season. It’s all a prototype of Zack Greinke winning the Cy Young award last year, with just 16 wins and he ranked seventh in the AL. But this time around, Hernandez ranked 18^th and still won it. This means anything is possible in the majors.    

From my viewpoint, I think he deserves it, and I believe he earned it as well. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Boston Red Sox have tried to acquire the new American League Cy Young Award winner Felix Hernandez before, and it’s time general manager Theo Epstein tries again.

Hernandez signed a multi-year extension in January with the Seattle Mariners, giving them a Cy Young-caliber ace for years to come.

Seattle is a struggling team right now and has many areas it needs to improve upon, both on offense and the pitching staff.

If the Mariners decide to put King Felix on the trading the block, the Red Sox are the best team to trade with because of the quality of talent at the big league and minor league levels Boston possesses. 

Why would the Mariners dare to put Hernandez on the block?

Because they need many more quality players to be a legitimate contender, and Hernandez’s value is as high as it’s ever been.

In 2009, the Red Sox, Mariners and Padres discussed a trade that would have been an all-time blockbuster, but it did not happen due to the reluctance of Seattle to part ways with Hernandez. 

The Red Sox reportedly offered Seattle eight of their better prospects and told them to choose any five of them for Hernandez alone. 

According to The Seattle Times, Boston chose Clay Buchholz, Michael Bowden, Justin Masterson, Daniel Bard, Nick Hagadone, Felix Doubront, Josh Reddick and Yamaico Navarro as the eight prospects available.

The deal also would have involved Adrian Gonzalez going to Seattle, while the Padres would receive prospects from Boston as well.

Looking back, Red Sox fans are glad Epstein did not have a chance to execute this trade.

For all the talent Hernandez has, almost all of these prospects have had major roles at the big league level or have been used to acquire other great players (e.g. Masterson was traded for Victor Martinez in 2009).

The Red Sox still have an interest in Hernandez this offseason but will not offer that many quality prospects again. Daniel Bard is the future closer, and Buchholz has become an All-Star-caliber starter.

Epstein is not armed with a lot of cash this offseason, and that can partly be attributed to the Red Sox ownership group’s purchase of the English soccer club Liverpool.

Boston’s best way to improve for 2011 is via trade. Reports from many media sources revealed the Red Sox and the Arizona Diamondbacks have discussed a potential trade involving Justin Upton, although Arizona’s initial asking price was rebuffed by Epstein.

Adrian Gonzalez of the Padres remains the Red Sox’s priority this season, but offseason surgery has teams a bit worried about trading for him now, and they will likely wait until the trade deadline next July before making a move.

Felix Hernandez is a great pitcher and deservedly won the 2010 AL Cy Young Award. But he has too much value for the Mariners not to consider trading him, because the return would help the Mariners build a contender for many years to come.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Two weeks after being defeated by a small rebel group called the San Francisco Giants, the sabermetrics empire struck back on Thursday….

“It is a dark time for Sabermetricians.
Although some of their theories have been destroyed,
Imperial pitchers and hitters have driven the
Rebel forces and beat writers from their mother’s basement
and pursued them across
the galaxy.

“Evading the dreaded WHIP, tERA, FIP and WAR,
a group of freedom
fighters led by Bruce Bochy
has established a new secret
way of winning on the remote summer ice world
of San Francisco.

“The evil lord Darth Felix Hernandez,
obsessed with taking over the galaxy,
has dispatched thousands of remote stats into
the far reaches of space….”

Darth Hernandez and the rest of the sabermetric community dispatched all the remote stats they could think of and got some revenge on Thursday, as the Seattle Mariners’ ace won the American League Cy Young Award.

Hernandez received 21 out of 28 first-place votes to become the second Mariner to win the award. Randy Johnson won the award in 1995. Tampa Bay Rays LHP David Price finished second in the voting, and New York Yankees LHP CC Sabathia finished third.

The big story of this voting was whether or not the voters would look at Hernandez’s 13 wins and dismiss his other statistics. As we know, wins aren’t the best way to judge a pitcher’s success, and now that thinking has trickled down to the voters.

Hernandez led the AL in ERA (2.27), H/9 (7.0), Batting Avg. Against (.212) and WAR for Pitchers (6.0). He also finished second in WHIP (1.06) and second in K’s (232). At the age of 24, King Felix has clearly established himself as one of the dominant pitchers in all of baseball.

