AL CY YOUNG AWARD
My favorite, Rick Porcello, won the AL CY Young Award.
Here’s how it played out.
Two voters didn’t place a check next to the name of Justin Verlander. They didn’t even vote for the Tigers’ righty.
Verlander had more first place votes than anyone else but still lost the second closest Cy Young vote since 1970.
This is just the third time that the Cy Young Award has been given to someone who didn’t receive the most first place votes, and the first time that has happened in the American League (Tom Glavine in 1998 and Tim Lincecum in 2009).
Pitcher, Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Points |
Rick Porcello, Red Sox | 8 | 18 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 137 |
Justin Verlander, Tigers | 14 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 132 |
Corey Kluber, Indians | 3 | 6 | 12 | 8 | 1 | 98 |
Zach Britton, Orioles | 5 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 9 | 72 |
Chris Sale, White Sox | 1 | 4 | 9 | 6 | 40 | |
J.A. Happ, Blue Jays | 3 | 2 | 1 | 14 | ||
Aaron Sanchez, Blue Jays | 1 | 3 | 6 | |||
Masahiro Tanaka, Yankees | 1 | 4 | 6 | |||
Andrew Miller, Yankees/Indians | 1 | 3 | ||||
Michael Fulmer, Tigers | 1 | 1 | ||||
Jose Quintana, White Sox | 1 | 1 |
Porcello won the award despite receiving 18 second place votes. "I didn't look at the statistics. I didn't break it down into sabermetrics," Porcello said. "I knew the basic lines that we all had. Other than that, I just kind of figured whatever is going to happen is going to happen." Porcello allowed three or fewer earned runs in 27-of-33 start and allowed two or fewer runs in 16-of-33. The Sox went 25-8 in Porcello’s 33 starts.
That wasn’t enough for Verlander’s girlfriend. Check out Kate Upton putting things very succinctly. Note, there is the use of a big boy word in her reply.
I can’t really say she’s wrong.
Let’s compare the top-2 finishers.
| W-L | ERA | WHIP | K | K/BB | BAA | IP |
Porcello | 22-4 | 3.15 | 1.01 | 189 | 5.91 | .230 | 223.0 |
Verlander | 16-9 | 3.04 | 1.00 | 254 | 4.46 | .207 | 227.2 |
Looking at those numbers it’s pretty clear that Porcello won because of his W-L record (he’s the 4th straight AL winner of the award to lead the league in wins but not in ERA or strikeouts). The wins are also why Porcello received the majority of second place votes in the voting even though he wasn’t really the best pitcher, at least in my opinion (Porcello is the first AL Cy winner with less than 200 strikeouts since 2005). Meanwhile Corey Kluber came in third in the voting. Here are his numbers.
| W-L | ERA | WHIP | K | K/BB | BAA | IP |
Kluber | 18-9 | 3.14 | 1.06 | 227 | 3.98 | .216 | 215 |
Kluber was the only AL arm to finish in the top-5 in Wins, ERA, strikeouts and WHIP. He finished third in the voting.
I could blindfold you and ask you to match the numbers to the pitcher. Remove the W-L record and it would be very difficult to say one set was better than another. Since none of the numbers really stand out compared to the others, it’s pretty interesting how the voting played out with Verlander gaining first place votes, Porcello second and Kluber third as if all the voters saw the same hierarchy.
NL CY YOUNG AWARD
Max Scherzer cruised to the Cy Young in the NL with a massive voting advantage.
Pitcher, Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Points |
Max Scherzer, Nationals | 25 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 192 | |
Jon Lester, Cubs | 1 | 16 | 9 | 2 | 102 | |
Kyle Hendricks, Cubs | 2 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 85 |
Madison Bumgarner, Giants | 2 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 46 | |
Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers | 2 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 30 | |
Johnny Cueto, Giants | 3 | 3 | 4 | 19 | ||
Jose Fernandez, Marlins | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 18 | |
Noah Syndergard, Mets | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 15 | |
Jake Arrieta, Cubs | 1 | 2 | ||||
Tanner Roark, Nationals | 1 | 1 |
Scherzer became the 6th pitcher to win the Cy in both leagues.
Scherzer became the sixth pitcher in history with back-to-back seasons of at least 275 strikeouts with a WHIP under 1.00 in consecutive seasons.
Scherzer went 20-7 with a 2.96 ERA as he led the league in wins, innings pitched (228.1) and strikeouts (284). He was third with an 11.19 K/9 rate and his 5.07 K/BB ratio was also the best in the Senior Circuit. Scherzer’s 0.97 WHIP was also the best in baseball.
"Consistently I was able to do what I was capable of. I know I have to change my game. I would like to get better. I'd like to get better in 2017. But to win this award, there's so much history to it, so much meaning to it."
He was the best full season pitcher in the National League. Period.
Ray Flowers can be heard Monday/Tuesday and Thursday/Friday, 8 PM EDT, Wednesday 7 PM EDT on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 9 PM EDT PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).