Free agent left-hander Blake Snell has been named the National League Cy Young Award winner for 2023, per an announcement from the Baseball Writers Association of America. Logan Webb of the Giants finished second in the voting while Zac Gallen of the Diamondbacks finished third.
Snell, 31 next month, has now earned a Cy Young award for the second time in his career. The first trophy was in the American League, with Snell winning as a member of the Rays in 2018. He is just the seventh pitcher to win the award in both leagues, joining Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martínez, Max Scherzer, Gaylord Perry and Roy Halladay.
The left-handed Snell hasn’t been the most consistent pitcher in his career, with both his health and performance wobbling over the years, but his two award-winning campaigns have been excellent. His first trophy came after posting an earned run average of 1.89 with the Rays and this second piece of hardware was earned by posting a 2.25 for the Padres this year. His most recent campaign saw him walk 13.3% of batters faced but he danced around those by striking out 31.5% of his opponents and keeping the ball on the ground at a 44.4% clip. He probably had some help from the baseball gods as his .256 batting average on balls in play and 86.7% strand rate were both on the lucky side of average, but his punchouts and grounders surely helped him somewhat as well.
Outside of those two campaigns, the results have been far more mixed. He got to 180 innings pitched in his award-winning campaigns but hasn’t reached 130 in any other season. He also hasn’t posted an ERA lower than 3.24 in any of them.
Of course, that doesn’t matter for the Cy Young voting. It’s a single-season award and his year-to-year consistency is not something for the voters to consider. Snell’s voting wasn’t quite unanimous but he got 28 of the 30 first-place votes. But his overall track record will be of concern to the clubs considering signing him as a free agent. Pitchers with multiple Cy Youngs don’t hit free agency every day but it’s also incredibly rare for a pitcher to put so many runners on base without allowing them to score. Regardless of those concerns, MLBTR predicted Snell to land a contract of $200MM over seven years and he’s already garnering plenty of interest.
Webb had a 3.25 ERA in 216 innings for the Giants this year, which got him one of the first-place votes and 17 for second. Gallen had a 3.47 ERA in his 210 innings, which led to one first-place vote and three for second. In the full voting, which can be seen here, votes also went to Spencer Strider, Justin Steele, Zack Wheeler, Kodai Senga and Corbin Burnes.
Quite timely on Mr. Snell’s part!
PLAYER 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH 5TH TOT
Blake Snell, SD 28 2 — — — 204
Logan Webb, SF 1 17 1 2 4 86
Zac Gallen, AZ 1 3 11 5 6 68
Spencer Strider, ATL — 6 9 5 3 64
Justin Steele, CHI — 1 2 8 6 32
Zack Wheeler, PHL — — 4 5 6 28
Kodai Senga, NYM — — 3 3 — 15
Corbin Burnes, MIL — 1 — 2 5 13
HOF post! Grats Snell. Thanks again Lou! Happy almost Thanksgiving
Imagine that, a career year going into free agency
And yet teams never learn from history
In his walk year too. And I do mean base on balls.
Hey, he just suddenly came down with a bad case of ADHD and needed some temporary treatment.
2018 says wake the eff up
2018 was better.
Well deserved! Snell signs a new contract with SD as SP and 3 innings of color TV commentary every game he’s not pitching.
At this point he should just join Donny Cookies and Mud in the booth when he’s not on the bump!
He is going to sign a huge deal with someone like LA or the Mets. I predict LA
Well deserved award, but I feel like Snell is destined to be Corey Kluber 2.0 and be a below average pitcher from here on out. I hope my Tigers don’t sign him with the money earmarked from Cabrera coming off the books.
The only way I’ll believe in Snell’s future is if Dombrowski signs him to help the Phillies get over the top.
Congratulations on the second one! Now come east !
Just in time to pull a Carlos rodon after getting paid
Cy Young awards won in their career:
Blake Snell 2
Carlos Rodon 0
No comparison
Didn’t realize it but CR never got to 180 innings even 1 time (Snell criticized for low innings as a result of walks). CR has more injury history. CR has 0 CY.
Look at CR’s 2022 FA contract and just add 10% and that is the starting floor and it goes up based on demand.
Where is Luis Patino?
Ooooh that Snell! Can’t you Snell that Snell?
Lots old guys here! (Including me, so don’t take offense!)
I’m 29 is that old?
No. I’m 71 is that old? Let’s talk…
Nah, in fact you still have about a decade and a half to run for president if you want.
LOL, I checked on that, I received my certification of stupidity so I’m all ready to run!
The Snell of it surrounds you.
So this means he gets a bigger and better contract than Rodon right?
Strider led league in Wins, K’s, FiP had a lower WHIP than Snell but guess ERA and walks are the categories that count here
3.86 to 2.25 ERA. Obviously the 2.25 is much better. The voters got it right.
So leading the league in walks is dominating? Yea Snell plays in a pitchers park as well..
What does it matter how many guys he walks? The goal is to make it to home plate, not first base.
Who led the league in ERA+? That is adjusted for parks.
baseball-reference.com/leagues/NL/2023-pitching-le…
How about hits per 9 IP?
How about batting average with men on base? Or with RISP?
How about WAR? That is a counting stat so the more IP the higher the potential WAR. You can go to the link above to see the answer,
Pads Fans:
Yes he certainly had the lowest ERA and there is no denying that. Some of the other stats you mention are pretty arbitrary and his WAR at Fangraphs paints a much different picture.
BWAR for pitchers is based off RA so the lowest ERA usually has the highest WAR. Fangraphs bases off FIP. Both sides have proponents but it does go back to the main point that WAR is a good quick number to use but far from exact when evaluating pitchers. I personally see the Fangraphs side but I wouldn’t tell somebody who disagrees that they are wrong.
Either way, congratulations to Snell.
My condolences on Peter Seidler as well. I think what he did for Padres baseball was really great.
Stider 3.4 WAR
Snell 6 WAR
Strider ERA – 76
Snell ERA – 54
Ball park adjusted stat
ERA+, or any of + matrics, are not adjusted for ballparks. You can calculate very easily on your own. Find the average ERA, find the % difference of a players own ERA to the average and add 1 and multiply by 100. No where in that calculation does it consider anything for ball parks. What they really mean by ball park adjusted is ERA+ normalized ERA by using the mean ERA of the entire group which consists of pitchers stats from across all parks. No where will find add x for Camden Yards, subtract Y for Coors field and divide by K for playing in Oakland.
@ih8tepaperstraws: You do not appear to understand what Park Factors are or how they are considered in the ERA+ calculation. While there of course is no letter variable for each specific park, the home/road splits of teams playing in those stadiums *is* part of the equation.
If you don’t believe me, take a look at something as simple as this: Coors Field has the highest Park Factor in the league at 112. T-Mobile Park in Seattle has the lowest at 92. Jake Bird of the Colorado Rockies (4.33) and Bryce Miller of the Seattle Mariners (4.32) had near-identical ERAs. Bird’s ERA+ was 117. Miller’s was 93.
He also had the lowest hits per 9 innings in the league. Batters couldn’t square him up.
Lou: I’ll take Strider’s 20 wins over Snell’s 14 any day.
@avenger65 Snell would have had more wins than Strider if he pitched for the Braves, guaranteed.
Yes. Snell was unquestionable better than strider this year.
False. There’s a strong argument Strider was better than Snell. I’d much prefer him on the mound in a must win game too
3.86 ERA. Should need to be at least below 3.5 to even be on the ballot.
I’m not saying that Snell wasn’t deserving, he is, but I’d bet that a large percentage of the runs Strider allowed came after Snitker left him in too long simply because Snitker didn’t trust his bullpen.
I can’t say one way or another if the same was true for Snell (didn’t see enough of the games he pitched).
Snell had a great season and deserves his reward, but if you watched Striders starts you’d see what I am referencing.
Should at least have 20 wins to get on the ballot.
@avenger65 No.
I saw both pitch. Snell was better. Strider got lit up from time to time throughout the season, twice giving up 6 runs in 2 2/3 innings and he even gave up 8 runs once! Snell only got lit up once for 6 runs in 4 innings. His shortest outing was 3 2/3, doing it once. This was no contest, Snell >>> Strider this year
If Snell was forced to pitch as many innings in a game/season as Strider does Snell’s ERA would have been much higher than 2.25 and if Strider pitched 5 per game like Snell his would certainly be much lower than 3.86.
It would be better to see games where the pitcher was eligible for the win when he left the game compared to his actual wins. Johan Santana came in 3rd in CY voting his first year with the Mets and he should have easily won it but he didn’t have enough wins. I believe he left 8 starts with the W and the bullpen lost it. If he had won those games he would have won the CY Young unanimously with all other stats being the same.
Wins i think helped in the past but definitely not now. Look at degrom and his back to back cy youngs he was barely double digits in both cy young wins. He was far away better than all pitchers in his first win .. a starting pitcher with under a 2 era with all those innings and strikeouts.
Wins are the only thing that matters. The manager tells his players “Let’s go out and win one.” Not “Let’s go out and hold the other team to less than 3 earned runs”, or ” Make sure you watch your WAR, ERA+, FIP, SIERRA, and all that other analytic garbage.”
“The manager tells his PLAYERS “Let’s go out and win one.” … ”
PLAYERS as in the team … if a pitcher does nothing but strikeouts and routine groundballs but the infielders cant throw or have the ability to catch a beach ball let alone a baseball. is that the pitchers fault? What if the catcher might as well be a matador than catch the ball should the pitcher be held liable? Last i heard the CY Young is based on a players merrits or are you saying Machado and Kim and Tatis also got the CY Young along with Snell. I wonder how many more millions Gary Sanchez can add to his contract now that he owns a cy young award.
@avenger65 No way. Never forget the 2005 AL Cy Young joke of a result.
They both pitched in 32 games. Strider totaled 186.2 innings, Snell 180. Strider averaged 5.81 innings per game, Snell 5.33. Not much difference.
@Carlos, Strider gave up 6 Rs twice in under 3 innings. Of the 4 times he gave up 5 or more Rs only once did he see the 6th inning. In comparison Snell only gave up 5 Rs once.
So no IP does not seem to be the cause of the disparity in their ERAs.
Maybe look at stats other than ERA??? Even something like xERA Strider absolutely demolishes Snell…. You surface level fans are the absolute worst. And of course it’s the vast majority…. Totally clueless yet you think you know what you’re talking about. Sigh….
No contest except Strider beats Snell in most advanced metrics including basic ones like FIP and xERA??
@rols1026 The pitcher’s only job is to pitch as many innings as possible while allowing as few runs as possible. That’s it. Snell was better than Strider this year. Shoot, MORTON was better than Strider this year.
Absolutely clueless take. Like 3rd grade level analysis. If you’re actually an adult I’m embarrassed for you
Strider simply was not dominant game in and game out. Had to many games he was shelled, bottom line.
Carlos,
If my aunt Nancy had balls she would be my uncle Larry so where does they get us?
hmmm uses name as Longtime… then Larry as example …. are you hinting at something perhaps nancy?
If walks counted Snell wouldn’t have had a chance. And mentioning wins proves that nothing you post is worth reading. I’m not going to mute you like Pads Fans or filihok would, but I probably should…
Pitcher wins mean absolutely nothing in this day and age. Strider was good but Snell and Webb were considerably better
Strider wasn’t even the best pitcher on his own team.
Clueless if you think Strider wasn’t the best pitcher on the Braves
@rols1026 Morton was.
Saying “mean absolutely nothing” is just as silly as only using wins to measure efficacy. Winning the game is the whole point of the contest and keeping track of who does it most may not be the optimal measure of a pitcher, but not completely meaningless either. When I watched Hofer Greg Maddux announce the CY Young winner today on TV, he made a point to mention that he still considers “Wins” very meaningful. And I’m pretty sure Greg Maddux knows more about pitching than both you and I combined.
If he did say that he needs to be vacated from the HOF. Pitcher wins tell you nothing about whether the team won because of, or in spite of, that pitcher.
I would usually agree with this statement for basically any other stat. But a pitcher win is probably the most team-oriented individual stat in sports, rather than player oriented.
Teams win games. Pitchers limit runs scored by the opposing team. Saying wins mean nothing in describing the effectiveness of a starting pitcher is accurate.
Pitcher “Wins” don’t realistically measure winning a baseball game though. A pitcher that gives up 6 runs in 5 innings, but his team scored 7 runs and wins the game gets the win, but a pitcher who pitches 7 shutout innings but his team scores 0 runs doesn’t earn a win. A reliever who comes in during a tie game, and just so happens to be the last pitcher when the winning run is scored gets a win.
Back in the days of pitchers always going at least 6-7 innings every start regardless of the amount of pitches thrown, runs given up, 3rd time through the order etc., the “win” made more sense, even if at the end of the day it was up to the offense to score runs to get their pitcher the win.
Wins are not irrelevant, they have become less relevant in today’s game but not completely irrelevant.
Prior to this new analytic philosophy where guys only get to go twice through the line up then turn it over to the pen, wins definitely mattered.
Now, the offense has gotten to the point where it’s so hot or cold and everything is analytical to the point where pitchers won’t even qualify for the “win” because he gets pulled too early by over zealous managers.
But with that said, there is something about pitching just well enough to lose (Jose Quintana the entire time he pitched for the Cubs) and being able to grind down and pitch in higher pressure situations.
Lol appeal to authority…. Fallacious and blatantly incorrect take. Wins mean NOTHING. I’m embarrassed for you and everyone who liked this post…. Being a good pitcher doesn’t mean you’re good at analyzing stats….
Pitcher wins never mattered. Not at all.
Strider didn’t belong in the discussion, get over it.
STWIDER HAD 20 WINDSORS
AND HE TRUW THAT PITCH THAT ST ST STWUCK OUT ALL DOS GUYS!!!
Snell had 1.5 runs lower era, and strider had 1.5 more runs per game in run support. If Snell pitched on the braves, he’d have easily won 20 as well.
There’s a reason the voters left Strider out of the top 3
Because the ones that vote are biased media idiots.
Or it’s the fact that Strider just wasn’t on Snell’s level this season. It wasn’t particularly close, and those citing wins have lost the thread. Strider received an insane 6.61 runs of support per 9 innings. Snell received 4.60. Strider rightfully received zero 1st place votes. He’s great, but clearly was not close to being the best this year.
Yeah cause they’re clueless and only look at basic stats
I don’t think Strider should have won it but Snell wasn’t the right decision either. Everyone points to Snells ERA but don’t want to point to his league leading walks. He also lead in Hits per 9. How about Snell’s peripherals? His FIP was 3.44, xFIP was 3.62, SIERRA 4.06. His BABIP against the rest of the MLB was.256 which is way below league average.
Logan Webb was the better choice.
The pitcher’s only job is to pitch as many innings as possible while allowing as few runs as possible. It should have been Snell and it should have been unanimous.
There is no “the” MLB btdubs.
If someone wins the lotto, is that because that person demonstrated skill in asking for a specific lotto ticket and then demonstrated skill in which boxes they scratched or what numbers they selected? Web was the right choice. He did more to prevent runs than Snell did.
Then why was his ERA higher? LOL
Because his BABIP against is much lower..oh and um..LOL, I guess.
Yes. Because a pitcher can’t possibly learn to induce weak contact. He has no say in BABIP against.
He does have say in BABIP Against. You even mentioned it yourself. Harder contact gets through defenses and are recorded as hits. Snell did lead the league in Hits per 9. Hell, his strand rate was the 7th best in major league history since 1901. Also, the Padres had the 5th best DRS in the majors. Keep telling me about how good fortune had nothing to do with Snells run prevention.
fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?pos=all&st…
Over the course of a full season fortune all averages out.
At the end of the day, the Cy Young is based on what happened, not what predictor stats like FIP, xFIP, GBkwERA, xbOFA and weighted jock supporter comfort say should have happened. And what happened is that Snell was the most effective pitcher in the National League in 2023.
Those stats are predictors. They don’t predict what is going to happen. They reveal what already has. You don’t seem to understand what those stats are for.
Fortune does not balance out over one season. That’s one of the reasons you have one hit wonders. Additionally, you saying that does not refute what his peripherals demonstrate. At this point you are just giving me filler responses in an effort to not look as wrong as you do or maybe you’re just trying to get the last word.
Point is Snell was the most effective starter in the National League in 2023.
That’s what happens when you give up twice as many long balls. You realize a home run is a lot worse then a walk.
Your argument doesn’t work.
Snell pitched 180 innings, allowed 15 home runs averaging a home run every 12 innings
Web pitched 216 innings and allowed 20 home runs averaging 10.8 home runs every inning.
That isn’t a huge margin. Snell allowed more hits, more walks, pitched less innings and had better luck with balls in play.
The comments were about Strider and not Webb.
Ah. Okay then. I will just go ahead and exit stage this way. =}
Webb averaged 10.8 home runs allowed every inning? No wonder he lost!
I wonder if this is the fewest innings/start of any CY winner
No. Relievers have won it. Mark Davis of SD Padres lore threw 92 2/3 IP when he won it in 1989. Not the lowest, just an example.
I laugh at all of you guys commenting on how deep he does or does not go in a game. You do realize that none of the top pitchers in the league, including the others who were up against him, pitched any more than one full inning more than he did. I believe Webb was the furthest ahead of him at 2/3 of an inning more, so basically only 2 outs more per game.
A guy walks 5 hitters a game and only throws 180 IP in 32 starts, and that’s a Cy Young these days. Man I got old and crusty.
ERA reigns supreme
The ERA on the extra innings pitched by Webb over Snell was 8.25. That’s not valuable. Every team’s bullpen had a lower ERA than that. And Gallen’s was even worse. It should have been Snell and it should have been unanimous.
How do you calculate the ERA on the “extra” innings pitched? Do you just grab an arbitrary number of innings that Webb pitched above Snell and then find the ERA during that time period?
9 * (Earned runs allowed by Webb – earned runs allowed by Snell) all divided by (innings pitched by Webb – innings pitched by Snell)
And we know Won-Lost records aren’t as meaningful anymore, but given that Webb got THE LOWEST RUN SUPPORT of any Major league pitcher [3.09 in 33 starts; next was Carlos Rondon 3.07 but in only 14 starts], he could easily—and I watched those games—have been 18-8.
Glad the voters picked him at least as the runner up. With more wins and his great WHIP [1.074] and the most innings pitched of any Major Leaguer, thre guy is a stud.
Pitcher wins and losses don’t matter in any context.
LOL You aren’t a data scientist are you? I hope not.
You are assuming a constant rate of earned runs over additional innings pitched. This isn’t a method to extract a meaningful understanding of the additional value contributed by Webb’s extra 36 innings pitched. That’s 4 complete games worth of starts, 6 extra 6 innings pitched, or more liked 20+ times that Webb pitched an extra 1-3 innings per game.
It’s how much extra slack the Padres’ bullpen had to pick up for the innings Webb pitched that Snell didn’t pitch and how good they had to be in those innings. Every team’s bullpen can pitch 36 innings with ERA’s under 8.25.
After his first nine starts he completely dominated. He had three months with an ERA just over half a run.
Yeah that is pretty darn dominant
But those 9 starts still count??? ♂️
“Count” for what??
Who cares about his stats when you exclude 9 starts….
I think they were just pointing out a lengthy stretch of extreme dominance over the course of the season. He did win the CY afterall..Twice now.
Again… who cares about a stretch of games…. It’s an award for the whole season…. Dude you gotta log off your comments are just way too low IQ
Seriously u OK? I honestly feel bad but I know you are a young pup just looking for attention. But yeah Snell was insanely dominant for a nice stretch. That is how it works…And he won the CY…Fresh air will help you a lot my friend seriously.
1.32 ERA after mid-May
But..but…The guy arguing with me said that didn’t matter??? That only the “whole season” should be considered hahaha Whatever that means…
Had him on my fantasy team and traded him away in May as he never could get a win w/ SD’s poor bullpen. I may have given up on him too soon, but the guy I traded him to, also dropped him. Guess it shows that fantasy league value has no bearings on this vote for Cy Young as I don’t believe Snell is worthy (but wtf do I know )
Snell should just not pitch April – mid-May. He’s terrible every early season, then CY after May
That sounds like a thin league. I used to be pretty hardcore into fantasy sports and I didn’t realize until I quit how much it sucked the joy out of sports as a spectator.
His price just went up.
Lol no GM is basing salary off awards. This comment section is insane
Snell’s agent just smiled like the grinch
Alex Grinch? ‘cause he’s not smiling today.
7th pitcher to win the CY in both leagues…Gaylord Perry, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens, Roy Halladay and Max Scherzer are the others…That is quite a group to be part of!
Snell is nowhere near the pitcher of any of those guys.
Your statement says a lot more about the state of modern pitching than anything else. The days of dominant starting pitching are long gone.
Lol As I said, heck of a group to be a part of.. one way or another..
You make me wanna pop in my “Nolan Ryan Feel The Heat” VHS!! That is prime stuff in case anyone here has never seen it.
Congrats to Logan Webb for the CYA-2 finish. Pretty impressive. He should win a Cy Young at least once in his career. In lots of ways he was the most valuable pitcher in the NL this year, just didn’t have the wins and ERA to lock it down. Absolute workhorse though.
Voters finally seem to be moving away from using wins as a factor but Snell was simply better than Webb this year. He keeps it up and he’ll win it eventually.
Yes. Nice surprise, but well deserved recognition. The way a largely unheralded, 26yo Webb has stepped up into the Boss role has been impressive.
NATIONAL LEAGUE RESULTS
Sandy Alcantara, MIA: 30 (first-place votes) – 210 points
Max Fried, ATL: 10 (2nd), 7 (3rd), 5 (4th), 1 (5th) – 72 points
Julio Urías, LAD: 7 (2nd), 9 (3rd), 5 (4th), 1 (5th) – 66 points
Aaron Nola, PHI: 5 (2nd), 6 (3rd), 4 (4th), 2 (5th) – 48 points
Zac Gallen, ARI: 3 (2nd), 5 (3rd), 6 (4th), 6 (5th) – 45 points
Carlos Rodón, SF: 3 (2nd), 1 (3rd), 4 (4th), 7 (5th) – 30 points
Corbin Burnes, MIL: 1 (2nd), 2 (3rd), 1 (4th), 8 (5th) – 20 points
Yu Darvish, SD: 3 (4th), 1 (5th) – 7 points
Edwin Díaz, NYM: 1 (2nd), 2 (5th) – 6 points
Kyle Wright, ATL: 1 (4th), 1 (5th) – 3 points
Logan Webb, SF: 1 (4th) – 2 points
Ryan Helsley, STL: 1 (5th) – 1 point
AMERICAN LEAGUE RESULTS
Justin Verlander, HOU: 30 (first-place votes) – 210 points
Dylan Cease, CWS: 14 (2nd), 10 (3rd), 5 (4th), 1 (5th) – 97 points
Alek Manoah, TOR: 7 (2nd), 13 (3rd), 10 (4th) – 87 points
Shohei Ohtani, LAA: 9 (2nd), 7 (3rd), 12 (4th), 1 (5th) – 82 points
Framber Valdez, HOU: 1 (4th), 12 (5th) – 14 points
Shane McClanahan, TB: 1 (4th), 8 (5th) – 10 points
Shane Bieber, CLE: 1 (4th), 3 (5th) – 5 points
Nestor Cortes, NYY: 3 (5th) – 3 points
Gerrit Cole, NYY: 1 (5th) – 1 point
Kevin Gausman, TOR: 1 (5th) – 1 point
This last year bro
thanks
Hey dude! Did you know the Earth is round!? Crazy stuff!
Julio Urias wife beatered his wife and nearly won. Huh. Married men, take note.
You been in a long sleep?
Urias got votes? Lol The nerve of some people..
Evaluating the pitcher on what they can control, based on FIP and kwERA, Strider was robbed of the CY this year.
Snell’s bOFA was much better tho!
Lol….. Ok, move along. Snell 1.5 runs less era, Strider 1.5 more run support. That’s a 3 run swing. Snell wins 20+ games easily on the Braves.
His peripherals, BABIP against demonstrates Snell was the recipient of some good fortune. I mean he lead the league in walks. He also head in Hits per 9. If he could have made it into the 6th inning a little more frequently than maybe he WOULD have lead in Hits allowed. The correct choice was Logan Web.
@VermonsterSD
When it comes to representative indicators for pitcher performance, Earned Run Average (ERA) is often mentioned. However, ERA is influenced by fielders’ defense, so the concept of Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) emerged, evaluating pitchers based on three items not involving fielders: home runs allowed, walks, and strikeouts. Although it may seem limited to assess pitchers with just these three items, FIP is said to explain 70% of a pitcher’s runs allowed.
When it comes to team defense, Fangraphs ranks SDP 7th overall and ATL 22nd overall.
Snell’s FIP sits at 3.44, meaning his defense helped him lower that ERA. Strider on the other hand had a FIP of 2.85, meaning he pitched better than his ERA suggests due to a weaker defense.
Now, what I prefer to use to evaluate pitchers is GBkwERA that takes into consideration the groundballs that often result in outs.
GBkwERA = kwERA*(-3.518 * GB％^2+2.344*GB％+.629)
For Snell, his GB% is 43.7% and kwERA is 3.22. Plugging the numbers in he gets a 3.16 GBkwERA which is quite good.
For Strider, his GB% (34.7%) is quite lower to Snell, and kwERA (1.89). Plugging the numbers in he gets a 2.45 GBkwERA.
