The 2012 “Pi Young Award” Winners

We’ve reached the end of another exciting season, and with it, its now time to announce the winners of the 2012 “Pi Young Awards”.  (Here’s a refresher on the whys and wherefores of the award).

First up . . . the American League/no innings requirement.  Scott Downs didn’t pitch in the last three games of the season, but his scoreless relief appearances in both ends of the September 30 double-header against the Rangers was enough to sneak him into the top spot, finishing 0.011691972 off the magic 3.1415927.  Rookie Hisashi Iwakuma’s six scoreless innings in a start on the next-to-last day of the season edged him into second place.  Iwakuma finished .005 ahead of the Rangers’ starter Neftali Feliz, whose season ended on May 18 due to injury.

In the AL “ERA qualifiers” group, the Rays’ Jeremy Hellickson was almost TOO good in his last start of the season, as his 5.1 innings of shutout ball took him from 3.21 past 3.14, down to 3.1o.  But it was still good enough to be the closest to pi.  ”King Felix” Hernandez’s end-of-year 3.06 ERA was actually his highest since mid-July, but it did place him in second.   Similarly, White Sox sensation Chris Sale finished the season with his highest ERA since mid-May, but tucked in just behind Hernandez in third.

In the NL/no innings requirement, Sam LeCure used his final appearance of the season, 1.1 innings of shutout relief, to just barely edge out the DL’ed Ted Lilly for the crown, 3.1395 (a difference of .0020578) to 3.1438 (a difference of .0022429).   King of the No Decision, Cliff Lee (15 NDs in his 30 starts), finished in third.

For the NL ERA qualifiers, Lee was the best of a bad bunch, followed not-so-closely by teammate Cole Hamels and the Diamondbacks’ Wade Miley.