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Who’s going to win the NL Cy Young Award: Zach Greinke or Max Scherzer

By James Simpson II

September 28, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Zack Greinke (21) pitches the first inning against the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
September 28, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Zack Greinke (21) pitches the first inning against the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports /
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Who’s the NL Cy Young Favorite at this point: Zach Greinke or Max Scherzer?

The 2015 National League Cy Young race has been one of the most enticing storylines of this baseball season and with good reason. The pitching during this season (especially in the National League) has looked like something from out of the 1960s favorable pitching era where runs were scored at a minimum and pitchers were throwing more high-quality stuff than ever.

The entire St. Louis Cardinals pitching staff has been statistically historically good. The New York Mets young, dynamite pitching staff of Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, and Noah Syndergaard have established themselves as baseball’s next formidable pitching rotation for the next 10 years.

Even MLB’s No. 1 ace Clayton Kershaw, who started the season off slowly, has picked things up in his last 10 starts going 6-0 with a 0.92 ERA, only walking eight batters, and piling up 96 strikeouts. Kershaw, a 3-time NL Cy Young winner, has re-entered the race with his stellar play of late, but for the majority of the season Kershaw’s pitching running mate Zack Greinke and Washington Nationals Max Scherzer have been the frontrunners for this major pitching honor.

Washington Nationals starting pitcher Max Scherzer (31) pitches against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the fourth inning at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
Washington Nationals starting pitcher Max Scherzer (31) pitches against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the fourth inning at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports /

In his first year with the Nationals after leaving the Detroit Tigers in free agency, Max Scherzer started off lights out for the first two months (Scherzer had back-to-back games in June and in one start he threw a complete game, 16-strikeout, one-hit shutout and in the other he tossed a 10-strikeout, no-hitter gem) and established himself as the NL Cy Young leader early on.

The 2013 AL Cy Young winner gave the Nationals an early burst with all the high expectations Washington has coming into this season, but as we move toward the end of the stretch run the Nationals playoff hopes are looking bleak and it doesn’t help that their ace and big free agent pull has been struggling of late too.

In his last five starts, Scherzer is 0-3 with a 6.43 ERA and the Nationals are falling deeper and deeper into postseason omission. On the year, Scherzer currently holds an 11-11 record with a 2.88 ERA, 209 strikeouts, 3 complete games, 2 shutouts, 178 innings pitched, and a 0.92 WHIP. Scherzer’s win-loss record might not look that impressive, but it’s completely misguided and doesn’t tell the entire story of the Nats go-to arm and how well he’s thrown the baseball.

If Scherzer jumped out the gate as the guy to catch for the Cy Young in the National League for the first half of the season, then it looks like the Dodgers’ Zack Greinke snatched the lead from him over the second half of this year.

Greinke, the 2009 AL Cy Young winner while with the Kansas City Royals and the standout No. 2 ace, and the Don Drysdale to Clayton Kershaw’s Sandy Koufax, is putting together his best season yet. What Greinke has done in 2015 is upstage the modern-day Koufax and he’s somewhat separated himself from the rest of the top NL pitching candidates.

Greinke currently leads not only the NL but the majors in ERA (1.61), WHIP (0.84), ERA+ (234), fewest hits per nine innings (6.1), WAR for pitchers (7.7), and from June 18- July 26 he had six straight scoreless starts and pitched 45 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings – which was the fourth-longest scoreless innings streak in baseball history. Greinke holds a 14-3 record, has pitched 179 innings, averages 8.2 strikeouts per nine innings, and no pitcher has been more difficult to hit this season than Greinke.

As good as Kershaw has been of late, make no mistake about it that Greinke has been the Dodgers top dog on the mound in 2015.

August 16, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Zack Greinke (21) pitches the fifth inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
August 16, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Zack Greinke (21) pitches the fifth inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports /

This 2015 NL Cy Young race was closer and tougher to dissect maybe a month ago, but as we head into September and the division and wild-card races heat up, Greinke seems to have a considerable edge over Scherzer at the moment (especially because as of right now it looks like the Dodgers will most likely make the postseason and the Nationals won’t).

Once the season ends, I believe the Dodgers’ Zach Greinke will walk away as the NL Cy Young winner and complete a rare feat of becoming the fifth pitcher in baseball history (Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens, Gaylord Perry) to win the Cy Young award in both the American and National League.

Zach Grienke is the choice.

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