The 5 Best (and 3 Worst) Cy Young Seasons

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We are living through unprecedented times as baseball fans. With technology that is able to track every component of the game, we are able to quantify exactly what makes our favorite players so good. I have often wanted to compare the elite head to head in order to see eho comes out on top. So in today's video, I used those under the hood numbers in order to sort Cy Young award winners from best to worst.

Comment a season you'd like to see compared to these ones

Music:
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Rage Racer OST - Silver Stream
Johtarot - Cherub Rock (Smashing Pumpkins lofi Cover)
Rage Racer Type 4 OST - Lucid Rythyms
A Tr*be C*lled Q*est - A*ard To*r (Instrumental pitched down)
N*ne *nch Na*ls - The H*nd T*at Fee*s (Instrumetal pitched down)
Ling Rise OST - BGM
ChrisLody - Cassette Master
FinnaDrift - Rhodes Less Traveled
AKAIA MUSIC - Where is My Mind (Pixies lofi Cover)
Mr. alleneous - ooi (I love you Hubert)
Zanac X Zanac OST - Score Ranking

All data sourced from Baseball Reference, Fangraphs, or Baseball Savant

Time Stamps
Intro 0:00
Metrics 1:25
#5 - 3:55
#4 - 8:58
#3 - 11:38
#2 - 15:14
3rd Worst - 17:44
2nd Worst* - 20:01
Rick Porcello - 22:25
#1 - 24:15

#baseball #postseason #seatgeekcodenomorefielders10

[bmac]

I think the bit about Alcantara really just demonstrates the point that peripheral stats are more of a fascination and a tiebreaker. Logan Webb's 2023 would look probably pretty poor compared to Snell's but he had excellent control and just ate up innings because he challenged batters and usually won. The two had comparable production by WAR metrics. (Even as a Giants fan I think Snell was right to win the award irrespective of where he plays for now or then, but the discrepancy in production was smaller than their discrepancy in peripherals).

[rashiroselin]

I wonder where some of the pitchers who didn't win a Cy Young award would place.

[CT--eovv]

I understand the value of statcast stats, but i miss the baseball i grew up with 200 IP Pitchers and .300 avg weren't so rare. Also the injuries

[rcouch]

This better be a video about Fortnite.

[smoceany]

explaining why you picked what you picked is the best part tho, who can hate that

[Just_Lionz]

Sucks that the 2010 and 2014 cy young races are just out of the statcast era. Felix was utterly dominant and most definitely deserved it in 2014 and was robbed against Kluber.

[backsgl]

Oh yeah, the xwobacons. I think Optimus Prime had a cool brawl with them in one of the newer TV shows.

[kevinandrewsphoto]

Shocked Kershaw’s 2014 didn’t make the list. Still to this day felt like the greatest season a pitcher ever had that I can remember. And I’m a Giants fan. But he started the season injured, missed 5-6 starts. And still won Cy Young AND MVP. 1.77 ERA / 1.81 FIP. His best season imo

[mauricealexander]

No More Fielders, at 24:55 in the video on the list it said Gerrit Cole threw a sinker in 2021, I was there that entire year I don't remember him throwing a single sinker. In Houston he abandoned the sinker for just the 4-seamers.

[briankeller]

I’m from Cleveland and when Kluber first started throwing at a cry young level it just never felt like he was a superstar level pitcher. It felt like at any moment it could all unravel but as long as he was in Cleveland it was mostly magic

[BB-mwdq]

I wonder if we’ll see more pitchers take the Alcantara approach. I would argue that he’s more valuable as someone who tries to get quick outs and go deep into games than a Blake Snell type. I’m much more of an old school guy so I’m biased towards that

[jacrispymcrib]

First they came for the pitcher W\L, and I did not speak out -
Because I thought it was outdated

Then they came for the uncontextualized stats, and I did not speak out -
Because I thought context was important

Then they started including "under the hood" numbers, and I did not speak out -
Because I thought they deserved a place in the conversation

Then they came for the results on the field, in favor of expected numbers
And there was no one left
To speak out for me


I spoke out. I disliked the video

[BensPitchingClips]

I think Buehler shouldve won vs Burnes or Wheeler.. He had a better ERA+ (by one point), and threw 40 more innings then Burnes.. Wheeler was great, but he had a 150 ERA+ (vs Walkers 171) and only threw 6 more innings. Wheeler had a 2.78 ERA all in all, vs Walker's 2.47, This means Buehler wouldve had to throw 6 innings and 9 earned runs, to have the same ERA, in the same amount of innings as wheeler.

[Diecastclassicist]

The most dominant pitching I’ve ever seen was Pedro Martinez getting 17 Ks against the Yankees. It was an unreal performance. Prime Pedro was the GOAT. But I want to hear you talk about Jesse Orosco.

[karneshwarj]

Bro You can't blame Degrom, if he's not getting enough run support . 2018 Mets's Offense was so bad . If he's team scored atleast 5 runs then I don't think he would have had any losses in his W-L record.

[InessentialMotionPictures]

Great video. No notes. Just wanted to drop in and say I really wish we had statcast data on Cliff Lee’s 2008 Cy Young campaign. 😢

[EphrimKolias-lhwk]

I have a theory for why degrom was lower than expected.
It's because your model doesn't heavily weight control. Degrom's FB and slider individually don't have exciting movement profiles, although they're thrown very hard. What makes them elite is the insane precision at which he locates them.

[primitive_froot]

I agree that relievers shouldn’t win the Cy Young, but that 2016 Britton season was absolutely insane. His ERA+ was a 803! That’s completely unheard of! I think he shoulda won over Porcello, Verlander, and Kluber, but I can understand choosing Verlander or Kluber over him, but Porcello? Not in a million years.

[sporer_]

Ok I know I’m spam commenting but the only reason JV lost was the clowns who didn’t put him on the ballot, not the ranked choice method

[michaelcornwall]

I was just thinking it was time for no more fielders to upload, big W! Love your videos, as an old school baseball guy some baseball YouTubers can be a lil too buck with the modern stats, but you explain it in an understandable and digestible way.