Do They Deserve It?

Do They Deserve It?
Samuel Grus
9-3-13  7:26 pm

OWENSVILLE, MO-In mid-August is when a lot of analyst start to make their end of the year predictions. One of the biggest discussion topics this August will be the Cy Young Award. In both the National and American Leagues the debate is tight. In the National league you have a two horse race between Adam Wainwright of the St. Louis Cardinals and Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Meanwhile in the American league you have a wider three horse race between Max Scherzer of the Detroit Tigers, Yu Darvish of the Texas Rangers, and finally Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners. In both leagues you will have many discussions for each pitcher.

            The Cy Young Award is named after who is probably the greatest pitcher of all time. Cy Young won 511 games in his career. He is statistically the greatest pitcher you can think of. So this begs the question does the win really matter? Clayton Kershaw is 12-7 with an incredible 1.80 ERA while Adam Wainwright is 14-7 with a 2.66 ERA.  While both pitchers are at the top of their game, the question remains does the win really matter?

            Clayton Kershaw ace starter of the first place Los Angeles Dodgers is keeping his team in contention with his ridiculous pitching performances. A lot of analysts use WHIP as a key part of analyzing a pitcher. Kershaw’s WHIP is a crazy 0.85; add that with 187 strikeouts and 190.1 innings pitched. It is hard to make an argument against him. Adam Wainwright makes a serious case as he tries to hold his Cardinals atop the National League Central. Wainwright counters Kershaw’s WHIP with a strikeout to walk ratio of 6.92. Wainwright also has only allowed 27 walks in 2013. It is hard to say one is the better pitcher when they both have filthy stuff along with playing on great teams. Here is the tale of the tape for both pitchers:

Clayton Kershaw:

Innings Pitched: 190.1

ERA: 1.80

Strikeouts: 182

WHIP: 0.85

Wins: 13

Adam Wainwright:

Innings Pitched: 189.2

ERA: 2.66

Strikeouts: 173

WHIP: 1.03

Wins: 15

            The stats show that in every category except ERA the two pitchers are pretty much even with each other.  Sometimes you can look at the team and see how much they mean to that team. Both Kershaw and Wainwright are playing for playoff bound teams. If it wasn’t for Max Schrezer, Adam Wainwright would probably be the best pitcher in baseball. Adam Wainwright should be the 2013 National League Cy Young. Game, set, match.

            The American League Cy Young race is completely different. Max Scherzer of the Detroit Tigers is an astonishing 19-1 while his counterpart down Texas, Yu Darvish, is striking people out left and right. The race in the American League is a little bit tougher to decide than in the Senior Circuit.

            “Hello Chief, its Max” as said by MLBNetwork analyst Dan Plesac. Max Scherzer is pretty much a secret agent when it comes to winning ball games. The man just cannot seem to lose. He has gone 19-1 through 27 games this year; he has struck out 196 al with an ERA 2.73. It’s hard not to just give the man the Cy Young Award. Scherzer in my opinion will end the year with 25 wins and the Cy Young.

            So in the 2013 season the two Cy Young Award winners from both leagues will be Adam Wainwright and Max Scherzer. These two pitchers dominate their respective leagues. It’s not to give it to guys like Darvish and Kershaw but this is how much they mean to each team and statistically where they rank. That’s my Cy Young Award winners, who are yours?