Scherzer and Kershaw Take The Pitching Top Honor

In an ballot that didn't surprise too many Baseball people and fans, Max Scherzer of the Detroit Tigers and Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers claimed the 2013 American and National League Cy Young Awards, respectively. Scherzer won the award in a landslide with 28 out of 30 first place votes for a total of 203 points. Kershaw's second Cy Young Award came in the form of an outstanding 29 out of 30 first place votes for 207 points.

The talk of Scherzer benefiting from tremendous run support thereby damaging his Cy Young chances proved to be for naught. Scherzer, who was predicted to win the award by the recently retired Tim McCarver amid laughs, finished the season with a 21-3 record with a 2.90 ERA and a league leading WHIP of 0.970. In 32 games started Scherzer struck out league second best 240 batters (Yu Darvish 277) with only walking 56 and giving up 152 hits in 214.1 innings pitched. Opposing hitters hit .198. In doing so, Scherzer became the sixth pitcher since 1900 to finish the season the season with 20+ wins and 3 losses or less joining Cliff Lee (2008 Indians 22-3), Roger Clemens (2001 Yankees 20-3), David Cone (1988 Mets 20-3), Ron Guidry (1978 Yankees 25-3) and Preacher Roe (1951 Dodgers 22-3). Scherzer is also the fourth member of the Detroit Tigers to win the American League Cy Young Award along with teammate Justin Verlander (2011), Denny McClain (1968, 1969) and Willie Hernandez (1984).

The AL Cy Young vote is also interesting since the other runner ups were Yu Darvish and Hisashi Iwakuma. Both pitchers started their careers in the Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB) with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters (Darvish) and the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes and the Rakuten Golden Eagles (Iwakuma). NPB alum Koji Uehara also received second and third place votes for his dominating performance for the Red Sox in their run for the World Series. Their performance will only help to put to rest the misconception that the Japanese league pitchers can't perform at the perceived higher level of the Major Leagues and their different sized ball. It should be interesting to see how the performances of Darvish, Iwakuma and Uehara affect the posting and bidding for pitchers like Masahiro Tanaka of the Rakutan Golden Eagles this offseason.

In the National League, Kershaw made history in becoming the second Los Angeles Dodger pitcher to win multiple Cy Young Awards joining Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax (1963, 1965 and 1966). Kershaw now has two Cy Young Awards in only his sixth season at the Major League level. Kershaw did so in dominating fashion by ranking first in ERA (1.83), WAR (7.9), WHIP (0.915) and strikeouts (232) and finishing second in innings pitched (236). Kershaw finished with a 16-9 record with a 1.83 ERA and a WHIP 0.915. He struckout 232 batters while walking only 52 and giving up 164 hits in 236 innings pitched. Kershaw has lead the National League in ERA and WHIP for the third straight season.

In winning his second Cy Young award, Kershaw joins Roy Halladay (2003, 2010), Tim Lincecum (2008, 2009) and Johan Santana (2004, 2006) as the only active pitchers with multiple Cy Young awards. Adam Wainright came in second in the Cy Young voting with young superstars Jose Fernandez and Matt Harvey coming in third and fifth respectively.

Kershaw is among the eight(1956), Don Drysdale (1962), Mike Marshall (1974), Fernando Valenzuela (1981), Orel Hershiser (1988) and Eric Gagne in (2003)
Dodger pitchers to have won the Cy Young awards. Along with the aforementioned three time winner Sandy Koufax you have Don Newcombe

The only award left is the American and National League Most Valuable League awards. Where I've felt that the end-year voting has not been surprising, I believe that the National League MVP award will be the surprising one. I think that either Paul Goldschmidt of the Arizona Diamonbacks or Andrew McCutchen of the Pittsburgh Pirates will win the award over Yadier Molina. We'll see after 6pm my prediction comes true or if Yadier Molina is the 2013 National League MVP. In the American League, I believe Miguel Cabrera will become the first repeat American League MVP since Frank Thomas of the Chicago White Sox won the award in 1993 and 1994.

Sisco Kid.

For Further Reading
- Click Here to access Max Scherzer's career statistics from Baseball Reference
- Click Here to access Clayton Kershaw's career statistics from Baseball Reference
- Click Here to access the breakdown of the American League Cy Young vote from the BBWAA website
- Click Here to access the breakdown of the National League Cy Young vote from the BBWAA website

Taking Another Look At The Potential All-Star Game Starters

Back on May 10th, in a post entitled Early Favorites To Start the 2013 All-Star Game, I looked at who could be the potential starters for both leagues at this year's Midsummer Classic which will be hosted at Citi Field on July 16, 2013. Where on that date I stated that The New York Mets' Matt Harvey and the Boston Red Sox's Clay Buchholz should be the starters up to that point, other pitchers have made their mark since then.

