Corey Kluber: BBA Walter Johnson Award Winner

Some decisions in life are easy, some are not. Brushing your teeth in the morning is an easy decision because rotted teeth are gross, and nobody likes rotted teeth. Therefore, you get up, every morning, squeeze some Crest onto a toothbrush and scrub scrub scrub. Showering is an easy decision. Nobody wants to smell you, not even you. See, easy decisions. There were a lot of decisions like this that we at Off Base Percentage encountered while filling out the ballots for the BBA Awards. There were also some not as easy decisions in our way. One of them being the Walter Johnson Award for the American League. This was not a get up and brush your teeth decision. This was a "Do I want steak or chicken tonight?" decision.

2013 Team Awards: Seattle Mariners

This is the Mariner Moose doing...well...I don't know what the hell he is doing. 

In order to review the 2013 season, the crackpot staff of Off Base is handing out awards to each Major League team. Please send us $19.95 for the shipping and handling of your team's Hello Kitty stickers awards. Here are the Most Valuable Player, Least Valuable Player, Cy Young, Cy Yuck, Rookie of the Year and Reliever of the Year for the Seattle Mariners. 

*Guidelines, prices and participation may vary by author*

MVP: Kendrys Morales

Kyle Seager led the offense with an fWAR of 3.4 thanks in large part to his defense, but the Cuban Missile was one of the few Mariners players who not only knew what he was doing with a bat in his hands, but also knew how to hold it correctly. In 156 games he hit .277/.336/.449 while hitting 23 home runs and driving in 80 from the Designated Hitter spot. He still runs like his ankle is held together by chewing gum and flash frozen silly putty, but that was never a big part of his game anyway. 

AL West Year In Review

Off Base will take a look back at the 2010 season season with our own brand of science nonsense. Today we'll look at the AL West because the Angels owe me $120 after watching them all year on MLB.tv.

1. Texas Rangers
Highlights: The Rangers made it all the way to the World Series after winning the West with a 90-72 record. They lost, of course, because I purchased a Cliff Lee voodoo doll from the French Quarter. Josh Hamilton put together what should be an MVP season. C.J. Wilson ended up being a star both on the mound and on Twitter @str8edgeracer. Nolan Ryan's giant head and finance group bought the Rangers which means much more of his buddy, George W. Bush. There is a good chance the Rangers will declare war on Cuba for relief pitchers.

Lowlights: Ron Washington forgot he had Neftali Feliz once he got into the World Series. Which could mean either the onset of Alzheimer's disease or the dreaded poor bullpen management syndrome. Nelson Cruz took more trips to the DL than your sister takes to the free clinic which doomed my fantasy baseball team.

Hot Stove Outlook: Re-signing Cliff Lee is priority number one. They have a good chance I think too. He recently bought cowboy boots. If that ain't science, I don't know what is. They declined Vlad Guerrero's $9 million option but will probably try to bring the old man with no knees back on the cheap.

2. Oakland A's
Highlights: The A's managed to finish second in the West with a .500 record. Dallas Braden threw a perfect game. A Dallas Braden "Get Off My Mound" T-shirt was made. Umm, their young starters pitched better this year?

Lowlights: Average home attendance was 137. There wasn't a single player who hit 20 home runs. Nobody sent me a "Get Off My Mound" T-shirt.

Hot Stove Outlook: It is now completely impossible to guess what Billy Beane might do anymore. In fact, I think he only watches soccer now.

3. Los Angels Angels
Highlights: Jered Weaver led the league in strikeouts and became the ace I hoped he'd become. Peter Bourjos got called up and played some amazing center field. Mike Trout is now the top prospect in baseball. Also, Mike Trout. Mike Trout.

Lowlights: Kendry Morales continued his hot hitting from 2009 but broke his leg celebrating a walk-off grand slam. The Angels finished 10 games out of first with an 80-82 record. The Brandon Wood third base experiment finished the season with a .146/.174/.208 line. I cried a little after each one of his plate appearances. The bullpen.

Hot Stove Outlook: The Angels figure to open up Arte Moreno's checkbook and bid on the likes of Carl Crawford, Adrian Beltre and Rafael Soriano. I really want to see a Crawford, Torii Hunter and Peter Bourjos outfield.

4. Seattle Mariners
Highlights: None. Okay fine, Felix Hernandez was brilliant and will probably win the Cy Young.

Lowlights: Chone Figgins was a bust and has a fat contract. They finished with the second worst record in baseball at 61-101. The M's finished last in batting average, on base percentage and slugging percentage. It was a reverse triple crown slash line as a team.

Hot Stove Outlook: Overspend on a player after a career year. Pray Justin Smoak develops into the prospect everybody thought he would be. Spend a lot of time trying to figure out who to draft with the second pick in next year's draft.

BBA AL Walter Johnson Award Ballot

Baseball's award season is upon us and we finally have a vote that counts for something this year. We're proud members of the Baseball Blogger Alliance and they've been kind enough to give us ballots. The only thing the BBWAA ever gave us was an autographed Brien Taylor baseball signed in crayon. Today we'll be unveiling our AL Walter Johnson ballot for pitcher of the year. Note: I completely ignored wins.

1. Felix Hernandez
I'm almost reluctant to place King Felix first here because I have a much stronger statistical case for my second place vote getter. And sorry New York, CC didn't even make my ballot. Felix is certainly deserving after pitching a 2.27/3.04/3.26 (ERA/FIP/xFIP) line over 249.2 innings. He finished the season with a 6.2 WAR and a 3.19 SIERA. It was a fantastic season by all accounts and the only reason for Mariners' fans to undo the nooses they fashioned around the ceiling fan in their parents' dining room. But...

