The Bernstein Brief: Cy Young Voters Get It (Mostly) Right
By Dan Bernstein--
CBSChicago.com senior columnist
(CBS) Profane Kate Upton tweets notwithstanding, the Cy Young voters ended up awarding the right players among the finalists in each league Wednesday, at least when we cross-check the voting with an objective standard.
Red Sox right-hander Rick Porcello was mere decimal places ahead of Tigers right-hander Justin Verlander in Fangraphs.com's Wins Above Replacement, with both of them rounded to 5.2. So it was appropriately close between the AL's top two by the metric. And it was close in the American League voting, with Porcello edging Verlander, 137-132 points.
In the National League, Nationals right-hander Max Scherzer was well ahead of the other two competitors, with his 5.6 fWAR easily outstripping Cubs right-hander Kyle Hendricks's 4.5 and Cubs left-hander Jon Lester's 4.3.
If you are the type that needs a quibble, however, you have more than one. Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw didn't throw enough innings to qualify for the leaderboard but still accrued a WAR of 6.5 that tied him with Mets right-hander Noah Syndergaard at the top of MLB. The late Jose Fernandez of the Marlins was third in all of baseball at 6.2, and Giants right-hander Johnny Cueto's 5.5 WAR was fifth, between Scherzer and Porcello.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Boers and Bernstein Show" in afternoon drive. You can follow him on Twitter @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.