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Review of Pre-Season Award Predictions: Cy Young

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:

Image result for jacob degrom

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:

Image result for blake snell

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

Reed Zahradnik

University of Iowa '22. St. Louis Cardinals, 50 feet of crap, everyone else. Follow me on Twitter: @reed_zahradnik5

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