Felix’s numbers didn’t come up this time

• Remember way back in the dim past when Felix Hernandez was the darling of the analytics crowd? When he won a Cy Young Award thanks, in large part, to other stats than the outdated won/loss record? That was what, four years ago? My, times have changed. Yesterday, Felix was beaten out for his second Cy Young by Cleveland’s Corey Kluber , whose one notable edge over the Seattle ace was his 18-9 record. Felix was “just” 15-6. The other statistics, the ones that everyone seemed to cite in 2010, statistics like ERA, WHIP, batting average against, on-base percentage against, you know, the ones pitchers completely control as opposed to wins and losses? According to Mark Whicker of the Orange County Register, a Baseball Writers’ Association of America voter, Felix led the American League in those. And he was better than Kluber in walk rate, hit rate and strikeouts-to-walks ratio. Kluber had a great year. But Felix had a better one. After all, it seems as if the statistics favor Felix once again. But the voters didn’t. The writers who vote, actually. The players, who give out their own award based, mainly, on how they fared against their peers, gave their award to Felix. But they don’t know crud, right? It’s the numbers that matter. And if the numbers don’t back up your vote, you dig deeper and find other numbers . You know, ones like how your good your team’s defense is, a analytic still argued over by the numbers folks, and how a ballpark affects runs. We all know Safeco Field is a pitchers’ ballpark. According to the analytics people, it was the hardest ballpark to score in last year. Kluber pitched in a home park that was a little easier to score in, and his statistics are close, so he’s got to be better, right? Maybe part of the Safeco numbers were built because the M’s offense sucked, anyone think of that? So let’s ding Felix because no one scores in his home park, another indirect punishment for having to pitch for one of the most offensively inept teams in America - and with a solid pitching staff. This, and other advanced metrics for defense and the like, were cited by voters who gave Kluber 17 first-place votes – Felix had 13 – and 10 more points. But I think the 18 wins swayed some too, even if they won’t admit it. Of course, no one mentions Kluber received 4.2 runs per game in support of his starts. Felix? He was rewarded with 3.5. But the bottom line is you want your team to win, right? You want to know what the Indians’ record was in Kluber’s 34 starts? It was 22-12. Nice job. The Mariners’ record in Felix starts? A measly 22-12. Wait, that’s the same. And most other statistics, modern and old-fashioned, favor Hernandez. I guess that’s why he didn’t win. And no, I don’t get it either.

• By the way, I ran the picture above from yesterday just because I like the interplay with Felix and his son. That is all.

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• WSU: Even though the Cougars don’t play this weekend, Jacob Thorpe continues to pick the Pac-12 games. He also continues to hold his Wednesday live chats and, every morning, puts together a blog post with links. Some football news came up yesterday as well, so Jacob blogged about that. But yesterday was also the first day of the fall basketball letter-of-intent signing period, so Jacob put together a blog post on the Cougars’ four signees as well as a story for this morning’s paper. For a bye week, seems like a lot to do. I don’t miss those days. … We still have football stories to keep up with, including power rankings , predictions and mailbags as well as an ESPN.com feature on Luke Falk. … Also, there is this column on USC’s Josh Shaw, which is worth reading. … Basketball is starting too, so we are trying to pass along a few season preview stories, including these on California and Stanford .

• Gonzaga: The Zags begin the season with a couple of home games, the second of which is against highly regarded SMU on Monday night. The Mustangs reportedly will not have their best returning big man, however. … GU’s newest big man, Kyle Wiltjer (pictured), has found a home after transferring from Kentucky. He’s also the subject of John Blanchette’s column . … Gonzaga signed one player to a letter of intent and Jim Meehan has all the particulars in this blog post . … USD is looking to do better than expected this season while BYU’s class for next year includes four mature players.

• EWU: The Eagles will open the 2014 college basketball season for everyone, tipping off tomorrow morning at 8 in Cheney. I’ll be there. Yes, I am taking the blog on the road, doing my column from Reese Court. It should be fun. If there are typos, blame Jim Hayford. … Jim Allen has an advance on the Eagles’ opener. He also has some football news despite the Eagles having a late-season bye on the schedule. … Weber State is favored again in the Big Sky basketball race.

• Idaho: The Vandals will hold senior day this Saturday in Moscow and John has a blog post covering their festivities. And the game.

• Whitworth: The success Whitworth’s men’s soccer team experienced resulted in some awards .

• Chiefs: Vancouver took care of Tri-City last night while an Everett player took care of something else over the weekend.

• Preps: It’s Thursday, which means it’s Prep Page day. Greg Lee’s column looks at his newest old love, cross country. … Football playoffs are in full swing and we have this summary of each game. … Greg and Sam Adams’ picks are tied going into this week’s games and will be after the weekend is over. … Chris Derrick looks at what has helped the Valley’s volleyball teams rise to the top. … West Valley edged East Valley to open the 2A soccer playoffs.

• Seahawks: What day is today? Thursday? So who is injured today ? We learned Tuesday Brandon Mebane was out for the season, Wednesday it was Zach Miller . So whose turn is it today ? There are a lot of candidates, as seven guys sat out practice yesterday. … Bobby Wagner won’t play this week. … We know Kevin Williams will play more with Mebane out. … How about using this guy on the defensive line? … Pete Carroll talked with the media yesterday. Earl Thomas talked with the NFL Network.

• Mariners: There were some surprised people in Seattle yesterday, not the least of which was Felix Hernandez himself. But also put Larry Stone and John McGrath in that category. … Ryan Divish tries to explain the award voting in this story and blog post . … Don’t expect Victor Martinez in an M’s uniform next season. … I still believe the best offseason move would be signing Jon Lester and then trading Taijuan Walker for a bat. That’s just me.

• Sounders: It’s a while before the L.A. Galaxy series begins , so there is hope Ozzie Alonso will be OK. If not, he has a backup . … The Sounders took a gamble with a defender this season and it didn’t pay off .

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• Another day, another post. And another afternoon on the radio with Dennis Patchin and Rick Lukens. I’ll be on between 3 and 5 today – the show goes until 6 but I have other duties after 5 – and you can listen here . Until then …