Three names have dominated the American League Cy Young conversation as the season winds down. Max Scherzer (17-1) of the Detroit Tigers, Felix Hernandez (2.28 ERA) of the Seattle Mariners and Yu Darvish (207 strikeouts) of the Texas Rangers are all deserving candidates, but there is one name that is too often on the fringe of the debate.

Hiroki Kuroda is only 11-7 and the New York Yankees are just five games over .500 and six games back in the Wild Card race, but the right-hander has turned in a fantastic season nonetheless. He doesn't have the strikeouts that Hernandez does (178 for Felix, 110 for Hiroki), but his Cy Young case is similar. Hernandez is just 12-5 for a Seattle team that is 10 games under .500.

The Yankees have famously struggled offensively, which has cost Kuroda several wins through his 24 starts in 2013. Hernandez, who has battled run support issues for a majority of his career, is getting 4.24 runs per start. Kuroda is getting just 3.33 runs per start from New York this season.

Before we go any further, I'm not endorsing Kuroda over Hernandez, Scherzer or Darvish. I'm simply stating Kuroda's case for inclusion in the conversation.

Scherzer has six more wins and six fewer losses than Kuroda, but an ERA a half a run (2.85 to 2.33) higher. Why does Scherzer have a much better win-loss record? The Tigers have scored a Major League-leading 6.04 runs per start for the first-time All-Star. Scherzer has been lucky to receive such constant run support, but has pitched incredibly. He will likely win the Cy Young and the basis for the honor won't simply be his eye-popping record.

It's hard to compare Kuroda to Darvish, if only because they are completely different pitchers. Kuroda has almost 100 fewer Ks than his countryman. Darvish projects to finish the season with close to 280 strikeouts, while Kuroda has never struck out more than 167 batters in any of his six Major League seasons. Kuroda bests Darvish (2.64) in ERA, but little else.

Kuroda has also been a victim of circumstance in terms of publicity. The major storylines swirling around the Yankees this season have been Alex Rodriguez, the struggles of CC Sabathia and injuries to Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira and Curtis Granderson.

Chris Sale (2.73) and Phil Hughes (3.26) are the only AL pitchers that have received less run support than Kuroda this season. His ERA and WHIP are lower than both. The Tigers are nine games better than the Yankees, but with only a little bit more luck Kuroda could easily have challenged Scherzer's amazing (but somewhat trivial) win-loss record.

Kuroda has allowed more than three runs in just three of his 24 starts. He lost two starts in which he allowed four runs and one that he surrendered five. Twice he has pitched a shutout over at least seven innings and earned no-decision. In his seven losses, the Yankees have scored a total of 12 runs. This is the same team that scored 25 runs over a two-game span against the Los Angeles Angels this week.

Kuroda isn't going to win the Cy Young, but only the Yankees' offense is to blame.