It's Sickening That People Are Acting Like Tarik Skubal Has Already Won The Cy Young While Emmanuel Clase Is Having The Season Of A Lifetime
Look I want to be very clear that this blog has absolutely nothing to do with me being a Guardians fan, nor me holding a 70/1 ticket on DraftKings for Emmanuel Clase to win the American League Cy Young Award. This blog is because we have a young man in this country who has EARNED the right to not only be in the discussion, but to be at the fore front of the discussion, and everyone is acting like the race is done and over with. How? Why? Look at the graphic above. Those are your Relief Pitchers that have won the Cy Young, and by the looks of it, Emmanuel Clase is more than deserving. In fact, I'd say it's pretty damn clear that if it weren't for Eric Gagne being a superhuman in 2003, Emmanuel Close is currently having perhaps the best year for a Closer pitcher of all time (shout out Zach Britton in 2016, too). I mean, this guy has quite literally one half of their ERAs, a high WAR according to Baseball Reference, and a better WHIP and BAA. Oh and his ERA plus is like 4x higher than the rest of these guys. So with that in mind, you simply cannot say he doesn't deserve the award. The only question is: does someone else deserve it more?
Enter Tarik Skubal.
Don't get me wrong, Skubal is having a hell of a year. But starting pitchers have had better years than that. Pedro, Clemens, Randy Johnson, and Greg Maddux come to mind right off the top of my head. But as you see at the top of the blog, there's not many, if any, that can touch the year Clase is having out of the bullpen. 5 runs all fucking year. And that's where I think Clase should win the award. You can make a case that he's having the 2nd best season as a Closer of ALL TIME. Should that not matter? Apparently not, according to the DraftKings Sportsbook….
That's an absolute shame. A shame that it's not even close. A shame that the Guardians outperformed their win total by the time they had 20+ games remaining. A shame that the Guardians beat the Tigers in the season series. A shame that by all metrics involved, this should be a down to the wire race. Clase should have to go scoreless the rest of the season. Every start by Skubal should be under a microscope. This should be the talk of baseball. But instead, we just decide that we can't give relievers the Cy Young Award, despite the Guardians bullpen being the #1 reason they're currently sitting atop the American League.
