Read the opposing argument from Sports Geek.
Since today is the first day of the MLB Post Season, The Sports Debates decided to celebrate the season with an old fashioned “who is better” style debate over two of baseball’s best – C.C. Sabathia and Felix Hernandez. The ace from the Big Apple owns the league when it comes to wins, but King Felix rules from his thrown atop the ERA ranks. Both pitchers are unquestionably among the best in baseball, and both pitchers are crazy talented. But Sabathia is the only one to get consistent results from his talent. He converts starts into wins, and that is the all important difference between contender and pretender.
Effective Pitching Wins Championships
We have all heard the old cliché that pitching wins championships, and it is true… or rather mostly true. I think a more appropriate expression would be “effective pitching wins championships.” Effective pitchers are the guys who get outs, not just the first time through the lineup, but when the game is on the line. They are the guys that keep leads even when their team’s offense isn’t firing on all cylinders. But most importantly, effective pitchers win games. A guy doesn’t have to have the most dominant stuff to be the more effective pitcher, he just has to use his stuff to win ball games.
Unfortunately for Felix Hernandez, despite all his talent, his ability to convert that talent into W’s remains largely untapped. At season’s end Hernandez owns a 13-12 record, and as a result finds himself on the outside looking in during October. Obviously he is at a disadvantage with a less explosive offensive than what backs Sabathia, but to simply dismiss a difference of eight wins as a lack of offense would be foolish. Sure the Yankees have power, but the Mariners have speed. They boast a formidable lineup with a terrific one two punch at the top of the order. With arguably the best leadoff man in baseball, Ichiro Suzuki, atop the order and a sparkplug in the number two hole in Chone Figgins Seattle certainly has the potential to put up enough runs to stay in games. Similarly, it would be equally as inappropriate to attribute all those losses as a lack of bullpen help. Again, Hernandez may not be able to turn the ball over to Mariano Rivera, but David Aardsma racked up just two fewer wins than Mo this season, so that theory doesn’t hold either.
C.C. Sabathia, on the other hand, is certainly an effective pitcher. He has won 21 games this season. That is more than any other pitcher in the American League, and ties him for the most wins in all of baseball. It should also be noted that Sabathia was able to accomplish this in the ultracompetitive A.L. East, frequently facing potent Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox lineups. Sabathia is the unquestioned ace of the New York rotation and has led his staff to accumulate 94 wins, the second most in all of baseball. The bottom line, however, is that Sabathia gets wins. Whether it is the fact that he works deep enough into the games, or he just comes through in the clutch, Sabathia finds ways to win games – and that’s the difference.
Sometimes Stats Lie
Baseball is probably the most statistically driven sport, but when judging players it is important to consider the right categories because sometimes stats can be deceiving. I do not mean that statistics are faulty or inflated, but that certain statistics are not valid measurements of a players worth.
The strikeout statistic is a perfect example. During the regular season, 14 players recorded 200 or more strikeouts, among them were John Lester (225 Ks and a 19-9 record), Roy Halladay (219 Ks and a 21-10 record), and Adam Wainwright (213 Ks and a 20-11 record). Looking at these players’ dominant strikeout totals and impressive win-loss record one could assume that players with large strikeout totals must also be effective pitchers that win a large majority of their games. But that would be a misnomer. In fact, of the 14 players to record 200 plus strikeouts, nine of them had double digit losses as well, and three of them only won one more game than they lost, including Felix Hernandez. Similarly, while low ERAs may sometimes be indicative of excellent pitching, the stat is not always an accurate correlate of winning baseball. Only a little more than one-third of pitchers in the top 21 in ERA won more than 14 games.
In the end the only statistic that really matters is winning. C.C. Sabathia knows how to win better than almost any other pitcher in baseball, and it is because of that fact that I would trust him with the ball anytime he is healthy, rested, and ready to take the mound. His successes on short rest in last season’s playoffs are a testament to his ability. This season he’ll be given the chance to put those skills on display again, while Hernandez will be thinking about 2011. That’s just about as much proof as you need.
Posted by Bleacher Fan 