2. CLiff Lee
Some fair warning, I love the stats more than Jay and Silent Bob love the mother effing Time. Lee led all pitchers in WAR (7.0) and also led the galaxy with a 10.28 K/BB ratio. So, Lee's final pitching line was 3.18/2.58/3.23 and he had a 3.03 SIERA but threw around 37 fewer innings than Felix. Are four starts enough to justify putting Hernandez over Lee? I'm not sure. The other issue I looked at here was Lee's average .302 BABIP compared to Hernandez's .273 BABIP. Neither was particularly lucky or unlucky and the difference can probably be explained by Lee being a slightly more flyball pitcher (40.4%) than Hernandez (29.8%). The two were much closer than I initially thought and I just about flipped a coin for the top spot. I suspect Felix will run away with this award but Lee is just as deserving.

3. Jered Weaver
Weaver was asked to become the staff ace after John Lackey's free agent departure and Weaver rose to the occasion. Weaver led the American League in strikeouts with 233, one more than Felix Hernandez. He finished with a .301/3.06/3.51 line and a 5.9 WAR. Weaver's 2.97 SIERA was tops among AL starters. To reinforce just how dominant Cliff Lee was, Weaver finished with the second highest K/BB ratio (4.31) but was still three light years behind Lee's ridiculous 10.28 ratio. Like Felix to the Mariners, Weaver was one of the lone bright spots in a disappointing Angels' season.

4. Justin Verlander
Here's my straight WAR pick. Verlander had a good season with a 3.37/2.97/3.68 line and his 6.3 WAR was second in the League to Cliff Lee. Verlander's strikeout numbers dipped form 10.09 K/9 to 8.79 dooming my fantasy baseball team.

5. Francisco Liriano
Liriano had a much better season than his 3.62 ERA suggested but I don't how how much the BBWAA will look at his 2.66 FIP or 3.06 xFIP for voting purposes. David Price and CC Sabathia are sure to get more ballot love thanks to their shiny win totals. Liriano was even unlucky to some extent with a .340 BABIP that would have been higher if he didn't have the Twins defense behind him.

Felix Hernandez's Role In The AL Cy Young

With 7 weeks to go in the season, it's still a little early for award predicting. But Geoff Baker had to write something for The Seattle Times and I suppose I need to write something here. Baker believes Hernandez, despite his 8-10 record, can make a legitimate run because he's in the top 5 in Innings (1st), ERA (4th), Strikeouts (2nd) and Complete Games (2nd). Then Baker blows my mind talking about King Felix being in the top 5 of FIP and xFIP. Geoff Baker, you had me at FIP.

Felix Hernandez is having another great CY Young type season that I guess I didn't even really notice because he is a Mariner. So, I guess it's about time for me to take a quick look at my fictional Cy Young ballot. The ballot has been expanded to 5 spots from 3 spots for what might as well be called the Keith Law Law. For my imaginary ballot, I'll be ignoring wins (sorry Carl Pavano) because just stop it already.

1. Cliff Lee
Lee has been downright masterful with his command of the strike zone. His 15.22 K/BB ratio would not only shatter Brett Saberhagan's 11.00 ratio from 1994 but make Jered Weaver look like a jerk with his second best 4.44 this year. Lee (3.25) has the second best xFIP in the AL and has the most complete games in the league with 7. He also has the best WAR (6.0) and WPA (3.72) in the AL.

2. Felix Hernandez
After Lee, the rest of the best are a pretty tight group but King Felix is as deserving as any. The innings and strikeouts are impressive but Baker didn't mention that Hernandez is also tied for 5th in hits. His .294 BABIP suggests he hasn't really been unlucky in that area either. He's 4th in xFIP (3.36) but only .11 points off from Cliff Lee. He's also 3rd in WAR (4.8) and 4th in WPA (2.80) in the AL. The 10 or 11 wins he'll end up with will certainly hurt him though. It's unfortunate for him that your sister scores more every year than the Mariners.

3. Jered Weaver
Weaver is flying under the radar despite leading the AL in strikeouts. He was placed in the ace role for the Halos after Lackey departed and has certainly lived up to it. He's 5th in xFIP (3.38) and 2nd in K/BB (4.44). He's 5th in WAR (4.4) at Fangraphs or tied for 1st with Lee (4.7) at B-R. I should note that I use Fangraphs for most of my stats unless Baseball-Reference helps my argument better. He's also 2nd in WPA (3.34) in the AL. If he can get up to 15-16 wins from the 11 he's sitting at, he might have a good chance at running up Cliff Lee. Unless Pavano gets to 20 wins, then all bets are off.

4. Jon Lester
Lester has the most wins (13) on my ballot. His BB/9 ratio is up this year from his previous 2 years which is keeping him from being in the top 5 in K/BB but he is 3rd in the AL in strikeouts (165). He's 3rd in xFIP (3.26) just .01 away from Cliff Lee. Lester is 4th in WAR (4.6) and 3rd in WPA (3.24). Considering his wins and market, he'll probably end up finishing much higher than 4th.

5. Francisco Liriano
Liriano isn't close to the top 10 in innings pitched but he's been exceptional when he's throwing. Despite the fewer innings, he's still 4th in strikeouts (160). He leads the AL in both FIP (2.19) and xFIP (2.94). Liriano is 2nd in WAR (5.6)but only 11th in WPA (2.24). Liriano will probably only sniff the ballot if some of the new more sabermetrically inclined members get some AL Cy Young votes.