AL Cy Young Power Rankings: Felix still on top, Kluber jumps to No. 3

Every week until season's end, we'll take a look at the top Cy Young candidates in the American League.

Hernandez continues to pitch his way towards a second Cy Young award, helping the Seattle Mariners close in on a playoff spot with a pair of impressive outings this month against Oakland.

Hernandez leads the league in most starts with at least seven innings pitched and two earned runs or fewer, a stat ESPN's David Shoenfield coined "Felix."

Here's a look at how the top six AL Cy Young candidates fare in the category:

Shoenfield argues it's a better stat than quality starts to measure dominance, and he's right, even if it glosses over outings just as effective (six scoreless innings, etc.).

As noted in this space previously, Lester's consistency this season has been nothing short of remarkable.

The Athletics left-hander extended his string of consecutive quality starts to 17 this week with six scoreless innings against division-rival Seattle.

The "Klubot" is about as automatic a win as there is in baseball right now.

The Indians' ace continues to flourish, striking out a career-high 14 batters Tuesday against the Houston Astros.

The hard-throwing right-hander is the only pitcher in the majors with a game score of 88 or higher in three starts this season. (Game Score, or GSC, is a metric created by baseball statistician Bill James to determine the strength  of a pitcher's outing in one number.)

Sale is fresh off his worst start of the year, but the lefty's previous outing was among his best.

Sale's five earned runs Thursday marked the first time this season he's given up more than four in a start, and came less than a week after Chicago's ace limited Oakland to two hits over eight scoreless innings.

His dominance has resulted in the second-highest strikeout percentage in the majors, while lefties are hitting an unbelievably low .165/.211/.182 against Sale this season. 

Sale's effectiveness against hitters from the same side is captured perfectly with this extremely cold map that offers nearly no hope for left-handed hitters.

[Courtesy: Brooks Baseball]

Price suffers the biggest fall in this week's rankings after surrendering at least five earned runs in three of his last five outings.

The Tigers lefty has enjoyed his most success this season when attacking the strike zone. Unfortunately for Price, that approach is currently resulting in more contact than strikeouts. Opponents battered Price for at least eight hits in each of those five starts.