Cy Young Vote fails Wheeler in 2021

The BBWAA is an organization with a lot of great writers that cover baseball, and within that group, a lot of different opinions are formed about certain things. The vote for the 2021 Cy Young is a perfect example, the NL was the closest vote that there ever has been. Corbin Burnes from the Milwaukee Brewers and Zack Wheeler from the Phillies ended up tied for first place votes with 12 each. Just one more 1st place vote and Wheeler would have won, but why didn’t he get it?

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Lets first take a look at some season totals from the top 3 vote-getters out of 5 contestants for the award:

First we’ll look at the winner this year for the NL, Corbin Burnes:

Standard Pitching
Year Age W L W-L% ERA G GS CG SHO IP H R ER HR BB SO
202126115.6882.43282800167.01234745734234
4 Yr4 Yr2311.6763.391024100313.22571251183089427
162 162 115.6763.39491900149 12259561442203
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 11/18/2021.

Next it’s The Phillies pitcher, Zack Wheeler, the 2nd place finisher in the 2021 Cy Young Vote:

Standard Pitching
Year Age W L W-L% ERA G GS CG SHO IP H R ER HR BB SO
2021311410.5832.78323232213.116972661646247
7 Yr7 Yr6250.5543.51169169431033.2936439403943321026
162 162 1210.5543.51343411208 18888811967206
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 11/18/2021.

And last, let’s look at the third place finisher this year, Max Scherzer, who won the award 3 other times and turned 37 years old in 2021:

Standard Pitching
Year Age W L W-L% ERA G GS CG IP H R ER HR BB SO
202136154.7892.4630301179.111953492336236
20213684.6672.7619191111.07136341828147
202136701.0001.981111068.14817155889
14 Y14 Y19097.6623.16407398122536.220729598902876773020
162 162 168.6623.1634341214 17581752457255
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 11/18/2021.

Ok, so with these stats on the pitchers, we can make some conclusions about how some of the writers voted the way they did. First, Burnes had a decent ERA at 2.43 but that was in 28 GS, if we look at Wheeler with that stat, he was 2.78 which is a bit higher over 32 GS. Wheeler had more wins than Burnes at 14-10 on the season, compared with Burnes record of 11-5 on the year. Let’s bring in Max Scherzer, the 3rd place vote-getter, he had a combined overall ERA with both teams he pitched for of 2.46 with a 15-4 record overall. Scherzer started 30 games this past season.

You can make the case for the Cy Young Award with any one of these top 3 finishers in 2021. In the end, it was the 2nd place votes for Burnes that put him over the top between Wheeler and himself. Scherzer had an amazing season too, he could have easily been the winner as well this year. Wheeler’s ERA could have been a bit lower and he may have won this year, but it wasn’t that ‘Cy Youngish’ in the end. Still an awesome season, and a pitcher who may even have a better year for The Phillies in 2022.

Robbie Ray of the Toronto Blue Jays won the Cy Young Award in the AL finishing with 29 overall first place votes.

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