Cody Goggin
9-3-13 7:22 pm
OWENSVILLE, MO-Every year, to the best pitcher in Major League Baseball, the Cy Young award is given out. This is one of the most prestige awards in the game and is only giving to the most deserving of hurlers. Some years the winner is clear-cut, but other times it is a close race won by a mere point in ERA or a couple extra strikeouts. Most of the pitchers that win this award have helped their team to success and usually a playoff run, but this is an individual award that their name will be on forever. Every season, both a winner from the National League and a winner from the American League are crowned Cy Young award winners and join an elite group of pitching legends.
This year in the American League, one pitcher has set himself
apart from the rest by having an 18-1 record up to this point in the season.
These 18 wins out of the first 19 decisions by Max Scherzer of the Detroit
Tigers has not been accomplished since Roger Clemens did it. However I am here
to tell you that this amazing start does not make him the most deserving of the
honor. My pick to win the American League Cy Young award is Felix Hernandez.
This may seem a little but out there, but let me explain why.
What is that you say? You think I’m crazy for even
questioning a guy with 19 wins? I will show you my reasoning now then. Yu
Darvish of the Texas Rangers has been absolutely spectacular this year. The
second year Asian sensation that came to the Texas Rangers in 2012 from playing
professional baseball in Japan has taken the league by storm. He is dominating
Major League Baseball in the strikeout department. No one is even close. Darvish
has 225 strikeouts this year, which is 29 more than Scherzer has. This stat
shows how devastating Darvish’s repertoire is. Ever since his arrival in the
Majors, Yu has been putting up a lot of K’s.
As of August 29th, Yu
Darvish’s earned run average is lower than Scherzer’s at 2.68 compared to 2.73.
Scherzer is allowing more runs per nine innings than Darvish is. The reason
that Scherzer has seven more wins than Darvish is due to the fact that the
amount of run support Max Scherzer receives is ridiculous. Detroit has a lineup
stacked with some of the best hitters in the game and average over six runs a
game when Max is on the mound, which is the highest run support for any pitcher
in the MLB this season. That means even if Scherzer allows five runs in a
start, he still will most likely get the win or no decision. In my book, that
should be a loss. Many people around baseball agree that not much weight can be
put on the win-loss record due to how flawed the system is. One pitcher could
pitch a full nine innings and allow one run while his counterpart on the bump
will throw a shutout and the pitcher that threw a gem would be credited with a
loss. In the opposite way, a pitcher could give up seven runs in a span of five
innings, which is terrible, however, if his team scores eight runs, then that
pitcher is credited with a win. Do you see the problem here? That is why for
the purpose of this article I created a grading method of each pitcher’s
performances in individual games this year and broke down each of their starts.
Pitchers that allowed two runs or less and pitched 6+ innings should get credit
for a win. If they allowed 3-4 runs and pitcher 6+ innings then they get a no
decision. In starts where the starting pitcher either threw less than five
innings or allowed five or more runs, they would be credited with the loss. I
adjusted the records and by these metrics Scherzer should be 17-4 compared to
19-1, which is still great, but I am just showing you how flawed the win-loss
record is.
Yu Darvish should be the Cy Young
award winner as of right now because he has meant more to his pitching staff
and to his team than any other pitcher in the American League this season. His
ability to miss bats and his lower earned run average has shown that he has
been more dominant than Max Scherzer in 2013 as of right now.
In the National League you have a
different story. There is no pitcher with a ton of wins, but rather one pitcher
who leads almost every category and is blowing the rest of the field away in
ERA. This pitcher has led his team to first place and there is actually
whispering of him being in the MVP race. Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles
Dodgers has seemingly made the Cy Young award a one horse race.
Kershaw only has a record of 13-8, however,
I used ,my adjusted record stat on him and he should be. What is really
appealing about Clayton Kershaw is his ERA of 1.72. That is a ludicrous number
since anything under two runs is considered great. Another category that
Kershaw is impressing in is his WHIP, or Walks and Hits Per Inning Pitched. For
this category, anything under 1.00 is seen as dominant. Kershaw has a WHIP of
0.88 in 2013. With 197 strikeouts, Kershaw also leads the Senior Circuit in
that respect. Kershaw is also only allowing 5.91 hits per nine innings, which
is also astonishing. This year Kershaw
has proved that he is not only the ace of the Dodgers staff, but also the “ace”
of the National League.
Numbers never lie, and that what my
side of the argument is showing. Sure, there are other candidates for the award
that one could make a valid case for, but these two are the ones that stand out
the most to me. Both of these pitchers have showed enough this season to be
named the Cy Young award winners of their respective leagues. No other pitchers have been more important to
their teams or more dominant this season. Case closed.
Agree or
disagree? Vote or leave comments!
No comments:
Post a Comment