The MLB CY Young award is given out to the best pitcher from each league at the end of every regular season. Each month, TGH will release their top 3 pitchers in the American League in the Cy Young race, including a prediction of who will win the award. This is the MLB AL Cy Young Rankings for the month of June.
W-L Record: 8-0
ERA: 1.97
Innings Pitched: 64.0
WHIP: 1.13
Strikeouts: 75
WAR: 2.3
It is hard to find the words to accurately describe how Shane McClanahan has pitched this year. Dominant, consistent, and ridiculous are three words that come to mind. McClanahan has thrown to a sub 2.00 ERA where he has made 11 starts, registering eight wins, three no contests, and zero losses.
An interesting tidbit on McClanahan has been his changeup and its usage. It grades out as one of the best pitches in all of baseball, allowing a batting average of .164 and a slugging percentage of .209. It becomes interesting when you look at the usage. It’s common for a pitcher to mainly stick to throwing their changeup to the batter of the opposite hand, but McClanahan has only thrown his to righties. He’s thrown 238 changeups, every single one to a right-handed batter.
W-L Record: 6-1
ERA: 2.91
Innings Pitched: 65.0
WHIP: 0.90
Strikeouts: 90
WAR: 1.7
Shohei Ohtani has continued to impress on the mound as well as at the plate. He currently only allows around 4 hits per 9 innings as well as a WHIP well below 1, which is incredible for any starting pitcher. He has mainly been hurt by the long ball, allowing a large majority of his runs on the home run.
Ohtani has five games this season in which he went at least 6 innings and allowed 1 run or less. He will absolutely improve as the season goes on. His WHIP is a good indicator that his ERA will continue to improve, just moving closer and closer to a 2.50 and then towards a 2.0. Ohtani has an outside shot at winning MVP and Cy Young in the same season.
W-L Record: 5-0
ERA: 2.53
Innings Pitched: 67.66
WHIP: 1.14
Strikeouts: 70
WAR: 2.5
Gerrit Cole has allowed 11 of his 20 runs in two appearances. Now, you cannot get rid of a players bad games, but these two appearances from Cole appear to be fluke games, which have skewed his statistics a bit. With that being said, Cole has thrown 51 innings besides those two games and has only allowed 9 earned runs in those games.
Overall, on the season, Cole has been incredible. He has been the constant that has held down the Yankees rotation and kept them above water as they have struggled a bit. His fastball still plays as one of the best in the league and his slider has been good so far. He will need to improve his curveball (.300+ BAA) if he wants to make a real push at securing this award.
Shane McClanahan has been outright ridiculous. In his 11 starts, the Rays have won 10 of those games with the one loss coming to the Yankees on May 13th. McClanahan didn’t receive the loss in this game though. That was the only game in which McClanahan allowed over 2 runs and the only game in which he allowed more hits than innings pitched. This dominance will continue, and Shane McClanahan will bring home the Cy Young award.
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