Junius Worth
David Kerr
Charlie Nehl
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Andrew Martin
Jonathan C. Mitchell
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Daniel Marino
Michael Schwartze
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Spencer Schneier
William J. Tasker
The National League Walter Johnson Award, given to the top pitcher in each league, may very well be the closest race of any of the major awards. There are three candidates that each have legitimate cases and nearly equal stats across the board with each one owning first place in a variety of categories.
The casting of the down ballot pitchers is not much easier with at least five pitchers worthy of the final two spots on a ballot of five. But this is more about who I will be placing first among the three top candidates. Here are their stats side-by-side with league ranks in parenthesis:
| ERA | FIP | xFIP | ERA+ | IP | K/9 | BB/9 | HR/9 | CG | SHO | K | fWAR | rWAR | |
| Player A | 2.35 (2) | 2.20 (1) | 2.71 (3) | 164 (1) | 233.2 (2) | 8.47 (11) | 1.35 (1) | 0.39 (1) | 8 (1) | 1 (6) | 220 (3) | 8.2 (1) | 7.4 (1) |
| Player B | 2.28 (1) | 2.47 (2) | 2.84 (4) | 163 (2) | 233.1 (3) | 9.57 (2) | 2.08 (12) | 0.58 (5) | 5 (3) | 2 (2) | 248 (1) | 6.8 (2) | 6.9 (2) |
| Player C | 2.40 (3) | 2.60 (3) | 2.68 (2) | 161 (3) | 232.2 (4) | 9.21 (4) | 1.62 (2) | 0.70 (16) | 6 (2) | 6 (1) | 238 (2) | 6.7 (3) | 6.8 (3) |
1. Roy Halladay (PHI) – Halladay was player A and my top pick for the Walter Johnson award but you can see how close it really was. Hallday also led the league in K/BB and had the highes WPA among these candidates.
2. Clayton Kershaw (LAD) – Player B led the league in ERA and strikeouts but it was not enough to overcome what Halladay did but it was darned close.
3. Cliff Lee (PHI) – Six shutouts and finishing a close in each category but usually just behind both Halladay and Kershaw. Man, this was close.
4. Cole Hamels (PHI) – He was just ahead of Kennedy in most categories. He posted a 2.79 ERA, 3.05 FIP, and 3.02 xFIP in 216 innings. Add to that an 8.08 K/9, 1.83 BB/9, a 4.9 fWAR and 5.4 rWAR.
5. Ian Kennedy (ARI) – Like I said above, this was close. He posted a 2.88 ERA, 3.22 FIP, and 3.50 xFIP in 222 innings. Each stat is so close to Hamels. He was also close with an 8.03 K/9 and actually led Hamels with a 5.0 fWAR and 5.5 rWAR. I told you this was a close race.
Just missed (in order) – Madison Bumgarner (SF), Tim Lincecum (SF), Matt Cain (SF)
-Jonathan C. Mitchell can be found writing about the Tampa Bay Rays at DRaysBay and you can follow him on twitter at @FigureFilbert and follow MLBdirt at @MLBdirt
Filed under: Digging Deep - Analysis Tagged: | BBA, Clayton Kershaw, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, Cy Young Award, Ian Kennedy, Madison Bumgarner, Roy Halladay, Tim Lincecum, Walter Johnson, Walter Johnson Award
[...] Walter Johnson Award – National League [...]
[...] Walter Johnson Award – National League [...]