Good question. Undoubtedly, some CY voters will be influenced, either consciously or subconsciously, by emotion about his death.

You almost would want to put an asterisk next to the winner's name this year because of that.

I wondered that too. I hope not because his death doesn't make anyone else deserve it less. The NL Cy Young race seems like it should be the cut and dried one - if all you care about is quality, Clayton Kershaw is still the best pitcher in the world. His K/BB this year is absurd. But realistically it seems like, with all due respect to his teammate with the sub-2 ERA, Lester should comfortably win.

Actually, I guess the AL race has become pretty cut-and-dried as well at this point. In spite of the perception that he's only the 2nd-best arm on his own team right now, I don't see much room for Porcello not to win. About a month ago I actually thought Zach Britton would win it because there were 8 or 9 starters with very similar season resumes who would split a bunch of votes amongst them. At that point Porcello was just the wins leader amongst that group but not in the top ERA tier. Over the last month he's dropped his ERA to 2nd-best in the league and shattered the 20 win barrier, so I guess there should be less vote splitting now.

Posted by dahsdebater on 9/27/2016 1:18:00 PM (view original):
I wondered that too. I hope not because his death doesn't make anyone else deserve it less. The NL Cy Young race seems like it should be the cut and dried one - if all you care about is quality, Clayton Kershaw is still the best pitcher in the world. His K/BB this year is absurd. But realistically it seems like, with all due respect to his teammate with the sub-2 ERA, Lester should comfortably win.

I don't know how you draw this conclusion. Lester has had a great year, but Hendricks has been marginally better and a huge revelation for the Cubs. I wouldn't be up in arms if Lester won, but no way he should win "comfortably."

Scherzer and Cueto are also heavily in the discussion.

EDIT: I didn't realize Arrieta was having such a good year too. Leading the league in OAV it looks like.

Posted by bad_luck on 9/27/2016 1:04:00 PM (view original):

Posted by dahsdebater on 9/27/2016 12:55:00 PM (view original):

Posted by toddcommish on 9/27/2016 12:25:00 PM (view original):
Anyhoo....

So what was Jose Fernandez's WAR anyway...?

While I recognize that this isn't a serious question, last time I looked (last week) he was leading the world in fWAR.

Serious question: does he win the Cy Young now?

If he's the best pitcher this year, why not?

It's not like it's not a full body of work for the season.

It's not a full body at all at this point.

groan
gron/
verb

1. 1.
   make a deep inarticulate sound in response to pain or despair.
   "Marty groaned and pulled the blanket over his head"

   synonyms:

   moan, whimper, cry call out "she groaned and rubbed her stomach"
2. 2.
   (of a thing) make a low creaking or moaning sound when pressure or weight is applied.
   "James slumped back into his chair, making it groan and bulge"

   synonyms:

   creak, squeak; More

noun

1. 1.
   a deep, inarticulate sound made in pain or despair.

   synonyms:

   moan, whimper, cry "a groan of anguish"
2. 2.
   a low creaking or moaning sound made by an object or device under pressure.
   "the protesting groan of timbers"

   synonyms:

   creaking,squeak, grinding "the groan of the elevator"

Posted by dahsdebater on 9/27/2016 1:18:00 PM (view original):
I wondered that too. I hope not because his death doesn't make anyone else deserve it less. The NL Cy Young race seems like it should be the cut and dried one - if all you care about is quality, Clayton Kershaw is still the best pitcher in the world. His K/BB this year is absurd. But realistically it seems like, with all due respect to his teammate with the sub-2 ERA, Lester should comfortably win.

I wouldn't be surprised if Fernandez gets it. He has a reasonable case and I think the writers go for the cool story over hard analysis every day.

I'd go Kershaw because I'm a homer. His ERA is 1.65, he leads in fWAR, and the low innings aren't a problem for me.

Lester and Scherzer would probably round out my top three.

Posted by toddcommish on 9/27/2016 12:25:00 PM (view original):
Anyhoo....

So what was Jose Fernandez's WAR anyway...?

I almost coughed my lunch up when I read this. LOL!

Posted by bad_luck on 9/27/2016 1:56:00 PM (view original):

Posted by dahsdebater on 9/27/2016 1:18:00 PM (view original):
I wondered that too. I hope not because his death doesn't make anyone else deserve it less. The NL Cy Young race seems like it should be the cut and dried one - if all you care about is quality, Clayton Kershaw is still the best pitcher in the world. His K/BB this year is absurd. But realistically it seems like, with all due respect to his teammate with the sub-2 ERA, Lester should comfortably win.

I wouldn't be surprised if Fernandez gets it. He has a reasonable case and I think the writers go for the cool story over hard analysis every day.

I'd go Kershaw because I'm a homer. His ERA is 1.65, he leads in fWAR, and the low innings aren't a problem for me.

Lester and Scherzer would probably round out my top three.

Still surprised Hendricks isn't getting any love.

Tanner Roark has a 5.4 WAR? Wow.

My NL ballot right now, in order, would be:

Scherzer
Kershaw
Hendricks
Lester
Cueto

Posted by edsortails on 9/27/2016 1:43:00 PM (view original):
It's not a full body at all at this point.

Best line of this thread.

Posted by toddcommish on 9/27/2016 2:15:00 PM (view original):

Posted by edsortails on 9/27/2016 1:43:00 PM (view original):
It's not a full body at all at this point.

Best line of this thread.

I couldn't tell if that was intentional or not

Scherzer is very good, but he makes mistakes at the wrong moment. Lester and Hendricks have been relatively lucky. Both their strand rates are obscene. Cueto has been good. Steady. Kershaw has been lights out. But how does he get the Cy if he's only pitched 150-160 innings?