MLB Awards Watch: Corey Seager separates from the pack

Los Angeles Dodgers. Clayton Kershaw. 1. player. 71. <p>I can’t quit Clayton Kershaw. He is the best pitcher alive and I don’t care that the left-hander has been on the shelf for some time as a result of injury.</p> <p>At this point in the calendar, Kershaw still leads MLB (not just the NL) comfortably in both fWAR and bWAR among pitchers, and his 1.79 ERA and 1.66 FIP are no joke. You just don’t find pitchers with his numbers (10.79 K/9 and 0.67 BB/9) over more than 120 innings of work, and even if Kershaw misses another month, he should have a legitimate chance to win the Cy Young award in the NL.</p>. SP

SP. San Francisco Giants. Madison Bumgarner. 2. player. 31. <p>Bumgarner leads the NL in innings pitched with 142.2 on the season, and no one questions his upside at this point. He trails only Kershaw in bWAR (4.2) while landing within the top five in fWAR (3.4) and with more than 10 strikeouts per 9 innings, Bumgarner can dominate when he needs to. His FIP (3.00) and xFIP (3.42) aren’t as fantastic as you might think, opening the door for some other candidates, but I love the safety of Bumgarner.</p>

<p>Cueto’s workload falls just short of Bumgarner, trailing his teammate by less than one inning in one fewer start. The 30-year-old right-hander doesn’t dominate in the strikeout category, but aside from that, Cueto has been fantastic. I value pitchers that eat innings at a higher rate than most, but there is very little “fluke” built in with Cueto, despite the advanced metrics not treating him quite as favorably as you may imagine.</p>. SP. San Francisco Giants. Johnny Cueto. 3. player. 31