Dodgers News: Why Julio Urias Should Win the NL Cy Young Award
Julio Urias finished up an incredible 2022 season, and has been arguably the best pitcher in baseball over the last two years. Despite his dominance, however, he’s yet to get the respect that comes with being one of the league’s top aces.
Sandy Alcantara seems to be the heavy favorite to win the NL Cy Young, and don’t get me wrong, he’s been great this season. But why isn’t Urias being included in the conversation as much?
Along with guest, MLB Network’s own Alanna Rizzo, our Doug McKain broke it all down, and dove into Urias’ case to win the Cy Young award.
Here’s the key takeaway from Rizzo… Julio was the best pitcher on the best team in baseball that actually went to the playoffs, unlike Alcantara and the Marlins.
[Julio] stepped up in the absence of Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw, Dustin May Tony Gonsolin — you know, this is a guy who has been money. Yes, Sandy Alcantara is a guy with nasty, nasty stuff, but I guess it depends on what you value. … I think the edge (in Cy Young worthiness) goes to Julio.
Urias finished the year with a 17-7 record, a 2.16 ERA and 166 strikeouts in 175 innings. He became the first Mexican-born pitcher to lead the league in ERA, and boasted a league-best 1.26 ERA in the second half of the season.
Alcantara may win the award, but it should be much closer than a lot of people are making it out to be.
Do you think Urias should win the Cy Young over Alcantara? And do you think he’s the most disrespected player in the league? Let us know in the comments below!
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Last year Julio should have been fifth or better. Walker and Max should have been NO WORSE than second and third. I did a match of the top seven pitching categories for all the top pitchers in the NL. Wheeler, Burnes, etc. A good argument could have been made for them to be 1,2,3. And none were above 4th. This year Julio should win. Just think if he had run support his first ten starts. 4 or 5 more wins. But– for all the talk of analytics by our sportswriters? How many actually look closely?
I hope Julio wins the Cy Young. He should have won it last year too. I’m guessing though that he won’t. I think some voters may be biased against him because of prior domestic violence issues.
While Julio was not winning games at the beginning of the year, he was also not receiving much run support @ the time, losing close games. In fact last year many so called experts used this reason as to why they wouldn’t consider him for the Cy Young award last year. Even though he won the 20 games they did not consider it as though he pitched well, but was given so much run support! Total B.S. I totally agree that with his consistent, excellent performances & the support of his teammates, not just Julio had a great year but the whole team did. He deserves the award!
I know, I’m a Dodgers fan, but I think the voters are biased against the Dodgers. 2017, Kershaw. He has 2 more wins, 2 less losses and a better ERA, but Mad Max gets the Cy Young. Oh, Scherzer had more strikeouts, BFD. There’s an award for that, it’s called the strikeout title. Significant, a nice accomplishment, but not Cy Young worthy.
Last year, Julio wins 20. Next closest is 17. But Burnes won with what, 11 victories? Good, very good, but not world beating ERA and K numbers. But isn’t the name of the game winning? Julio had 9 more victories, 2 less losses, but Burnes had more strikeouts.
Julio won’t win, he’s a Dodger, not named Sandy.
Alcantara will likely win it. However, if you are on a losing team, no pressure in starts to win, no fans in the stands at home games, and your team can let you run up your innings because you know your season is ending after game 162. Sure, let him pitch all out in the regular season. However, if you know that you might have another five or six stressful starts 30 to 40 innings, you have to manage your starters innings a bit more closely. That is an underrated aspect of why Dave Roberts is a good manager. So, for me Urias has been the best pitcher in the NL since July 2021, something like 28-8. This year, all his numbers except total innings pitched are better than Alcanatra’s ERA, WHIP, W-L, K/9. Sure Alcantara has higher WAR and more IPs, but almost all traditional stats are Juilio’s favor. I’d vote for Urias, but I am biased.
Julio has more wins and less losses than Alcantra, a lower ERA, and a lower WHIP. There’s no way Julio should not win the Cy Young.