Hernandez’s 13 wins represent the lowest total for a Cy Young winner in a non-strike-shortened season. Tim Lincecum won the NL Cy Young last year with 15 wins.

My preseason American League Cy Young pick: Jon Lester

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

For the second year in a row, the writers got it right. The Baseball Writers’ Association of America is known to be comprised of a lot of grizzled old veterans who shun sabermetrics. Just look no further than Derek Jeter winning a Gold Glove for proof. But they got it right with Felix Hernandez.

The Mariners ace made history by becoming the pitcher with the fewest wins (in a full season) to capture the Cy Young award. King Felix, who signed a big, long-term contract extension last offseason, won the award despite a record of 13-12.

Furthermore, it wasn’t even close. Hernandez got 21 of the 28 first-place votes and 167 points in all, winning by more than 50 points over second-place finisher David Price of the Rays.

In many previous seasons, the pitcher with the most wins got the award almost by default. Perhaps the problem is that the award is not “pitcher of the year” or “most valuable pitcher,” but is instead named after the guy with the most wins ever. He is also the one with the most losses ever, too, by the way.

The pitcher with the most wins in the AL in 2010 was the Yankees’ CC Sabathia, who went 21-7. He finished third in the voting.

By winning, Hernandez received an automatic $1 million raise in salary next year to $11 million. He also earned annual $500,000 raises after that to $19 million in 2012, $20 million in 2013 and $20.5 million in 2014.

So let’s take a look at why King Felix won this award, most likely angering the Joe Morgans of the world and making Yankees fans irate.  

Begin Slideshow

Now that all arguments are over and Felix Hernandez has been named the American League Cy Young Award winner (All hail King Felix!), it’s time to look at what the award could mean for the Seattle Mariners in the long run.

After getting fired, Rick Adair likely lost the opportunity to become the most famous pitching coach this side of Dave Duncan.

Duncan is the St. Louis Cardinals pitching coach who has overseen Chris Carpenter’s Cy Young victory and Adam Wainwright’s 2010 runner-up in the award. Not to mention he watched Carpenter and Wainwright battle it out for second and third place respectively in 2009, likely handing the award to Tim Lincecum.

Duncan has also resurrected the careers of Joel Pineiro, Jake Westbrook, Jason Marquis and Kyle Lohse, among others.

While observed positive results pitching in Safeco Field would make philosophical sense as part of the criteria for future free agent signings, at least in terms of receiving preference or ideally a discount, it hasn’t come to fruition in San Diego, which has both a pitcher-friendly park and was the one-time home of 2007 Cy Young winner Jake Peavy.

The most important and most certain issue would seem to be the financial component of Hernandez’s future. While his price tag is controlled for the next four seasons, according to Cot’s, by winning the 2010 Cy Young Award Hernandez has increased the total value of his contract by $2.5 million—certainly not crippling, but far from insignificant.

But the more important financial concern is when the Mariners are faced with the possibility of losing Hernandez yet again. After the 2014 season Hernandez has the opportunity to become a free agent, so while the five-year contract Felix signed last offseason brought some relief to Mariners fans, it will likely prove to be short-lived. However, this time around the price will be much higher.

Apart from Felix Hernandez, there are only 10 active Cy Young Award winners (excluding Pedro Martinez, because his age and semi-active status make him irrelevant to this discussion). Of those guys, only three have reached free agency and signed a contract: CC Sabathia, Johan Santana and Barry Zito (Cliff Lee and Brandon Webb are both free agents but have yet to sign).

None of those players re-signed with their team, and Zito’s seven-year, $126 million contract comes in as the lowest by far.

Zack Greinke and Peavy both won the award amidst their first signed extension with their original teams. Peavy was traded to the White Sox, and Greinke figures to be the subject of trade rumors this offseason, as the Royals have publicly said they’d listen to offers for their ace.

Both of those teams have more significant budget constraints than the Mariners, but perhaps Peavy’s situation represents something of a best-case scenario for the Mariners.

Following Peavy’s 2007 Cy Young Award victory, the Padres signed Peavy to another extension. This one came two years before his original extension ended and essentially traded two years of injury uncertainty for three more years at a perceived discounted rate.

While Peavy’s performance in 2010, the first active salary year of the extension, was hardly worth the $15 million he was paid, it’s important to ignore results-based analysis when creating a model for Hernandez’s next contract.

