The 2013 “Pi Young Award” Winners

With game 163 for the Rays and Rangers in the books, we’ve finally reached the end of another exciting season. So, its now time to announce the winners of the 2013 “Pi Young Awards”, celebrating the pitchers with ERAs closest to 3.1415927 . . . . (Here’s a refresher on the whys and wherefores of the award).

First up . . . the American League/no innings requirement. Matt Albers made his first season in Cleveland memorable (for pi fans). He snuck into the Award by lowering his ERA in each of his last seven appearances, and finished at 3.14286, just .0013 away from pi perfection. The Royals’ James Shields was right behind him at 3.1486. The A’s Jerry Blevins went 5-0 out of the pen, and finished third in the Pi Young race at 3.15.

In the AL “ERA qualifiers” group, Shields easily took the crown. Interestingly, last year’s second and third place finishers in this group just traded spots this season. Chris Sale of the White Sox ticked up from 3.05 to 3.07 this season, while Felix Hernandez of the Mariners dropped from 3.06 to 3.04.

In the NL/no innings requirement, we had a dead heat at 3.15. The Marlins’ A.J. Ramos was caught by the Phillies’ Joe Savery (thanks to one scoreless inning thrown on the final day of the season). Tyler Chatwood had a promising year as a starter for a bad Rockies team, and just missed out on the Pi Young Award by .003.

For the NL ERA qualifiers, Mat Latos of the Reds, who was sitting at 3.14 on September 13, ended up missing the magic mark by only .02, edging out Kris Medlen of the Braves and Travis Wood of the Cubs.