October 3, 2016

Cy Young Race

The Cy Young Award race in each league this season is very difficult to call. The final Tom Tango Cy Young Tracker points indicate that voters will favor Max Scherzer in the NL and Justin Verlander in the AL. Scherzer pitched a ton of innings, struck out a ton of batters, and won 20 games. Verlander was right up there in innings and strikeouts, and owned one of the best ERAs in the American League.

FanGraphs ranks Noah Syndergaard first in WAR in the NL, with Verlander and Rick Porcello tied in the AL. Baseball Reference has Scherzer by a wide margin in war, with Corey Kluber winning in the AL. Kyle Hendricks led the National League in ERA by a lot, and he did it pitching at Wrigley. Aaron Sanchez led the AL in ERA, and pitched a great game on the last day of the season against the Red Sox. Sanchez led the majors in winning percentage.

When it comes to Cy Young voting, I put a bit more weight on the Baseball Reference WAR. The award should be about what a pitcher actually accomplished (ERA), rather than what he should have accomplished (FIP). So I would vote:

NL Cy Young

  1. Kyle Hendricks (ERA)
  2. Max Scherzer (Very good over a large number of innings)
  3. Noah Syndergaard
  4. Jon Lester
  5. Jose Fernandez

AL Cy Young

  1. Justin Verlander (close on ERA, large number of innings)
  2. Rick Porcello (very few walks)
  3. Aaron Sanchez
  4. Corey Kluber
  5. Masahiro Tanaka

J.A. Happ would be a good fifth choice was well.

2 thoughts on “Cy Young Race

  1. Colin Campbell

    Deciding who should win the A.L. Cy Young may be difficult, but it seems not difficult to predict who will win. There is no precedent for bypassing a pitcher with 22 wins (like Porcello) for a pitcher with a lot fewer wins and only a slightly better ERA (like Verlander or Sanchez). When Felix Hernandez won the Cy with only 13 wins, his ERA was almost a full run better than 21-game-winner Sabathia’s. In most other years in which starters with low win totals won the Cy, there were no 20-game winners.

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  2. Jack Webb

    I don’t care how well a pitcher pitches, if his team doesn’t give him any run support a pitcher can not win.

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