
Before the season started, I gave my award predictions for Manager of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Cy Young and MVP. I’m going to take a brutal look back at these predictions and evaluate how they faired. Every award has 30 voters, so the votes are out of all the ballots. If you want to take a look back at my reasoning for these picks, you can find the original Cy Young article HERE.
National League Honorable Mentions:
Max Scherzer— Nationals SP
220.2 IP, 2.53 ERA, 2.65 FIP, 12.24 K/9, 2.08 BB/9, 7.2 fWAR
CY Finish: 2nd
Votes Received: 1 1st place, 29 2nd place
Clayton Kershaw— Dodgers SP
161.1 IP, 2.73 ERA, 3.19 FIP, 8.65 K/9, 1.62 BB/9, 3.5 fWAR
CY Finish: N/A
Votes Received: N/A
National League Darkhorse:
Aaron Nola— Phillies SP
212.1 IP, 2.37 ERA, 3.01 FIP, 9.49 K/9, 2.46 BB/9, 5.6 fWAR
CY Finish: 3rd
Votes Received: 27 3rd place, 2 4th place, 1 5th place
National League Pick:
Stephen Strasburg— Nationals SP
130 IP, 3.74 ERA, 3.62 FIP, 10.8 K/9, 2.63 BB/9, 2.3 fWAR
CY Finish: N/A
Votes Received: N/A
Actual NL Winner:
Jacob deGrom – Mets SP
217 IP, 1.70 ERA, 1.99 FIP, 11.16 K/9, 1.91 BB/9, 8.8 fWAR
CY Finish: 1st
Votes Received: 29 1st place, 1 2nd place
Analysis:
Not going to lie, I’m very proud of my Aaron Nola pick. He broke out in a big way this season, as I projected in the preseason. Jacob deGrom had years of being a good-to-great pitcher, but he was far and away the best pitcher in baseball this season. I still believe in Strasburg for next season, he was just hit with the injury bug, the only reason I listed for why he wouldn’t win.
American League Honorable Mentions:
Luis Severino— Yankees SP
191.1 IP, 3.39 ERA, 2.95 FIP, 10.35 K/9, 2.16 BB/9, 5.7 fWAR
CY Finish: 9th
Votes Received: 1 5th place
Chris Sale— Red Sox SP
158 IP, 2.11 ERA, 1.98 FIP, 13.50 K/9, 1.94 BB/9, 6.5 fWAR
CY Finish: 4th
Votes Received: 2 2nd place, 8 3rd place, 12 4th place, 3 5th place
American League Darkhorse:
Jose Berrios— Twins SP
192.1 IP, 3.84 ERA, 3.90 FIP, 9.45 K/9, 2.85 BB/9, 3.3 fWAR
CY Finish: N/A
Votes Received: N/A
American League Pick:
Corey Kluber— Indians SP
215 IP, 2.89 ERA, 3.12 FIP, 9.29 K/9, 1.42 BB/9, 5.6 fWAR
CY Finish: 3rd
Votes Received: 4 2nd place, 12 3rd place, 7 4th place, 5 5th place
Actual AL Winner:
Blake Snell – Rays SP
180.2 IP, 1.89 ERA, 2.95 FIP, 11.01 K/9, 3.19 BB/9, 4.6 fWAR
CY Finish: 1st
Votes Received: 17 1st place, 11 2nd place, 2 3rd place
Analysis:
Blake Snell came out of nowhere to take this award from the top dogs in the AL. I threw some mad shade at Verlander by not even including in my honorable mentions, I didn’t think he’d be able to keep his pace at his advancing age. He ended up falling just 15 total points short of winning the award. My darkhorse pick of Berrios didn’t end up panning out. He basically put up the same (middle of the road) stats from 2017, just extended out to 192.1 innings.
Check back in the coming day for my final look back at my MVP picks!
Follow me on Twitter: @reed_zahradnik5