MLB Cy Young Power Rankings: We’re all living in Justin Verlander’s world

Most pitchers are about a third of the way through their seasons and only have about 20 or so starts left. There’s a clear cut winner of the Cy Young and everyone is chasing down one pitcher.

The number one player on this list really won’t come as a surprise but there’s quite a few pitchers who are a little tougher to sort through. It’s hard to discuss any type of pitching award without heading right to the Houston Astros rotation. Their five starters are an embarrassment of riches. Three of them are in the top six in ERA. Two of them will be featured in this space but the one who just misses is Charlie Morton. It’s nothing that’s meant as a disrespect to Morton, who has been excellent all season long. There are two other pitchers who are just a hair better than Morton on his own staff. The last pitcher in the A.L who was tough to leave off was Luis Severino. He’s been dominant so far and is likely to overtake the number five pitcher by next month.

Two pitcher in the National League that deserve some spotlight are Gio Gonzalez and Walker Buehler. Gonzalez doesn’t get any attention because Max Scherzer is a stud and will likely be right there as the Cy Young winner. Other than the ERA, Gonzalez doesn’t have a ton of traditional stats that stick out because he has a low strikeout rate and walks more than a few. Buehler only has about 40 innings under his belt but my goodness has the rookie been good. If he stays on the track he’s on now, he’ll be a candidate for the award in October.

5. Corey Kluber, RHP for the Cleveland Indians

7-2, 2.17 ERA, 0.86 WHIP, 26.1 strikeout rate, 1.7 WAR

Between the Astros rotation and the Indians mediocre record, Kluber has fallen under the radar just bit. What’s funny is you look at the strikeout rate and think it’s pretty good. It’s actually a significant drop from his 2017 mark of 34.1. Kluber has seen that strikeout rate drop by eight percentage points and his ERA is actually better than it was last season. The WHIP is also right in line with last year, which speaks to his dominance in every other facet. When he is striking out hitters, it looks something like this –

As a quick side note, Rob overlaying the pitches like he’s been doing is just awesome to see. It illustrates exactly why hitters swing at what appears to be bad pitches. It’s incredibly difficult to figure out those pitches in milliseconds.

Wins and losses for pitchers isn’t the most ideal stat to point to but it should be noted that Kluber has pitched for about 25 percent of the Indians victories this year. They sit at 27-25 as of this writing so Kluber has been instrumental to their season. He’s not going to win the award this year unless the Houston rotation falls apart in the next few months but Kuber deserves recognition for still being a great pitcher even when his strikeouts have dipped so far. Many pitchers wouldn’t see the same type of results.