Yankee fans, this has got to stop now. Yes, C.C. Sabathia is a great pitcher, and yes, he may be the lynchpin to the rotation of the best team in baseball, but he is certainly not the American League Cy Young.

As usual, the stats tell the story, so let’s take a look.

Here are four pitchers’ stats from throughout the year; which one looks like the Cy Young winner to you?

Pitcher 1: 2.49 ERA, 19-5 record, 217 strikeouts, 1.14 WHIP

Pitcher 2: 2.16 ERA, 16-8 record, 242 strikeouts, 1.07 WHIP

Pitcher 3: 3.37 ERA, 19-8 record, 197 strikeouts, 1.15 WHIP

Pitcher 4: 5.76 ERA, 4-6 record, 54 strikeouts, 1.87 WHIP

Just kidding about pitcher 4, its Daisuke Matsuzaka. It feels good to be a Yankee fan. Now back to business.

Pitcher 1 played for a team that finished eight games over .500 and 12 games back of first place in their division. Despite the team he played for, he finished with the best record of our three candidates. At 23 years old he carried his team throughout the season, and finished first in the AL in winning percentage. Introducing … Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners.

Pitcher 2 is a 25-year-old right-hander with the best WHIP of all three candidates. His team finished 21.5 games back of first place this year and 32 games under .500. He finished first in the AL in ERA and WHIP, and second in strikeouts and complete games. Candidate No. 2 … Zack Greinke of the Kansas City Royals.

Now on to our last candidate (I’m guessing you’ve already figured out who this is). He is a 29-year-old left-hander on the best team in baseball. Listed at 290 pounds, he is literally a larger-than-life figure in one of the biggest cities in the world. Finishing first in the AL in wins, and in the top five in WHIP, innings pitched and ERA, introducing … C.C. Sabathia of the New York Yankees

Look, I don’t want to knock Sabathia. He really did have a great year, it just wasn’t comparable to Greinke’s. At one point C.C. was 1-3 with a 4.85 ERA. Greinke, on the other hand, at the same point in time was 6-0 with a 0.40 ERA. In fact, Greinke posted a 0.84 ERA in his first 10 starts. The only statistical categories that C.C. leads Greinke in are winning percentage, wins and innings pitched (where Greinke pitched 229.1 innings and Sabathia pitched 230 innings). And even Greinke’s win total is amazing given the team he played for. Out of all the candidates for Cy Young, Greinke had the lowest run support per game.

But there is more. According to Tim Kurkjian of ESPN.com, since 1973 the only AL pitchers to post an ERA as low as Greinke’s in a season of at least 200 innings pitched are Roger Clemens (1.93 ERA in 1990 and 2.05 ERA in 1997), Pedro Martinez (2.07 ERA in 1999 and 1.74 ERA in 2000), Ron Guidry (1.74 ERA in 1978) and Jim Palmer (2.07 ERA in 1972). Just because C.C. plays for a better team that gets a lot more national exposure, does not mean he deserves the Cy Young. Don’t worry about his feelings, though; he’ll be happy with his upcoming World Series ring instead. Let’s not try to rob Greinke of an award simply because he played for a terrible team.