BBA: Cy Young Picks

As you may know, SoDo Mojo is part of the Baseball Blogger’s Alliance, and the biggest aspect of that is awards  voting. So here are my picks for the AL Cy Young award.

3. Justin Verlander, DET

It’s a really tough call as to whether to put Verlander in 3rd or 2nd, but with the tiebreaker between him and Felix being tRA, Felix wins out. Verlander had an excellent season – he the AL strikeout leader by a long shot, and he was in the top 3 in nearly every pitching category – wins, FIP, tRA. Because of his deceptively not-that-great ERA, he probably won’t even place in the top 3, but he deserves 2.

2. Felix Hernandez, SEA

In almost any other year, the award would belong to King Felix, but it isn’t quite time for him to be crowned. His numbers were phenomenal – 3.31 tRA, 3.09 FIP, 2.49 ERA, 19 wins, 217 strikeouts – but he just wasn’t on the same level as Zack Greinke.

1. Zack Greinke, KC

Greinke’s numbers were simply otherworldly this year – a tRA below 3, an ERA just over 2, 242 strikeouts, only 51 walks, and although his 16 wins might not seem real impressive, the fact that he managed to get even that many while playing for the wost team in the AL is quite remarkable. Fortunately for Greinke, I think the majority of the voters have come to realize that W-L record isn’t the be all end all of the Cy Young award, so I think they’ll make the right call.

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