The Pinstriped Bible staff took the Yankees' early exit from baseball this season to get a head start on all the voting that will take place this offseason for various awards and accolades. We only bothered with the three main awards: MVP, Cy Young, and Rookie of the Year for both the American and National Leagues. Yesterday, we covered the Pinstriped Bible staff's results for Rookie of the Year. Today, we tackle the American League and National League Cy Young award.
A first place vote was worth seven points in our voting system. Second place votes were worth four points, third place votes were worth three points, fourth place votes were worth two points, and fifth place votes were worth one point. The final rankings of the players were done by their point totals through this system.
Unsurprisingly, Tigers pitcher Max Scherzer brought home the top prize in the American League. The result was not totally unanimous, but Scherzer easily bested Mariners pitcher Felix Hernandez for the top spot by more than double of Hernandez's points. Rangers second year pitcher Yu Darvish earned third place in the voting ahead of White Sox starter Chris Sale and Tigers starter Anibal Sanchez.
In 214.1 innings for Detroit this season, Scherzer pitched to an impressive 2.90 ERA, 2.74 FIP, and struck out 240 batters. Scherzer was the only pitcher in either league to earn 20 wins, for whatever that's worth. There will be hand-wringing over the fact that the BBWAA will likely give the award to Scherzer because they love the pitcher with 20+ wins, but it is difficult to argue the fact that Scherzer had an amazing season worthy of acknowledgement even without his team helping him in the win column. Hernandez put up great numbers for Seattle once again in 204.1 innings this season. His 3.04 ERA and 2.61 FIP to go with 216 strikeouts were impressive, but not enough to top Scherzer for the award. King Felix is basically a perennial Cy Young candidate at this stage of his career. Darvish's second year in MLB was even better than his first, posting a 2.83 ERA and 277 strikeouts in 192 innings for Texas. For all the apprehension about whether or not Darvish could bring his success in Japan to the United States, he's proving that any doubt was pretty unfounded to this point.
Player | 1st place votes | 2nd place votes | 3rd place votes | 4th place votes | 5th place votes | Total points |
Max Scherzer | 16 | 2 | -- | -- | -- | 120 |
Felix Hernandez | 2 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 54 |
Yu Darvish | -- | 4 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 41 |
Chris Sale | -- | 2 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 39 |
Anibal Sanchez | -- | 3 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 32 |
Hisashi Iwakuma | -- | 1 | -- | 4 | -- | 12 |
Mariano Rivera | -- | -- | 1 | -- | -- | 3 |
Bartolo Colon | -- | -- | -- | -- | 2 | 2 |
Justin Verlander | -- | -- | -- | -- | 1 | 1 |
Greg Holland | -- | -- | -- | -- | 1 | 1 |
The National League has provided us with our first and only unanimous winner in an obvious landslide for Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw. If you want a realistic version of a player treating the league like it is a video game on easy mode, it was Kershaw in 2013. His numbers – 1.83 ERA, 0.92 WHIP, and 232 strikeouts in 236 innings – are simply unfair. He was already astoundingly good and somehow managed to get even better. Adam Wainwright had a fantastic season of his own, putting up a 2.94 ERA and 2.55 FIP with 219 strikeouts in 241.2 innings for the Cardinals. He fell one win short of the magical 20-win plateau, but it wouldn't have mattered with the season that Kershaw had for Los Angeles. Pinstriped Bible's NL Rookie of the Year, Jose Fernandez, came in third in Cy Young voting with his 2.19 ERA and 187 strikeouts in 172.2 innings. He managed to be one of the few bright spots on a Marlins team that could really use the help.
Player | 1st place votes | 2nd place votes | 3rd place votes | 4th place votes | 5th place votes | Total Points |
Clayton Kershaw | 18 | -- | -- | -- | -- | 126 |
Adam Wainwright | -- | 11 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 60 |
Jose Fernandez | -- | 3 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 40 |
Matt Harvey | -- | 4 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 39 |
Cliff Lee | -- | -- | 3 | 9 | 2 | 23 |
Zack Greinke | -- | -- | -- | 1 | 3 | 5 |
Madison Bumgarner | -- | -- | -- | 1 | 1 | 3 |
Craig Kimbrel | -- | -- | -- | 1 | -- | 2 |
Cole Hamels | -- | -- | -- | -- | 1 | 1 |
Mat Latos | -- | -- | -- | -- | 1 | 1 |
So, that's the way we voted. Do you agree with our winners? What would you change?