The BBWAA presented the Cy Young Awards of the season 2017 on Wednesday. In the American League, Corey Kluber of the Cleveland Indians won, and Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals won in the National League. Both dominated the competition at will and went similar ways in the season, although they couldn’t be more different.
When Jack O’ Connell, secretary and treasurer of the Baseball Writers Association of America, announced the result of the National League’s Cy-Young election live on the MLB Network, a camera was already pointed at Max Scherzer, winner of the National League, who was called in via satellite. Even during the announcement, the right-handed man raised his arms, shouted “Yes!” and then kissed his joyful wife, who briefly scurried into the picture. That’s what a winner looks like!
When O’ Connell again left the result of the AL election, the reaction was a slightly different one. Corey Kluber sat in front of a green screen depicting Progressive Field, the Indians’ home. When his name came up, you could see the beginning of a smile, that’s all. The spectators saw a cool club that lived up to its nickname “Klubot”. That’s what a winner looks like, too.
Corey Kluber and Max Scherzer are this year’s Cy-Young-Award winners. After outstanding seasons, both of them prevailed over renowned and spectacular competitors. Both dominated their leagues with excellent performances, but they were also hampered by injuries. Both go down in history as the best pitcher of 2017, but they couldn’t be more different.
Pitching is an art that only few people really know. And even if you might think that there could only be one right way to success – because it has been exemplified for years – different approaches are possible and welcome. Kluber and Scherzer embody this very well. One is an emotional pitcher who wears his heart on his sleeve, as the Americans like to say. The other one’s almost a robot, a clubot.
Scherzer has won the award for the third time, and for the second time in succession. Only nine other pitchers in the history of the prize have been able to achieve both of these goals before, and this prize was awarded for the first time in 1956 and has been awarded once for both leagues since 1967.
Of the nine others who have won the award at least three times, seven are in the Hall of Fame – only Roger Clemens is missing from the hall of fame due to doping charges and Clayton Kershaw, who is still active, is missing from the hall of fame.”That’s why I’m drinking a lot of champagne tonight,”Scherzer told ESPN.”This time it’s special. If you talk about winning the award three times… I just can’t quite understand that right now.”
For Kluber, this is the second success after 2014, making him the first Indians pitcher to win the prize several times.
For Scherzer, however, the third Cy Young is only the second most exciting event of the day. His wife is pregnant:”Little Brooke is on her way, so this is an exciting time for us. We are totally thrilled. We even thought that we would be in the hospital today, but we’re glad we’re not,”said Scherzer.
It’s just his way of showing emotions. On the Mound you can often see him moaning when something is not going according to plan. Or an aggressive gesture if an important out is achieved. He also finds sometimes harsh words paired with a certain facial expression when it comes to making it clear to his own manager not to take him off the field now.
The interview with Kluber, on the other hand, was much more sober. His usual monotonous voice let him know:”Winning the second validates the first, if you will,”Kluber was brutally enthusiastic about his circumstances:”I think it’s just another way to find reinsurance for yourself when you go through a tough time. When you’re fighting, when you have to process things, you always want that belief in yourself that you can fall back on.”
Kluber certainly alluded to his injury problems and the weak start to the season, as there was not much going on until his return from DL at the beginning of June. He had a 5.06 ERA and was almost the complete May with back problems out. From June, however, the club’s team was back to full speed: In 23 starts until the end of the season, he held his opponents at a 1.62 ERA and a microscopic slashline of. 175/. 213/. 283!
“I had more to do with physical problems than in the past. And so you learn to deal with these different highs and lows over the course of a year,”said Kluber in the MLB Network.
The club’s name is because it never shows emotions. He doesn’t give a wink, no matter what happens on the pitch. He may have just pitched his sixth shut-out inning or a 3-run homerun – his facial expression will be the same. He does not tend to shake his head after the signals of the catchers, but rather the machine throws what is called for. A cry for an important strikeout? Unthinkable!
He finally won the election with 204 points clearly ahead of the second-placed Chris Sale of the Red Sox, which received 126 points. The result was not unanimous, because two voters chose Sale as number one – a Boston-based media representative and one from Chicago, where Sale played for the White Sox until 2016.
Kluber led the league in ERA (2.25), Complete Games (5), Shutouts (3), ERA+ (202), WHIP (0.87) and Strikeout-to-Walk-Ratio (7.36) and was in the lead with 18 wins. In addition, he also reached 200 innings for the fourth consecutive time.
Injury problems, however, were not unfamiliar to Scherzer. I was behind him all the time,”said Scherzer with hindsight,” I didn’t think I’d start the season in time. And we were all very grateful that we were able to speed up the process and that I could actually start the season on time.”
Scherzer then came through the season relatively healthy and was only knocked out of action by neck problems for a few weeks towards the end. Afterwards he was plagued by calf and thigh problems. In the end he was still at 200 2/3 innings, which may have been the deciding factor for his choice. In comparison, the worst pursuers, Clayton Kershaw and Scherzer’s team mate Stephen Strasburg, only had 175 innings each.
Correspondingly, Scherzer also clearly prevailed with 201 points ahead of Kershaw with his 126 points. Strasburg scored 81 points.
Scherzer is an example of consistency and has been in the top 5 of the CyYoung election every year since 2013, regardless of his league affiliation. This year he came to a 16-6 record with a 2.51 ERA and led the NL with 268 strikes, 0.90 WHIP and 5.7 hits per nine innings. He also served twelve strikeouts per nine innings, which is an outstanding achievement.
One is an eccentric, the other a notoriously hypothermic eccentric. One of them pitching with passion, the other with almost machine precision. Two completely different types. But they have one thing in common: They are masters of the art of pitching and show the broad spectrum of what this means.
This article was published without prior view by the Major League Baseball.