5/11/17

Early AL Cy Young Award contenders include a Twins' pitcher

The second week of May is super early to start predicting post-season awards, but Twins' RHP Ervin Santana remains in the top 3 to win the AL Cy Young this season.

Here are the top 5 AL pitchers based on several criteria that Cy Young voters are usually considering:

Wins:

1 Ervin Santana (5)
1 Dylan Bundy (5)
1 Dallas Keuchel (5)
1 Masahiro Tanaka (5)
2 Hector Santiago and 5 more (4)

Innings Pitched:

1 Keuchel (52-2/3)
2 Chris Sale (51-2/3)
3 Carlos Carasco (48-1/3)
4 E. Santana (47)
5 Bundy (45-2/3)
5 Yu Darvish (45-2/3)

ERA:

1 Jason Vargas (1.19)
2 James Paxton (1.43)
3 E. Santana (1.72)
4 Carasco (1.86)
5 Keuchel (1.88)

Strikeouts:

1. Sale (73)
2. Lance McCullers (50)
3. Danny Salazar (49)
4. Chris Archer (48)
5. Carasco (46)
5. Darvish (46)

All the rankings and statistics are from fangraphs  as of 5/10/2017.

As a mater of fact, only Ervin Santana, Dallas Keuchel, and Carlos Carasco place in 3 out of 4 of those categories, and no pitcher places in all 4 categories.

It will be an interesting race to watch.  As a reminder, the last Twins' Cy Young award winner, was eleven years ago, Santana's namesake, Johan, who won the award unanimously.  Will another Santana bring some hardware to the Twin Cities?  We shall find out in about 6 months.  Everything is possible, especially since the Cy Young races have been very close the last few years with last years' almost a virtual tie.  Still very surprising for a team that has started the season (and the last 10 season after the other Santana left) without an "Ace" pitcher. 

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