The Family Crests of the League’s Pitching WAR Leaders

It has recently come to the attention of the present author that the coat of arms of Germany — in which country that author presently finds himself and which coat of arms appears, hauntingly, to the right of these words — is a menacing ur-eagle of such a type as one might only expect to find in the dark recesses of a nightmare.

That revelation, while significant, has little bearing on the Pastime which has compelled us all to congregate at this particular corner of the internet. With a view, then, towards wrestling some relevance from this personal epiphany, what I’ve resolved to do is to identify the coats of arms typically associated with the family names of the league’s top pitchers, according to WAR. What I’ve resolved to do after that is conduct my affairs like someone who is afraid both of himself and the world.

Here, for first example, is the coat of arms most readily associated with the family Hernandez. There are variations on theme found below, but all of them feature three turret-things and three fleurs-de-lis — i.e. the precise images which come to mind when meditating upon the person and spirit of Seattle right-hander (and current WAR leader) Felix Hernandez.

After Hernandez is Jon Lester, which veteran left-hander has recorded a 3.3 WAR for the Bostoners. One finds that the Lester family crest (pictured below) also makes liberal use of the fleurs-de-lis.

Third among pitchers by WAR currently is Yu Darvish. Very superficial research reveals that — likely owing to how coats of arms are largely a product of Northern European culture — that the Darvish family has no specific crest. The right-hander’s parents do appear to have met at Eckerd College, however, which school’s logo appears below.