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AL Cy Young
- Dallas Keuchel, Houston Astros – Dallas Keuchel isn’t the best pitcher in the American League. That doesn’t stop him from being the AL Cy Young front-runner at this moment. The left-hander has made six starts while most high-end starters have made only five, and Keuchel leads the American League in ERA with a lights-out 0.80 mark over 45 innings. Because he isn’t a strikeout pitcher (6.00 per 9 innings), Keuchel is highly unlikely to keep up this level of dominance, but gone are the days when pundits were worried about him flaming out, and Dallas Keuchel is beginning to look the part of a legitimate MLB ace.
- Felix Hernandez, Seattle Mariners – Felix is just silly good, and he would likely be the consensus choice to actually win the AL Cy Young at this point. The big right-hander has been dominant for what seems like forever, and Hernandez has picked up where he left off in 2014 with a 1.73 ERA across six starts and 41.2 innings. It will be interesting to see how the Mariners monitor his workload, but if Hernandez can keep these peripherals (9.50 K/9, 1.51 BB/9), the league is in trouble.
- Chris Archer, Tampa Bay Rays – Archer was the leader in the clubhouse last week, and truthfully, he didn’t do anything to lose that honor. The young right-hander still sports a fantastic 1.64 ERA in six starts (38.1 innings), and every positive accolade thrown his way has been justified. I have some doubts about his current strikeout rate (9.86 per 9 innings) sustaining throughout the schedule, but Chris Archer is legitimate.
Next: NL MVP