#46: Is Madison Bumgarner underrated?

On June 21 of last season, Madison Bumgarner went out and exploded — but not in a good way. That day he last just 1/3 of an inning but faced 10 batters, nine of whom got hits and eight of whom scored. That outing did two things: ballooned his ERA from 3.21 to 4.06 and set up months of us trying to tell everyone how criminally underrated Bumgarner was. Question 46 in our top 100 Offseason Questions series reads as follows: “Madison Bumgarner was probably one of the more undervalued starting pitchers in 2011. Who would you compare him to so that his value is recognized?” OK, so even in asking that question we’ve technically answered the larger question after which this post is titled (yes, Bumgarner is underrated), but I won’t just stop there. After spending minutes scouring 2011 statistics and leaderboards it’s become painfully apparent who I must compare Bumgarner to so that his value is properly recognized. Hold onto your hats… CC Sabathia. Oh, and Felix Hernandez, too. Yes. Yo...