{"id":59478,"date":"2023-07-14T15:00:06","date_gmt":"2023-07-14T19:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=59478"},"modified":"2023-07-14T15:20:58","modified_gmt":"2023-07-14T19:20:58","slug":"2023-al-cy-young","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/07\/14\/2023-al-cy-young\/","title":{"rendered":"2023 AL Cy Young Award Race: Cole Rising, Valdez Picking Up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The 2023 American League Cy Young Award saw Shane McClanahan <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/06\/06\/al-cy-young-race\/\" target=\"_self\">as a favorite<\/a> to run away with it. Now that McClanahan is on the IL, can he get back into the picture when he returns to the mound? Without the left-handed pitcher, the race to become the AL&#8217;s top pitcher is as tight as ever. The second half of the season gets underway tonight as pitchers will continue making a case for the coveted award. Here, we will analyze possible contenders for the AL Cy Young Award.<\/p>\n<p>[metabet_core_side_odds_tile query=&#8221;bbm\/mlb_al_cy_young&#8221; size=&#8221;350&#215;300&#8243; site_id=&#8221;lastwordonsports&#8221;]<\/p>\n<h2>2023 AL Cy Young Award Race: AL Favorites<\/h2>\n<h3><strong>Framber Valdez<\/strong>, Houston Astros<\/h3>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">RHH vs. Framber Valdez\u2019s curveball in 2023<\/p>\n<p>.165\/.230\/.228, .211 wOBA, 39.9% Whiff% <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/iDCT3Z1hUV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/iDCT3Z1hUV<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Astros Stats \ud83d\udcc8 (@astro_numbers) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/astro_numbers\/status\/1677826525234642945?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 8, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Valdez has been on a roll for the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/06\/24\/astros-pitcher-j-p-france\/\" target=\"_self\">Houston Astros<\/a>. With an AL-best 2.51 ERA, Valdez became the Astros&#8217; No. 1 starter. He owns 2.82 FIP entering the second half of the season, all coming from quality starts he&#8217;s put up. What&#8217;s more fascinating is that Valdez has allowed two runs or less in eight of his previous 11 starts, completing six innings in nine. Valdez remains the reason why the Astros have not slipped down the AL West standings. His high level of performance will keep him close to the 2023 AL Cy Young favorites list.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Kevin Gausman<\/strong>, Toronto Blue Jays<\/h3>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Surpassing the mark during his last performance prior the All-Star Break, Kevin Gausman (named to tomorrow&#8217;s game but declining to attend) matched the quickest path to 150 strikeouts in a season on this list of notable pitching names in <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BlueJays?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@BlueJays<\/a> franchise history (1977-present) <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/vXPLHjuZ0c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/vXPLHjuZ0c<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 StatsCentre (@StatsCentre) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/StatsCentre\/status\/1678585333422628864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 11, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/06\/17\/blue-jays-trade-deadline-options\/\" target=\"_self\">Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> starting rotation has been strong this season. A significant reason for their consistency comes from Gausman himself, leading the league in strikeouts with 146. The right-hander&#8217;s 11.90 K\/9 is the highest in the AL, as he leads all qualified starters with a 2.45 FIP and a 4.0 fWAR. His 26.4% strikeout-minus-walk-rate is second among qualified starters, behind only Spencer Strider. From May 10 to June 6, Gausman had a 1.35 ERA in 40 innings. Yet he went 0-2 with the offense scoring no runs in those starts. He has faced 184 more hitters against the best teams compared to Valdez (159), more than McClanahan (129), and more than Shohei Ohtani. He&#8217;s had ten games with one earned run or fewer allowed and seven starts with ten strikeouts or more.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Gerrit Cole<\/strong>, New York Yankees<\/h3>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">SP Leaders &#8211; Last 300 Pitches Thrown<\/p>\n<p>Most Whiffs:<br \/>\nLance Lynn: 66 Whiffs<br \/>\nSpencer Strider: 66 Whiffs<br \/>\nTyler Glasnow: 66 Whiffs<br \/>\nBlake Snell: 59 Whiffs<br \/>\nDylan Cease: 57 Whiffs<br \/>\nAndrew Abbott: 56 Whiffs<br \/>\nTrevor Richards: 55 Whiffs<br \/>\nGerrit Cole: 54 Whiffs<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jon Anderson (@JonPgh) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JonPgh\/status\/1676929549148524546?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 6, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The six-time All-Star is still looking for his first Cy Young award win. Cole owns an 8-2 record, a 2.85 ERA, with a 2.4 fWAR. He hasn&#8217;t allowed more than three runs in a start since May and has done a splendid job of limiting home runs, allowing just three over his past 43 innings. He&#8217;s been a steady force for a Yankees team who have struggled offensively with the absence of Aaron Judge. He&#8217;s thrown more than 90 pitches in 18 of his 19 starts. And in his two losses, he gave up only two runs. Cole can cope with the pressure if he wants to pitch well enough to make a case for his first Cy Young. There&#8217;s no reason to believe he can have a stellar second half. Imagine if the Yankees didn&#8217;t have a .231 batting average, the league&#8217;s third-worst.<\/p>\n<p>Honourable Mentions: Nathan Eovaldi, Shane McClanahan, Shohei Ohtani, Sonny Gray<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n<p>Players mentioned:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mcclash01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-14_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shane McClanahan<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/v\/valdefr01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-14_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Framber Valdez<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gausmke01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-14_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevin Gausman<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/stridsp01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-14_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Spencer Strider<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/o\/ohtansh01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-14_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shohei Ohtani<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/colege01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-14_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gerrit Cole<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/j\/judgeaa01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-14_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aaron Judge<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/e\/eovalna01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-14_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nathan Eovaldi<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/grayso01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-14_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sonny Gray<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2023 American League Cy Young Award saw Shane McClanahan as a favorite to run away with it. Now that McClanahan is on the IL, can he get back into the picture when he returns to the mound? Without the left-handed pitcher, the race to become the AL&#8217;s top pitcher is as tight as ever. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3686,"featured_media":59493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1071],"tags":[2359,611,246,1331,41,36],"class_list":["post-59478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-mlb","tag-framber-valdez","tag-gerrit-cole","tag-houston-astros","tag-kevin-gausman","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-toronto-blue-jays"],"modified_by":"Matt Graves","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3686"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}