BBWAA Awards week continues with announcement of AL/NL Cy Young Award

WAYNE, N.J.- In a year of breaking “curses” two men who played key roles in the 2004 Red Sox breaking their 86 year World Series curse; Terry Francona and Dave Roberts, took home the Manager of the Year Award last night for their respective leagues.  The American and National League Cy Young Award winners will be announced tonight at 6 p.m. EST.

Cy Young Award

American League: Justin Verlander SP DET, Corey Kluber SP CLE, Rick Porcello SP BOSCourtesy of @MLB

For those in disbelief over the omission of Orioles closer Zach Britton from being a finalist, there are 3 very deserving finalist in Rick Porcello, Corey Kluber and Justin Verlander. Porcello lead the league in wins with an astonishing 22-4 mark, Kluber fanned 225 to go along with 18 wins, while Verlander lead the league in strikeouts (254), WHIP (1.00) and was second in the league with a 3.04 ERA.

After failing to make 30 starts for the first time since 2005 when he made just 2 starts, Justin Verlander regained his dominance that saw him receive Cy Young Award votes in 6 0f his first 7 full seasons,  including 2011 when he won the AL Cy Young and MVP awards. Verlander’s league leading 254 strikeouts is the second highest total of his career. (269 K’s in 2009)

Corey Kluber was also coming off a down 2015 season that saw him lead the league in losses with 16.  The Tribe ace, regained his 2014 Cy Young award form posting an identical 18-9 record.

Rick Porcello’s 22-4 record fits the prototypical mold of Cy Young Award winner. Though the BBWAA broke away from this “trend” in 2010 voting Felix Hernandez the winner despite his 13-12 win loss record, 22 wins is the most wins by an American League pitcher since Verlander in 2011. Although Porcello has the lowest number of strikeouts (189), and highest ERA (3.15) of the 3, the margarine is too close in the other categories to outweigh 22 victories. The 2016 AL Cy Young award is going to be awarded to a Jersey boy!

National League: John Lester SP CHC, Max Scherzer SP WSH, Kyle Hendricks SP CHC

I find this one to be a no brainer.  Though Scherzer should be a slam-dunk to win the award, let’s not overlook the seasons of Jon Lester and Cubs teammate Kyle Hendricks.  Lester turned in the best season of his 11-year career posting 19 wins with a 2.44 ERA, good for second in the league.  Hendricks had a 1.99 ERA heading into his final start of the season that saw his ERA climb to a 2.13 mark to finish the season. Hendricks 2.13 ERA was still good enough to win the season ERA title, however had he kept his ERA sub 2.00 we may have been talking about him being a slam dunk in this race.  

For starters, Scherzer was the National League’s lone 20 game winner, doing so in his final start of the season.  Although Scherzer’s 2.96 ERA is more than a half run higher than the other candidates, he lead the league in WHIP with an astonishing 0.97 mark.  By far the most impressive number on Scherzer’s Cy Young résumé is his 284 strikeouts, besting the next closest pitcher in the Senior Circuit by more than 30.  Scherzer added a “Cy Young moment” on May 11th when he struck out 20 Detroit Tigers on May 11th at Nationals Park.  Should Scherzer win the award, he will become just the 6th pitcher to win the award in both leagues joining Gaylord Perry, Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens and Roy Halladay.

The BBWAA awards week will conclude tomorrow when the Most Valuable Player Awards are announced on MLB Network at 6 p.m. EST.