We've got to have a pitching award. Otherwise they get no love.
Last year's winner was Jered Weaver, putting up another ridiculous season, with a 20-5 record, 2.81 ERA, an AL-best 7.0 hits per nine innings, and a MLB-best 1.018 WHIP. Does he reprise this season? Let's see.
What a year for Angels pitchers...and I wish I was saying that positively. An injury-riddled starting rotation and a God-awful bullpen that only pulled it together when it mattered least made for a horrifying year to trudge through. A few bright lights shined upon us from that pitching staff, though. One of those was this player, the only one to have made all of his scheduled starts this season, avoiding both injury and too horrific of slumping. The struggles were numerous with him this season, but he found an almost magical way to avert them, and it wound up becoming his trademark, almost to be expected. A spectacle. And it certainly was spectacular enough to give him one of the best seasons of his career--and the best from any Angels pitcher, in the eyes of the voters. Here he is!
2013 DEAN CHANCE AWARD: C.J. WILSON (17-7, 3.39 ERA, 188 K, 8.0 K/9, 2.21 K/BB, 212.1 IP, 3.4 WAR)
Certainly not what we're used to seeing in terms of "best pitching seasons," but I'll tell you what, with the Murphy's Law baseball our pitching staff was playing this year, it was a pleasant surprise and extremely relieving to see C.J. put up the numbers he did. Even so, the fan love for Weaver was so strong that, despite his missing 9 starts, he almost got the award over Wilson. While Weaver was healthy, he did good, but the portion of the season that he was gone was all too pivotal, it would prove. The ragtag gang that collectively replaced Weaver didn't exactly shine (save for a stellar outing against Detroit from Garrett Richards) in his absence, but our staff did have some players put decent years together. The voting totals:
PLAYER | POSITION | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | TOTAL |
C.J. Wilson | SP | 5 | 6 | - | 43 |
Jered Weaver | SP | 5 | 3 | 2 | 36 |
Garrett Richards | SP/RP | - | 1 | 2 | 5 |
Dane De La Rosa | RP | 1 | - | - | 5 |
Jason Vargas | SP | - | - | 4 | 4 |
Michael Kohn | RP | - | 1 | - | 3 |
Jerome Williams | SP/RP | - | - | 1 | 1 |
Ernesto Frieri | RP | - | - | 1 | 1 |