While Clay Buchholz is still the heavy favorite to start the All-Star Game for the American League, his being on the disabled list is opening the door for Detroit Tigers starter Max Scherzer to get consideration for the starting nod. As I described with more detail in my post from June 12, 2013 entitled I Might Have To Start Calling Tim McCarver Karnak Scherzer is at the top of the league in almost every pitching statistic. Here are his statistics up to today:

Player		W	L	ERA	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV		IP	H	R	ER	OBA	BB	K	WHIP
Max Scherzer		10	0	3.08	14	14	0	0	0		96.1	64	34	33	.189	24	116	0.91

Here are Buchholz's statistics up to today:

Player		W	L	ERA	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV		IP	H	R	ER	OBA	BB	K	WHIP
Clay Buchholz		9	0	1.71	12	12	1	1	0		84.1	57	16	16	.195	29	81	1.02

The biggest difference in both pitchers is the amount of runs allowed. Buchholz has allowed half as many runs  as Scherzer has while Scherzer holds an advantage in walks, strikeouts, WHIP (walks+hits/innings pitched) with 12 more innings pitched than Buchholz.

Bartolo Colon is a darkhorse to get the starting nod with a surprising 9-2 record with a 2.89 ERA. As well as Hishashi Iwakuma who sits at 7-2 with a 2.06 ERA.

I really think that the A.L. starting nod is a real toss-up at the moment with either Scherzer and Buchholz getting the nod. I think the game changer here is where Buchholz sits after coming off the DL and how he pitches after that.

In the National League, I believe that Arizona Diamondback starter Patrick Corbin has the advantage in getting the starting nod for the Senior Circuit but has two members of the St. Louis Cardinals hot on his heels.

Corbin is still undefeated at 9-0 as of today and is near the top of most of the National League pitching catergories. Here is where he stands as of today:

Player		W	L	ERA	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV		IP	H	R	ER	OBA	BB	K	WHIP
Patrick Corbin		9	0	2.28	14	14	1	0	0		94.2	73	25	24	.212	23	74	1.01

Lance Lynn and Adam Wainwright of the N.L. Central leading St. Louis Cardinals have also made their case for the All-Star starting nod with their performances this season.

Player		W	L	ERA	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV		IP	H	R	ER	OBA	BB	K	WHIP
Lance Lynn		10	1	3.42	15	15	0	0	0		92.0	73	35	35	.221	34	94	1.16

Player		W	L	ERA	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV		IP	H	R	ER	OBA	BB	K	WHIP
Adam Waiwnright		10	4	2.37	15	15	3	2	0		110.0	102	31	29	.248	9	116	1.01

While I think that Corbin is still in the lead, Wainwright with 4 losses makes a compelling case with his three complete games, two shutouts and only NINE walks allowed. I also think Jordan Zimmerman of the Washington Nationals is a dark horse with a 10-3 record with a 2.26 ERA. 

Matt Harvey has been a victim of his team's lack of run support and sits at 6-1 with a 2.16 ERA. While I don't think he'll get the starting nod, I believe he will be selected to join the NL All-Stars and will get a well deserved inning in front of the hometown crowd at Citi Field. 

It'll be interesting to see where these starters stand by the time the All-Star game rolls around and who actually gets the nod to start for both leagues. Stay tuned folks.

Sisco Kid

I Might Have To Start Calling Tim McCarver Karnak

My friend Christopher and I had a good laugh right before the season started based on some comments made by Fox Sports Announcer, former MLB player and the 2012 Ford C. Frick Award recipient Tim McCarver. McCarver, who is slated to retire after this season from his duties at Fox Sports made some rather (at the time) far fetched comments concerning Detroit Tigers starter Max Scherzer. McCarver stated that he believed that Scherzer, rather than Tigers' ace Justin Verlander would win the American League Cy Young Award this season. Now imagine how many among Baseball felt that McCarver may have bitten off more than he could chew with his comments. Well, maybe everyone except Max Scherzer.

To give credit where it is due, Scherzer isn't on par with someone let's say like Oliver Perez. Scherzer did finish the season with a 16-7 record with a 3.74 ERA and a league leading 11.1 strikeouts per nine innings (231 K's in 187 2/3 innings). But in all reality, could anyone really see him being as good as he's been this season? Well, aside from McCarver and Scherzer. Here are Scherzer's statistics up to today:

Player		W	L	ERA	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV		IP	H	R	ER	OBA	BB	K	WHIP
Max Scherzer		9	0	3.19	13	13	0	0	0		90.1	57	33	32	.182	22	106	0.87

Let's see how Scherzer compares with the league leaders. He's tied for first in wins (9) with Clay Buchholz, Patrick Corbin, Adam Wainright and Jordan Zimmerman. He's tied for first in losses (0) with Buchholz and Corbin. Scherzer is 33rd in the league in ERA, 10th in innings pitched, 2nd in the league in strikeouts behind Yu Darvish and has a league leading .182 opponents batting average. He trails the Seattle Mariners' starter Hisahashi Iwakuma in terms of WHIP (0.82) with a 0.87 WHIP. 

So I would say it is a safe bet at this moment, that Max Scherzer indeed is a prime candidate for the American League Cy Young award along with Boston's Clay Buchholz and Texas' Yu Darvish among others.

So to quote the legendary Mel Allen: How About That!!!

Sisco Kid

- Click Here to Access Max Scherzer's career statistics from Baseball Reference.com