During a period of relative economic strength, Peavy signed a contract in 2007 worth more than 300 percent of his 2007 salary in its first year (2010) and about 188 percent of the final year of his extension at the time. For Hernandez, those numbers come out to between about $22.75 million and $37.5 million for the first-year salary of a potential extension.

In the present economic climate, somewhere on the lower half of the middle seems more likely. The truth is that there are simply less free agent dollars out there, and fewer years in which to receive those dollars are available as well.

So while FanGraphs’ WAR-based player values have shown Hernandez to be worth upwards of $55.5 million in past seasons, the present and future economic climate may prove that value to be irrelevant.

You see, present free agent dollars and WAR are still being calculated based on contracts signed before the recession, and if things keep up as they have, I’d imagine we could see a 20 percent decrease in the value of wins above replacement level.

With the Yankees and Red Sox presently boasting multiple eight-digit salaries in their rotations, signed through well into Hernandez’s next likely contract, the price tag of Hernandez may be driven down further.

Assuming Hernandez stays healthy and productive, the Mariners may have the opportunity to bring him in at a relative discount compared to his present extension and historical precedent, but either way, having the Cy Young Award likely means he’ll take up at least 20 percent of the team’s payroll.

However, if Felix is as good as many think he will be, and the market continues to adjust as many, including myself, think it will, this may be the least detrimental career accolade, in terms of team payroll, in the history of baseball.

Seattle Mariners top prospects

20-16, 15-11

To see 20 guys that didn’t make the cut, click here.

For “Fixing the 2011 Seattle Mariners” profiles, check out the following:

Ted Lilly, Ramon Hernandez, Michael Saunders, Colby Rasmus, Adam Dunn, Chone Figgins, Dustin Ackley, Felipe Lopez, Willy Aybar, Jack/Josh Wilson, Yu Darvish

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

This year’s AL Cy young winner, Seattle Mariners Felix Hernandez beat out Yankees ace CC Sabathia and the Tampa Bay Rays young pup David Price, and for that one can only think, “Thank god.”

The voters, for the second year running, rightfully ignored the win/loss column on the respective stat lines of each player, and rightfully gave the award to a man who won 13 games, and lost 12.

If you were to tell this to a baseball writer who lived and wrote in the Sixties, or even the Nineties, they would be irate.

“Daggummit,” you would hear, “how can a fella barely crack .500 and be the best darn pitcher in the dagum league?”  And yes, writers of yesteryear all talked like an 1840s gold prospector if you were curious.

The only other player to win the award with as few wins in the history of the Cy Young award was Fernando Valenzuela, who went 13-7, who won the award in 1981, a strike shortened season.

So, Hernandez has the honor of having the fewest wins of a Cy Young Award winner who pitched a full season and didn’t have a fistful of saves.

It would have been easy for the voters to look at Price’s 19-6 record and terrific 2.72 ERA and give him the nod, or even Sabathia’s league leading 21 wins and decided that he was deserving.

Just a few short seasons ago, this is probably what would have happened, leaving the most dominant pitcher in the league with no hardware to show of his magnificent season.

Hernandez, along with his 13 wins, voiced a 2.27 ERA, the lowest in the Majors, 232 strikeouts, good for second, and a tiny 1.06 WHIP.

The writers took into account the fact that Felix could do nothing to make up for the Mariners historically terrible offense, which scored a pitiful 513 runs, and in ten of his starts this season, they were held to one or fewer runs.

In the past two seasons, three of the four Cy Young winners have had 16 or fewer wins, and have accounted for the three fewest win totals for Cy Young winners in the history of the award, a significant change in the way of voting.

Voters are now embracing the statistical revolution in baseball brought along by Bill James and the people at SABR who have brought along a slew of new statistics to evaluate players in a more accurate and sophisticated manner.

Writers have begun to favor newer, formerly frightening sounding stats from WAR, VORP, and WPA to the frighteningly simple OBP.

Long gone are the days of three main stats used to designate the best players in the league, and finally the writers and voters are catching up with that trend.

Better late than never, kudos to Felix and kudos to the writers, you guys definitely got this one right.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The results are in!

Felix Hernandez has won the American League Cy Young Award despite winning just 13 games in the 2010 season.

This is an exciting development regardless of what you think of advanced metrics because when you get down to it, this is not about a triumph of advanced metrics over baseball traditionalists.

