My MLB Awards – Cy Young

Here’s the pitchers awards I voted for the awards from Jason at the Writer’s Journey.

The rules were you could vote for up to 5 players – obviously ranking them 1 to 5.  I voted for as many people as I thought were in the argument and/or deserving of a nod.

Today, I pick the Cy Young.  Nothing clear-cut for either league – but I do think AL Cy Young is the second-easiest choice (behind Trout for Rookie of the Year).

AL Cy Young – Justin Verlander

2nd – David Price

3rd – Jered Weaver

I do have a little remorse here – I probably should have put Fernando Rodney in what I emailed to Jason.  I’d put Rodney ahead of Weaver if I could do it over, and maybe even ahead of Price (but probably not).  His ERA+ is comical – 634.  On the surface, this looks like a 3-horse race.  If you look closer, it’s clear that Weaver doesn’t belong in the category with Price and Verlander – he did go 20-5, but he didn’t come close to some of the other guys in IP.  You could argue Hiroki Kuroda, Chris Sale and Felix Hernandez had seasons that were just as good.

So it’s between 20-5 Price and the 17-8 Verlander.  Price had the slightly better ERA (2.56 to 2.64), though he pitches in a better park.  He also has to go against better competition in the AL East.  But Verlander led the majors in innings, throwing 27 more than Price.  He threw 6 complete games, led the majors with 239 K’s, and had the best ERA+ in baseball. And his WHIP of 1.06 is definitely better than the 1.1 of Price.  On the surface, it might look close.  But if you really dig into it – it’s hard to argue anything but giving Verlander back-to-back Cy Youngs.

NL Cy Young – R.A. Dickey

2nd – Johnny Cueto

3rd – Gio Gonzalez

I also think of this as a 3-horse race.  Upon closer inspection here, I do think any of these 3 guys could win it.  In fact, I might be overcompensating against my own internal bias to Cueto as a Reds fan.  I also probably should have thrown defending Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw in the mix.

Gonzalez won the most games, but he gets thrown out pretty quickly for me when you realize that he a) pitched under 200 innings (compared to 217 for Cueto and 233 for Dickey) and b) had the worst ERA of the 3 despite pitching in the best pitchers’ park.  So it’s down to Cueto and Dickey.  Dickey had 16 more innings, pitched back-to-back 1-hitters, struck out a league-best 230 hitters and won 20 games while keeping the Mets relevant for a lot longer than people thought they would be.  Cueto did win 19, and racked up about the same ERA as Dickey – though in what’s got to be the toughest pitcher’s park in the league.  In the end, I’m giving a slight edge to Dickey.  The innings and strikeouts do it for me, plus he’s just such an interesting story.  Cueto was definitely the leader in late August, but he had a 3 or 4 start stretch where he hurt his chances.  He came back on toward the end of the month – thanks to a get-well start against the Cubs that I witnessed.