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With Spencer Strider in the mix, I didn’t think the Man of Steele would finish first, but I would’ve bet good money that he’d do better than a distant fifth in the Cy Young Award voting. And to come in behind Blake Snell and the lowly Logan Webb? I realize the Hall of Fame and postseason awards have become nothing more than popularity contests. Still, that shift doesn’t absolve sportswriters from maintaining at least a tenuous grip on some sort of recognizable reality.
So, let’s examine the four National Leaguers who came in ahead of our beloved Justin Steele.
1. Blake “I Never Met a Man I Didn’t Wanna Walk” Snell
This man led both leagues in free passes, with an absurd 99, which should’ve automatically disqualified him from pitching in the major leagues. Given his 180 innings pitched, that comes out to five flippin’ walks per nine innings, an abomination mitigated by the Padres' sixth-place team defense. By contrast, Steele walked a miniscule 36 batters in a comparable 173 innings pitched.
Snell’s 14-9 record is hardly the stuff of pitching legend, either. The entire point of a Cy Young or MVP award is (purportedly) to honor the player who helped the entire team succeed the most, and Steele’s 16-5 mark was far more critical to the Cubs than Snell’s was to the Padres, who were never in contention. This is, by far, the worst Cy Young choice since Steve Bedrosian beat out the Cubs’ Rick Reuschel in 1987.
2. Logan Webb
All I can say is, I want to take whatever drug the sportswriters who put this bleep in second place are taking, because it’s gotta be a good one. The man had a dismal 11-13 record, for god’s sake! The only pitcher to win the award with a losing record was the Dodgers' Eric Gagne in 2003, but he also converted 55 out of 55 save opportunities, a record that will likely never be broken.
Steele’s 3.06 ERA was better than Webb’s 3.25, and their low walk totals were comparable, as were their hits per nine innings. Webb’s 0.8 home runs per nine were close, but Steele’s 0.7 led the National League. But that’s all rendered moot when you consider that Justin’s 16-5 record, which put the Cubs on the brink of the postseason, should’ve put him in front of the inexplicably second-place Webb. And the Giants were never truly in the race, to the point where it cost manager Gabe Kapler his job.
3. Zac Gallen
Don’t get me wrong; Zac Gallen is the kind of pitcher I’d love to see play for the Cubs someday. But while he certainly deserves to be in the running, his winning percentage was worse than Steele’s, as was his ERA.
This one is very close, and my propensity for hyperbole aside, only four votes separated the two, but two full spots ahead of our hero? I don’t think so!
4. Spencer Strider
How this man didn’t win the NL Cy Young is beyond me. Spencer’s gotta be thinking, “Whose stride do I have to Spence to win this thing?”
All he did was amass a 20-5 record, lead the majors in strikeouts (281) by a long shot, walk just 58 batters in 186 2/3 innings, lead the NL with a 2.85 FIP, post MLB's second-best pitcher WAR (5.5), singlehandedly mitigate the possibility of a lengthy Braves slump, and lead the team to the best record in baseball. At the same time, the rest of the Atlanta staff could barely pull their weight.
Without Strider’s 20 wins, the Braves would’ve been a Wild Card team--you know, as long as they forfeited those game and only those. The fact that he didn’t get as much as one first-place vote diminishes the award, to the point where it’s becoming meaningless. More like Cy Old, it says here.
This is how the NL Cy Young voting should’ve played out:
- Spencer Strider
- Justin Steele
- Zac Gallen
- David Bednar
- Clay Kershaw
Ah well. What can you say about a group of nitwits who put light-hitting Ozzie Smith in the Hall of Fame?
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