It’s a triumph of common sense over the absurdity of slavish tendencies toward traditional points of view. It’s the death of wins as a meaningful statistic when judging the value of a pitcher.

You don’t need FIP, WAR or any other advanced metric to realize Felix Hernandez was the best pitcher in baseball. ERA, WHIP, innings pitched and strikeouts told you that. Just like you didn’t need advanced metrics to tell you Zack Greinke was the best pitcher in the American League in 2009 despite only winning 16 games.

Not only did Hernandez win, but he won in a rout. Hernandez received 21 of 28 first place votes.

The “Wins” statistic has dominated the landscape of major league baseball for the better part of the 20th century. Now we know the 21st century is going to feature a new set of rules—a new understanding of what valuable is.

Well, maybe not just yet. The MVP award will still probably be “the best player on a winning team.” That’s OK. One step at a time.

Hernandez beat out both David Price and CC Sabathia. They had fine seasons in their own right playing for the Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees respectively. Their teams’ performances helped them post win totals that dwarfed Hernandez’.

But Hernandez was better than both pitchers, even with just 13 wins, which is now the lowest total of wins for a Cy Young winner in a non-interrupted season.

Somewhere Bert Blyleven is cursing himself for not being younger and pitching in a more enlightened era, although hopefully this is the precursor of finally getting one of the best pitchers of that generation into the Hall of Fame.

If Hernandez can win the Cy Young with 13 wins, then maybe Blyleven can make the Hall of Fame with 287 wins.

While this isn’t a victory for advanced metrics (many sabermetricians would tell you Cliff Lee deserved the Cy Young), it is a statement on how the one-time subculture of baseball analysis is slowly but surely getting its footing in the mainstream.

That’s a good thing as far as it means we are starting to base our decisions more on reasonable statistics than wins. Even if you wanted to argue for Price or Sabathia, there were better arguments to be made than pointing at their win totals.

This is not a call to start worshiping the odd acronyms of advanced metrics. It’s a call to accept the fact that wins have always and will always be a team stat and not an accurate gauge of a pitcher’s value.

While we’re at it, let’s recognize that the save is a completely arbitrary stat that tells us absolutely nothing. How else did Wes Littleton get a save in a 30-3 rout?

So congratulations to Felix Hernandez—and congratulations to everybody who has written an article on B/R over the past few months declaring Hernandez’ superiority to CC Sabathia this season (there have been many).

Common sense has won out for the second year in a row. Much credit is due to the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, an organization that many are critical of for their inane voting.

However, don’t get too excited. Derek Jeter still won a Gold Glove. It’s just a reminder that we have a long way to go before all baseball awards are actually given to those who deserve them.

Finally, rest in peace, “wins.” You had a good run, but I can’t say I’m sad to see your reign of silly injustice come to an end.

Next up is saves. You hear that, “saves?” We’re coming for you next.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

After posting career numbers, leading the league in ERA, innings pitched and being one behind the lead in strikeouts, a pitcher can be reasonably called the best in the league. Today, baseball writers across the nation agreed with that statement. In a stunning victory, Felix Hernandez won the 2010 AL Cy Young despite the fact that he only had a 13-12 record.

Two days ago, Roy Halladay won a unanimous victory in the NL Cy Young race, becoming one of less than 10 pitchers to accomplish such a feat. Halladay’s election was easy: he led the league in virtually all major statistical categories, and won 21 games—one of those being a perfect game (the voting occurred before his no-hitter in the postseason).

Hernandez’s stats were equally impressive; unfortunately he plays for the anemic Seattle Mariners, who garnered him only a 13-12 record. To give an idea of how unfair such a categorization is: Hernandez lost nine games in which he allowed two runs or less.

On almost any other team, he would have easily won 20 games—but the Mariners were, by more than 100 runs, the worst offense in the AL. His .520 winning percentage was nearly 20 basis points higher than his team.

He had the second-lowest WHIP in the league behind only former teammate Cliff Lee at 1.06. Likewise, he was second in the league (also behind Lee) with six complete games. He led the league with a 63.4 average game score, and was among the league leaders in all Sabermetric stats.

This continues the trend that began last year: a pitcher’s individual performance is valued above what his team contributes. Last year, Zack Greinke and Tim Lincecum won their respective Cy Young awards despite low win totals. But this year, baseball writers made a huge step forward, picking the best pitcher in the AL despite a lack of wins.

