TBOH 2016 Predictions: NL Cy Young Award
By Matt Veasey
Major League Baseball 2016 award winner predictions are now being released by the TBOH staff.
Our staff has just released our predictions for the winners of each division, as well as our postseason predictions, including the 2016 World Series winner. I released my own predictions for the Phillies in the coming season. Now we begin the process of releasing our predictions for some of MLB’s major award winners.
The Cy Young Award is given annually to the top pitchers in Major League Baseball. Instituted for the 1956 season, the award was originally given to just one pitcher as the best in all of baseball from 1956 through the 1966 season.
Beginning in 1967, MLB began to award one pitcher in each league. Roger Clemens won the award a record seven times during his career. Newly elected Baseball Hall of Famer Randy Johnson won the honors five times, including four in a row from 1999-2002. Greg Maddux also won four straight years, from 1992-95.
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The only other 4x winner of the Cy Young Award was Phillies Hall of Famer Steve Carlton. Lefty took home the honors in the National League in 1972, 1977, 1980, and again in 1982.
There have been three other Phillies’ pitchers to win the award in franchise history. In 1983, John Denny led the NL with 19 wins and was 2nd in ERA and became the 2nd Phils’ pitcher honored.
In 1987, Phils’ closer Steve Bedrosian led the NL with what was then a club record 40 Saves, and edged out starting pitchers Rick Reuschel and Rick Sutcliffe in one of the closest votes ever. He is one of just nine relief pitchers to ever win the award.
It was another 23 years before another Phillies pitcher won the honors. Roy Halladay won the 2010 NL Cy Young Award as just the 13th pitcher to be selected in a unanimous vote, and the 5th to win the award in both leagues. This was following a season in which he led the league in wins (21), complete games (9), shutouts (4), and innings pitched (250.2) while also tossing a perfect game.
Our staff has installed Los Angeles Dodgers perennial Cy Young favorite Clayton Kershaw as the 2016 favorite, giving him half of our votes. The lefty already has three of the awards on his shelf, having won in 2011, 2013 and 2014. He finished second in the 2012 voting, and third a year ago.
Four other pitchers each received a single vote, and each should be considered a 2016 contender: Gerrit Cole of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Jacob deGrom of the New York Mets, Adam Wainwright of the Saint Louis Cardinals, and Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals.