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Is Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw The Favorite To Win The National League Cy Young Award?

Jeff Spiegel
3 Min Read
Clayton Kershaw
Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

At first, it was Clayton Kershaw’s award to lose. And then he got hurt.

And so it became Max Scherzer’s award to lose. And then he got hurt.

So… What now? Well, take your pick:

Pitcher A: 17-6 (30 starts), 2.87 ERA, 3.05 FIP, 1.02 WHIP, 208 Ks, 5.5 WAR

Pitcher B: 15-6 (29), 2.59 ERA, 2.94 FIP, 0.92 WHIP, 253 Ks, 5.6 WAR

Pitcher C: 14-4 (26), 2.60 ERA, 2.78 FIP, 1.03 WHIP, 190 Ks, 5.0 WAR

Pitcher D: 17-4 (25), 2.26 ERA, 3.00 FIP, 0.93 WHIP, 194 Ks, 4.5 WAR

Which pitcher are you selecting?

Pitcher A is second in the National League in WAR and is tied for the lead in wins. Pitcher B has the most strikeouts and lowest WHIP. Pitcher C has the lowest FIP, while Pitcher D is tied for the most wins, has the lowest ERA and is nearly tied for the best WHIP (but has the worst FIP and WAR).

Pitcher A is Zack Greinke, Pitcher B is Max Scherzer, Pitcher C is Stephen Strasburg and Pitcher D is Clayton Kershaw. What a year to be voting for the NL Cy Young Award.

The irony this season for Kershaw, of course, is rich. Here he is tied for the league lead in wins — a category that cost him the 2012 Cy Young when RA Dickey went 20-6 and was given the award ahead of the 14-9 Kershaw despite having worse numbers basically everywhere else.

Kershaw is set to lead the NL in ERA for the fifth time in seven years, and is sure to finish in the top five in voting for a seventh consecutive year.

The question honestly comes down to whether voters have officially abandoned traditional statistics.

It’s difficlut to imagine any pitcher in baseball history losing the Cy Young despite leading the league in the two most famous categories — wins and ERA, which Kershaw does. And yet, for the first time in a while, it’s the Sabermetrics that do Kershaw in.

While his ERA is the best by a wide margin, Kershaw’s FIP is third-best among these four candidates. Likewise, because of the missed starts, he ranks fourth in the group in terms of WAR.

With two presumed starts remaining, it will be fascinating to see what happens. Can Kershaw bring his ERA back down below 2.10? Can he get to 19 wins? Can he re-take the WHIP lead?

With the divisional race all but wrapped up, and home-field advantage and playoff auditions left to keep us entertained (or depressed), it appears as if we’ve got one more thing to keep an eye on.

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By Jeff Spiegel
Jeff Spiegel was raised in California but currently resides in Portland, Oregon. After graduating from the University of Oregon, he worked in sports before entering journalism full time — first as a Sports Reporter and then as the Associate Editor of a local newspaper. Online, he has been writing about both the Dodgers and Raiders since 2012 — having written for DodgersNation.com and SBNation.com prior to joining both DodgerBlue.com and RaidersNation.com. He left full-time journalism in 2012 to become a pastor. Jeff can be found on Twitter at @JeffSpiegel. Favorite Dodger I'm going past and present (sort of) on this one. Recently, I was a die hard Yasiel Puig guy. The energy he played with was amazing and the hope and expectation he brought every single night was captivating. Whether it was a rifle from the warning track to throw a guy out at second, an aggressive bat flip or licking his bat, I was here for ALL of the Yasiel Puig era. Past tense, I'd go with Eric Gagné. This wasn't so much about Gagné himself as it was the experience of cheering for him. Yes, he was on steroids — but the dude was unlike any pitcher I've ever seen — he was NASTY. I still stand by the claim that if I needed one out and my life depended on it, and could choose any pitcher from any era to get me that out, I'm taking roided up Gagné in a heartbeat. Favorite Dodger Moment A few jump to mind immediately. Being born in November of 1988, I missed the last World Series by weeks — which also meant I didn't get to see the Dodgers win a playoff game until I was nearly 16. They had made the playoffs in 1995 and 1996, but were swept both times. In 2004, though, I got to see them win behind a complete game shutout from Jose Lima, and that was pretty freaking special. The next in-person moment that came to mind was the Manny Ramirez bobblehead night pinch-hit grand slam from 2009. Vin Scully claimed it was the loudest he had heard Dodger Stadium in 20 years, and it's hard to disagree. As far as ones I didn't get to see live, I'll throw one more out there: the back-to-back-to-back-to-back home runs that tied a game against the Padres in 2006 (plus the walk-off from Nomar Garciaparra in extra innings) was an all-timer. Obviously, the impending Dodgers World Series will quickly jump to the top of this list...