Thursday’s a slow day, baseball-wise. Only eight games, four in each league.
Cy Young Candidates Abound In Thursday’s Games
But what pitching matchups in the American League!
Leading off, the Mariners-Jays game features Doug Fister and Ricky Romero. Granted, they've combined for 10 wins and 20 losses this season ... but both have 3.18 ERAs and deserve better fates.
They're just a warmup act for the main events, though, as the later three games will include five of the American League's 10 best pitchers, and the league's top three Cy Young candidates: Jered Weaver, CC Sabathia, and Justin Verlander.
In Anaheim this afternoon, Weaver (12-4, 1.90) pitches against All-Star C.J. Wilson (10-3, 3.11).
Tonight in St. Pete, Sabathia (14-4, 2.64) pitches against should-have-been-All-Star James Shields (8-8, 2.60).
And in the American League nightcap, Verlander (12-5, 2.29) pitches against Carl Pavano (adequate) in Minneapolis.
Shields has been really good this season, but he's given up more home runs than the legitimate Cy Young candidates, plus that 8-8 record is going to knock him down the ballot quite a lot. Wilson, like Dan Haren, is having a great season but needs to get his ERA below 3 to be taken seriously.
Which leaves those three guys atop the Cy Young leader board. We’ve seen their records and their ERAs; Weaver obviously has the ERA edge, Sabathia the W’s, and Verlander’s excelled in both categories.
Innings W/9 K/9 HR/9
Weaver 147 2.0 7.5 0.3
Verlander 154 1.9 8.8 0.7
Sabathia 157 2.2 7.9 0.3
Does any of that really help? Verlander’s got the best strikeout-to-walk ratio, but the worst home-runs allowed. Sabathia’s got the most innings, but that could change with one lousy start.
Which is sort of the story here. If Weaver or Verlander or Sabathia pitches a shutout today, he’ll jump to the head of the class. If one of them suffers a Disaster Start -- more runs allowed than innings pitched -- he’ll fall from the list (at least for the moment).
Of course, what’s most likely is that all three will pitch well today, and through the rest of the season. My guess is that we won’t have a particularly obvious Cy Young candidate until the middle of September. At the earliest. This one might go down to the wire.
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