22-year old righty starting pitcher Michael Pineda finished 5th in the voting for the A.L. Rookie of the Year Award. He pitched in 28 games (all starts) for the Mariners last year and he was 9-10 with a 3.74 ERA and a 1.10 WHIP. Pineda only gave up 133 hits in his first 171 innings while whiffing 173 batters, showing just how nasty he was. The scary thing for American League hitters is that he is only scratching the surface of his potential.

23-year old lefty swinging 2B Dustin Ackley finished sixth in the voting to the A.L. Rookie of the Year voting today. He played in 90 games for the Mariners this year and he was 91 for 333 (.273 avg, .766 OPS) with 39 runs scored, 6 homers, 36 RBIs and 6 stolen bases. Ackley would have finished much higher than he did in the voting if he had made the team out of spring training. He was one of the best hitters on the Mariners and they hope that continues in the future, because they can’t hit too well.

37-year old lefty swinging RF Ichiro Suzuki finished 17th in the voting for the A.L. MVP Award. Ichiro played in all 162 games for the Mariners last season and he was 214 of 680 (.315 avg, .754 OPS) with 74 runs scored, 6 homers, 43 RBIs and 42 stolen bases. In his first 10 years with the Mariners, Ichiro has played in 1,588 games in which he is 2,244 for 6,779 (.331 avg, .806 OPS) with 1,047 runs scored, 90 homers, 558 RBIs and 383 stolen bases. Ichiro is still one of the best leadoff hitters in all of baseball. Hopefully the Mariners will find some better hitters this winter so he can get back to scoring 100+ runs in a season.

24-year old righty starting pitcher Felix Hernandez has won the 2010 American League Cy Young Award. He earned it by starting 34 games in which he was 13-12 with a 2.27 ERA (led A.L) and a 1.06 WHIP. I agree with this pick because King Felix was quite simply the best pitcher in the A.L. and it wasn’t even really that close. If he pitched on almost any other team in baseball he would have won 20+ games because the Mariners were pretty awful last season. Hernandez has now pitched in 172 games (all starts) in his first six years in the majors and he is 71-53 with a 3.20 ERA and a 1.23 WHIP. King Felix keeps getting better and that has to be scary for the rest of the American League.

UPDATE: (12/2/2010) - Felix Hernandez also finished 16th in the voting for the A.L. MVP Award.

The fans have voted 36-year old lefty swinging outfielder Ichiro Suzuki into the starting lineup. It will be his 10th appearance in the mid-summer classic. Ichiro has played in 80 games this season for the Mariners and he is 108 of 327 (.330 avg, .807 OPS) with 32 runs scored, 3 homers, 24 RBIs and 21 stolen bases. His run production numbers look so poor because he’s getting absolutely no help in the lineup. 31-year old lefty starting pitcher Cliff Lee was selected for the pitching staff. Lee has started 12 games for the Mariners this season and he is 7-3 with a 2.45 ERA and a 0.92 WHIP. He has only given up 83 hits in 95 2/3 innings this season for the Mariners. Lee has also whiffed 78 batters while only walking 5 so far this season which is pretty remarkable when you think about it. Hopefully the Mariners will wait to trade Lee until after the all-star game so he can wear a Mariners’ uniform.