It’s looking increasingly likely that Blake Snell (31, San Diego Padres) will win the Cy Young Award for his rollercoaster pitching performance.
Through April 4, Snell has pitched 155 innings in 28 games this season, posting a 12-9 record and a 2.50 ERA. He has 201 strikeouts.
With 155 innings pitched and just seven innings remaining in regulation, Snell has surpassed 200 strikeouts.
If Snell keeps up his current pace, many predict that he will win his second Cy Young Award in five years, after winning in 2018.
However, many analysts believe that Snell has been extremely lucky. He leads all major league pitchers in strikeouts with 89.
In fact, Snell hasn’t given up a run in a clutch situation despite walking a lot of batters. On March 3 against the San Francisco Giants, he struck out four batters in six innings.
Snell has a whopping 86.3% groundball rate. That’s up nearly 12% from last year’s 74.7%. In 2018, the year he won the Cy Young Award, his rate was 88%.
Snell’s low walk rate and high strikeout rate are a testament to his ability to limit the amount of runs he gives up on walks – just 6.1 per nine innings.메이저사이트
The 2023 season is just over a month away. It will be interesting to see if Snell can continue to utilize his low walk rate and high strikeout rate as weapons in his quest for his second Cy Young Award.
If Snell wins the National League Cy Young Award this season, it will be the seventh bi-league award in Major League Baseball history.