For me, it’s clear who should have won the 2023 CY Young Award in the National League but I understand that sports writers still like that old, unreliable ERA that they’ve relied on for decades.
Still Snell 🙂
Great analysis. Strider robbed, voters and fans stuck in 1985
“sTiLl sNeLl”
If they were stuck in 1985 Strider won have won because “MuH wIn StAt !”
@thelegendaryharambe
Do you honestly believe ERA is the best evaluator of a pitcher?
The Cy Young is about what happened, not about what theoretically *should* have happened. It is the best evaluator of what happened. I’m not sure Snell can sustain that kind of ERA in 2024 with all the walks but I’d like to see him try.
Well deserved. Now he gets paid
Congrats, Gwynning!
7/$210m for Snell’s age 31 to 37 seasons? With just 2 seasons where he pitched more than 129 innings?
Whoever perpetrates this contract deserves what they get.
JackStrawb — Yeah, that’s a lot of dough. I think he’ll get less years and money. But he’ll do alright.
I’m a huge proponent of him winning the Cy Young this year, but not even remotely a fan of signing him. Only great years were his 2 contract years.
This guy has had one of the oddest careers, congrats to him though. Couldn’t have come at a better time probably went from accepting a qualified offer at the beginning of the season to $200 million.
I’m calling conspiracy. Manfred hates the Padres spending but gifts Snell the CY just in time for FA. Now we gotta pay more! Yooooo cracking the enigma ova’ here…
Just got my bet in for Soto for ’24 NL MVP. Let’s go my Man, Fred!
Does anyone else here think of “Snails” everytime they hear “Snell?”
Congrats to him. I find it an oddity that he has more Cy young’s than All star selections.
RIP Roy Halladay. That still has me stunned.
Don’t fly a plane while high. Good thing he didn’t take someone else with him like Oscar Taveras or Jose Fernandez.
“Snell’s voting wasn’t quite unanimous but he got 28 of the 30 first-place votes.” Since when is 28 of 30 first place votes not “unanimous?”
Uh when it’s not 30 ?
Well two people thought somebody else was more deserving, and voted for somebody other than Snell, so it wasn’t unanimous by any use of the term. It wasn’t close though, and that seems right.
Congratulations to Blake Snell on winning the Cy Young Award.
This award is given by Baseball Writers. It will always go to the best story. Historically the default narrative was about wins, but the modern default is run prevention. Blake Snell having the lowest ERA in the National League while giving up the most walks is easily the best story of 2023. This won him the Cy Young Award this year by a clear margin.
Does this make him the best pitcher in the National League this year? It depends on how you want to measure or acknowledge what is the best.
Sandy Alcantara was the story of the National League last year. He was very inconsistant this year, but still managed 3 complete games and another 8 starts of 7 innings or more before his injury stopped him. (That is an inning per start more than Snell) The Marlins are a team of very little offense which means they win very few games by a large margin, so by giving the bullpen 3 complete days off and several more “easy days” a case could still be made for him doing more than any other pitcher in the Majors to get his team into the post season.
The point I’m making is, it’s great that Snell won the NL Cy Young, but that doesn’t stop any of us from having a different favourite story of the season
Padres won’t be able to afford Snell after this. I think he will be moving up the 5 to Dodger Stadium for his home games.
Congrats to Snell, certainly a rough season and start to the off season for Pads fans. And let’s quit it with the “20 game winner should have won it” nonsense, folks. Yes Strider was dominant but let’s not forget the nightmare 2005 AL Cy voting. Snell deserves it. Grats Pads fans.
Padre fans will still get to see Snell often when he pitches for the Giants. CYA is only gonna make him more expensive, but SF has the cheese to get it done. Plus, Snell will get to play for Melvin again. Dunno. I guess that’s a good thing.
Congrats Snellzilla! Now go get your payday. In the AL…
How many multiple Cy Young winners are not in the Hall of Fame (or certain to be) aside from asterisk cases like Clemens?
Looks like Lincecum, Santana, Saberhagen, and McLain. More than I thought, and Santana is certainly fringe HoF. Oh, and DeGrom is on there too.
I guess a over 3.60.era is great nowadays probably get you 200 million too. And all the walks might get you 250 million Greg Maddox is like I coming back
A pitcher should have to have an ERA under 3.5 to even be eligible for the Cy Young ballot.
The Strider arguments here are funny