In a race that no one was able to predict, Nationals ace Max Scherzer beat out the Cubs duo of Kyle Hendricks and Jon Lester for the 2016 NL Cy Young. And, although no one could predict it this morning, I doubt there’s anyone who is surprised (my heart pulled at me, but, like I said this morning, my vote would have narrowly gone to Scherzer, too).
What *IS* a little surprising, however, is the margin by which Scherzer won. It was not close. At all.
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Scherzer netted 25 of the 30 first place votes. Hendricks received just two, and Lester just one. Clayton Kershaw, who finished fifth overall, got the two others.
Lester ultimately finished second in the voting, with Hendricks third. From there, it was Bumgarner, Kershaw, Cueto, Fernandez, Syndergaard, Arrieta, and Roark. Nice for Arrieta to get another top ten finish after winning the award last year. It was a really tough race this year.
Congrats to Scherzer, even though you can’t take anything away from the fantastic seasons Lester and Hendricks had. Also: you can’t take away their World Series trophy.
For more on the individual seasons and why this was such a close race, you can see my post from earlier this morning.
So, then, the Cubs are 0-2 in major awards so far this week, as Joe Maddon lost out in his race last night. Perhaps Kris Bryant can end the bleeding, so to exaggeratorily speak, tomorrow night in the MVP race.
Real talk: I think the Cy Young and Manager results were fair.
But if this guy doesn't win MVP, I'm burning this place to the ground. pic.twitter.com/R4JLPy0gZI
— Brett Taylor (@BleacherNation) November 16, 2016
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