Hernandez is only 24 years old, and has already won 73 games. He has over 1,000 strikeouts and a career 3.20 ERA. Each year, his ERA has been falling, with it ending at 2.49 last year. He could not beat out Greinke’s stellar year (which was among the greatest of all time), but certainly made a strong case for himself. This year, Hernandez lead the league in ERA at 2.27, a remarkable number.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

It’s hyperbole to say that I grew up with Dave Niehaus. It’s cliche to say that I fell asleep to his voice, Walkmen wrung around my head as the Kingdome’s buzz rocked my eight-year-old self to sleep. It’s silly to say that the man was the soul of an oft-gutless organization, the beating heart, and bleating voice of a team that was more laughable than laudable—of one of the two organizations that has never, ever made a World Series.

It’s all over the top. But it’s all true. I was raised on Dave Niehaus, just as I was raised with the rain-soaked fall and Stanich’s grease and the hardcourts of CYO basketball.

The man filled in all the odd, in-between spaces of life in the Northwest—the times between the Blazers and the Rose Festival, the drives to the coast and to the Sound and to Mt. Hood. He came out my car stereo on those innumerable drives to and from Seattle, translating the sound of the game into a language we could understand. He was always, always there.

And now, he’s not.

Dave passed away yesterday at the age of 75, felled by a heart attack.

You could tell his best days were far behind him. Any time the camera found him—which seemed rarer by the season—he looked bloated and red, struggling to stand, struggling to breathe. His physicality was notably frail. A few years back, he began suffering heart troubles, missing large stretches at a time. But he was back. He was always back, always with a story, telling us of Amaral’s speed and Sexson’s hacks and Ichiro’s magnificence. Always with the same mellifluous voice, the one that wouldn’t falter no matter how many losing seasons he had to endure.

His voice wasn’t what one would expect from a Hall of Fame announcer. It was tiny and excitable, rather than booming or hearty or loquacious. As the guys at Lookout Landing said, you could always tell when the Mariners were doing well—Dave’s voice had the range of the most talented choir singers, even if his pitch wasn’t always something to write home on.

In 1977, when the Mariners were first born, when Diego Segui first fired the fastball across the meat of the plate and returned professional baseball to the Pacific Northwest, Dave was there. When the 1980s saw the team claim the dregs of the decade, he was there. When Edgar struck that Double, sending Cora flitting home, sending Junior spinning behind him—“THE THROW TO THE PLATE WILL BE … LATE! THE MARINERS ARE GOING TO PLAY IN THE AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP! I DON’T BELIEVE IT! IT JUST CONTINUES! MY OH MY!”

Dave was there. When Ichiro rose, when 116 flopped, when Lou and Buhner and Junior all faded from the game, Dave was there. And Dave continued on to the next one, always with us tailing ever eager behind.

I don’t know where or how Dave ranks against the greats, against the Harry Carays, against the Ernie Harwells, against the Harry Kalases. His voice, in a sense, exists in a vacuum, and I have to take others’ words—and those of the voices who elected him to the HOF in 2008—as evidence of his position in the framework of baseball.

I only had a few chance encounters with him, between spring training and work in the world of sports journalism. But I feel like I knew the man intimately, unequivocally, unremittingly. I knew him, and all that he asked was that I listen. And that was all I wanted to do.

He was our grandfather, the one with the painfully white shoes and the seamlessly sewn narratives, connecting past to present, simultaneously wry and professional. He was the team’s lone constant. He was also the team’s greatest export, and the greatest part of baseball in the Northwest.

A friend of mine once said that life is but a movie—the only thing that’s missing is the soundtrack. Dave was that soundtrack. Now, the track is over.

Rest in peace, Dave. You’ve finally made it to your World Series. Have a Grand Salami for us.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Three weeks ago, Bleacher Report’s Featured Columnists began to unveil the results of our end-of-season wards poll. We’ve looked at Gold Gloves, Silver Sluggers, Comeback Players of the Year, Relief Men of the Year, Rookies of the Year, and Managers of the year.

Now, in our last week, we get to the good part: Cy Youngs and MVPs.

Today, as the BBWAA announces its choices for Rookies of the Year (too bad we already beat them to it!), we turn our attention to the American League Cy Young race.

As always the top five vote-getters are featured here, with commentary from the writers who chose them. The full list of results is at the end.

So read on, see how we did, and be sure to tell us what we got wrong!

Begin Slideshow