MLB Cy Young Awards
 

Jacob deGrom's baseball season came to an end today...with him posting a 1.70 season ERA, and a record-setting 29 straight "quality starts" (allowing 3 runs or less per game). And this astounding achievement could only garner him a win/loss record of 10-9. Makes one wonder how the pitcher's overall record could remain a significant stat for as long as it has.

MLB Cy Young Predictor - 2018:
http://www.espn.com/mlb/features/cyyoung

In addition to current year predictions for Cy Young balloting, the page at the above link has a drop down that lets you look at Cy Young winners and predictions for past years.

2010 was the last year a pitcher was awarded the Cy Young with a marginal win loss record. (Felix Hernandez for Seattle at 13W-12L.)


-jp

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Whether DeGrom wins or not, there's no doubt he was baseballs best pitcher. The ERA speaks for itself, add to that his strikeouts. All said however, don't be shocked if the 10-9 denies him. The level of support by his team with respect to his performance was pathetic to say the least. If not for his last two starts, he would have ended with a losing record.
Nolan Ryan with the Astros won the ERA title one year and ended with a 8-16 record, so its not unheard of.

Cy Young
 

My vote goes to Blake Snell of the Tampa Bay Rays. 21 wins 1.90 ERA.

Snell had a 1.90 ERA and won 21 as many games, pitching in the AL with the DH. I'd take Snell over deGrom as best pitcher this year, though I realize there's a Cy Young for each league and they'll probably both win.

:ThmbUp:

DeGrom and Snell will both win.

None of these guys deserve the Cy Young award.

Blake Snell averages less than 6 innings per start and Jacob deGrom less than seven.

Blake Snell has completely shut down the game's best offensive teams.

https://www.draysbay.com/2018/9/27/1...-young-hopeful

In 2010 Felix Hernandez won with a similar won/lost record. He was 13-12, 2.27 ERA

I wonder if any of Snell's 21 wins came about as a result of Tampa Bay's experiment of having an "opening" pitcher. Snell pitched just 180 innings, but won 21 games. When pitchers don't go deep into games, they lose some opportunities to win by being behind when they leave, being ahead but having the bullpen blow the lead, or even being tied. The MLB rules for giving a starting pitcher a win require that they go at least 5 innings and be the "pitcher of record" when they leave, and the teams hangs onto the lead. If Snell were to come into the game in the second inning, as many TB pitchers did this season, he could become the pitcher of record much easier - maybe his six innings pitched gets him into the 7th or 8th inning rather than just the 6th.

I don't know if this makes sense or not. His ERA was incredible and maybe he benefited from a lot of run support. I didn't follow TB close enough to know how he got his wins.

Actually, I missed on key element that makes my theory crumble: He actually had 31 starts, which means that opening pitchers were in games with the other starters. I think TB is smart to watch his IP and pitch count this early in his career.

And then he got screwed in 2014 when he had 15 wins to Kluber's 18. Fexix had a lower ERA and WHIP. They were identical in IP and Kluber had 21 more K's.

As well as Felix pitched in 2010, only to end up with a 13-12 record, he won the Cy Young that year because he was jobbed in 2009 when he went 19-5. The Ms were 25-9 in games he started, he was only pulled in the middle of an inning in 6 of his 34 starts. On May 9, he threw 81 pitches in a lousy 4 inning stint, and didn't throw less than 101 pitches in any start the rest of the year. In the 235 innings that he got the third out, the opposition went 1-2-3 in 157 of them.

If he had one weakness in his prime, it was his inability at times to avoid the big inning. For every game he should have won because of lack of run support, he has killed himself with the 3 and 4 run innings. I've always been a huge Mariner fan, and I've always pulled for Hernandez, and he was a very, very good pitcher, but I always thought he was just a step below the very elite, even at his very best. He always got the sympathy of the press for pitching for bad teams, and getting screwed in games that he definitely should have won, but he had a bad habit of imploding at times. It wasn't even as if he lost his cool or anything, he'd just kind of lose his stuff. Now, it's gone. He'll never reinvent himself, nor will the 95 MPH fastball ever come out of his arm again. The Mariners burnt him up.