NL Cy Young Award?

[djson1]

Ok...now that the season is over, what are your thoughts and reasons for who should win the NL Cy Young award? This has to be one of the toughest decisions in recent years as there is no clear winner between Arrieta and Greinke...and some votes will obviously go to Kershaw too.

Usually, I have my personal clear winner, but in all honesty...I can't make up my mind between Jake or Zack?

Below is an excerpt from SFGate:

Arrieta (22-6, 1.77 ERA) threw six scoreless innings in his final regular-season start Friday, and his 0.75 ERA after the All-Star break is the best in history — as is his 0.41 ERA after July. He hasn’t given up a run in his past 402/3 innings at Wrigley Field, where his ERA is 1.97, best by a Cub since Greg Maddux in 1992. His road ERA is 1.60. He no-hit the Dodgers.
How can you not vote for Arrieta?
Greinke (19-3, 1.66 ERA) has the lowest ERA and WHIP (0.844) since Maddux in 1995. Koufax, voted among the four greatest living players in a promotion at the All-Star Game, never had an ERA or WHIP that low. Greinke surrendered two or fewer runs in all but six of his 32 starts and gave up more than three runs twice. His ERA never got as high as 2.00.
How can you not vote for Greinke?
Kershaw (16-7, 2.16 ERA), who makes his last start Sunday, leads the league in innings and strikeouts after leading the league in ERA and WHIP each of the past four years. He has three Cy Young trophies and is the reigning MVP, but he has never struck out this many batters (294), had a better strikeout-per-nine-inning ratio (11.6) or thrown three shutouts (No. 3 was the division clincher over the Giants on Tuesday).

Although Kershaw was awesome in the second half, I would have to exclude him because he wasn't dominating in the first 1/3 of the season. Zack and Jake were consistent all year and the only reason I may give the nod to Zack is because many of his outings were either lost or no-decisions because of the lack of run support. But it's still a tough call.

[sbfinley]

Can't complain with either Greinke or Arrieta, although in Kershaw will likely take a few West Coast votes from Greinke and Arrieta will win it.

[CMIZ5290]

Originally Posted by sbfinley

Can't complain with either Greinke or Arrieta, although in Kershaw will likely take a few West Coast votes from Greinke and Arrieta will win it.

I agree, Arrieta would get my vote. Also, keep in mind, he pitches in Wrigley field! Nobody hardly talks about that...

[HRBAKER]

The pride of Farmington, MO

[chaddurbin]

advanced metrics favor kershaw, traditional stats go to greinke...but the cubs narrative and east coast bias prolly means arrieta winning. i mean no one notices west coast baseball unless kershaw throws a no-hitter or greinke goes 44 straight w/o allowing a run.

[Tabe]

I would go with Greinke. He was consistently elite all year long. Both Kershaw and Arrieta were not as good the first half of the season. But, really, the right answer is a repeat of 1969.