With one month to go in the season, it’s time to start up the Cy Young Watch. The Mets have a horse in this race, R.A. Dickey. So how does R.A. stack up against the other Cy Young candidates in the National League? Let’s take a look.
| Player | Team | W | L | ERA | G | GS | IP | H | BB | SO | AVG | WHIP▲ |
| Dickey, R | NYM | 17 | 4 | 2.63 | 28 | 27 | 191.1 | 150 | 44 | 190 | 0.218 | 1.01 |
| Kershaw, C | LAD | 12 | 8 | 2.85 | 28 | 28 | 192.2 | 149 | 47 | 192 | 0.216 | 1.02 |
| Cain, M | SF | 13 | 5 | 2.98 | 27 | 27 | 187 | 155 | 38 | 170 | 0.226 | 1.03 |
| Bumgarner, M | SF | 14 | 9 | 3.07 | 27 | 27 | 182 | 151 | 38 | 168 | 0.223 | 1.04 |
| Lohse, K | STL | 14 | 2 | 2.81 | 28 | 28 | 179.2 | 165 | 32 | 111 | 0.241 | 1.1 |
| Strasburg, S | WSH | 15 | 6 | 2.94 | 27 | 27 | 156.1 | 130 | 45 | 195 | 0.225 | 1.12 |
| Miley, W | ARI | 14 | 9 | 2.9 | 27 | 24 | 164.2 | 155 | 30 | 117 | 0.245 | 1.12 |
| Cueto, J | CIN | 17 | 7 | 2.58 | 28 | 28 | 188.2 | 171 | 41 | 149 | 0.243 | 1.12 |
| Hamels, C | PHI | 14 | 6 | 3.04 | 26 | 26 | 183.1 | 160 | 47 | 178 | 0.236 | 1.13 |
| Gonzalez, G | WSH | 17 | 7 | 3.1 | 27 | 27 | 168.1 | 130 | 63 | 176 | 0.212 | 1.15 |
Dickey leads the league in WHIP, but Johnny Cueto has a lower ERA. Cueto had a subpar outing against the Phillies on Monday, allowing 4 earned runs over 7 innings. Combine that with his 149 Ks and 17 wins, and he may be Dickey’s stiffest competition (I can’t believe I just wrote that. Ugh.)
Clayton Kershaw is also a frontrunner – he has 2 more strikeouts than Dickey, with a slightly higer WHIP and ERA. Stephen Strasburg will be hurt by the fact that he is going to be shut down after 2 more starts.
We’ll continue to keep an eye on this race until the end of the year. Stay tuned!
7 comments
Sylow59
9/4/2012-4:04pm at 4:04 pm (UTC -4)
Cueto still has a better ERA+. But after his last game I think it went from Lean Cueto to Tossup.
SaltyGary
9/4/2012-4:35pm at 4:35 pm (UTC -4)
I think it’s all Dickey’s unless they want to give it to a player on a competitive team. When you look at his K/BB ratio and complete game (5) shutouts (3), I think he blows everyone out of the water. He also had that consecutive scoreless streak.
gategem
9/4/2012-5:40pm at 5:40 pm (UTC -4)
There is one other area that is glaring. When you compare Dickey’s W/L record to that of the team he pitches for (and especially if you subtract Dickey’s W/L record from the team) his dominance becomes even more apparent. It’s a lot easier to amass strong numbers (even in the world of sabermetrics) and pitch for a team that provides strong offense and particularly strong defense behind you.
wanny
9/4/2012-4:40pm at 4:40 pm (UTC -4)
Considering the superficiality of the voters, i.e. the reliance on the win stat — felix notwithstanding — the winner could come down to the difference of a win between cueto, dickey and gio.
Stickguy
9/4/2012-5:10pm at 5:10 pm (UTC -4)
DIckey should be the frontrunner. a NB pitcher leading the league in WHIP is amazing.
but like Wanny said, if there are a couple of guys that you can make a case for, if 1 gets 20 ins and the others don’t, that will be your chicken dinner (winner winner).
srt
9/4/2012-8:11pm at 8:11 pm (UTC -4)
Can’t say I disagree with you and Wanny – although going by Wins alone or as the heaviest deciding factor is not ‘saber’.
May the Force Be With Dickey.
kingman 26
9/4/2012-8:57pm at 8:57 pm (UTC -4)
Hard to argue against RA.