Editorials

Dodgers: Hyun-Jin Ryu’s Place in the NL Cy Young

Before dressing up as “Daddy Shark” yesterday, Hyun-Jin Ryu was off to a fast start for the Dodgers in 2019. For the months of May through July, Ryu had a stellar ERA of 1.28, and an 8-1 record. He was the clear front-runner to win the NL Cy Young Award, but like so many athletes, Ryu hit a slump.

The slump could have been due to injury or in need of rest days. Some opine that his working relationship with rookie Will Smith may have played a role. Whatever the case may have been, it affected his outings on the mound.



While the lefty still leads baseball in ERA (2.41) with one start remaining in 2019, the competition closed in on him in a hurry.

Now, Mets ace Jacob deGrom has put together a strong three months to end the season and cast a little more doubt on Babe Ryuth. The reigning NL Cy Young award winner has an ERA of 1.52, and a 7-1 record from July-September. deGrom has performed better than Ryu in the latter half of the season, and that could lead him to the NL Cy Young Award. However, deGrom has additional competition.

Washington’s Max Scherzer has also dominated the National League, when healthy. Scherzer has a 2.92 ERA throughout the season, but only 11 wins. However, what stands out is his ability to strikeout batters. He has 243 strikeouts, and keeps the Nationals in games when he’s on the mound.

Mad Max’s teammate Steven Strasburg leads the National League in wins with 18. He also paces the senior circuit in innings pitched with 209, and his 3.32 ERA is in the top-10. The 31 year-old is right behind deGrom and Scherzer first third in strikeouts with 241.

MLB pundits have swayed their Cy Young votes toward Jacob deGrom over the last few weeks. With Ryu’s August/September swoon, and deGrom’s strong finish his season, the Mets ace is heading toward joining elite company as a winner in consecutive seasons.

Be fair an unbiased, is Ryu still your Cy Young award winner?

 

Levon Satamian

My name is Levon Satamian. I am currently attending Cal State Northridge, and majoring in Broadcast Journalism.

9 Comments

  1. Sadly, Ryu lost the Cy Young on August 23, when he got bombed by the Yankees. The nationally televised game was likely the first time that many of the eastern voters had a chance to see him pitch and it didn’t go well. The following bad games didn’t help, but I’m pretty sure that one game is all most of the voters will remember out of what was a great season.

  2. I love Ryu, but he hasn’t even been the best starting pitcher for the Dodgers this year. That title belongs to Clayton Kershaw, who had exactly one non-quality start all year long, and will finish at 16-5 with the most innings pitched and most strikeouts on the team.

    It is frankly stunning to me that Jacob deGrom is in the running for the Cy Young and Kershaw is not. The award should be a race between Scherzer and Strasburg with Kersh a close third.

    1. Let me fix your comment for you:

      “It is frankly stunning to me that the pitcher with the second best ERA in baseball and most strikeouts in the NL and best WAR is in the running for Cy Young. The reason i am frankly stunned is because i do not understand the sport of baseball very well and how to measure how good a pitcher is.”

    2. Ummm Kershaw has 3 non QS in has last 5…where did you come up with that bogus 1 all year statement? And DeGrom is literally ahead of Scherzer in every imaginable stat, so how exactly is it stunning that hes in the race?

  3. If Ryu allows one run or less this weekend and pitch 7 innings I think he deserves to win it.

  4. Stop with the Degrom Cy. He had 10 wins last year and only 11 now. Got to be better in getting your team over the hump whether they score or not. The Mets had a very good hitting team, Degrom’s 11 wins just doesn’t cut it but most votes come from the east. Scherzer was hurt and unfortunately wasn’t deserving of The Cy. That leaves Strasberg and Ryu. I like Strasberg and the 18 wins pitching more IPs than Degrom close in K’s and winning the 18 games and getting the Nationals to the playoffs. Ryu had a letdown and that cost him. He had some poor games but is clearly 2. Scherzer only pitched 175 innings and 11 wins no way he deserves. Degrom or Scherzer would be an East Coast Bias pick and a farce to the Cy award.

    1. “Got to be better in getting your team over the hump”
      This is one of the most asinine, ignorant and overall stupid comments I have ever read. You have got to be a troll. Seriously? How is it up to deGrom to get them over the hump when he is literally doing EVERYTHING the Mets can ask him too. He does not give up a lot of runs (2.43 ERA, 2nd in MLB) , he does not allow a lot of baserunners (0.97 WHIP, 1st in NL) and he goes deep into games (1st in NL of pitchers with 7+ IP games.). Wins are an outdated metric for pitchers. Guess what? Stats show if deGrom had the run support Scherzer had last year he would have won 28 games. This year? 20-22 range.

    2. You really just used Wins to weigh in on cy young ?????,if you watch games where Degrom pitches he doesn’t get run support

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