It’s *pretty much* a lock that Boston’s ace Chris Sale will win the AL Cy Young Award for the first time in his seven-year career, with no real competition for the award aside from maybe Corey Kluber, although Sale is painfully obviously more worthy of it.
Every five days, it feels like Sale is out for blood the second he steps foot on the field. He’s must-see television, and I’m not even exaggerating. We know he’s Cy Young-material in his first season with the Red Sox, but would it be a stretch to legitimately put him in the conversation for Most Valuable Player? I certainly don’t think so.
The three current contenders are Mike Trout, who was sidelined about eight weeks with a thumb injury, but don’t get me wrong, he’s once again making history and is having a career season, which is absolutely insane to think about. Then there’s Aaron Judge, for some reason. He had an undoubtedly monster first half, but there’s no award for being great for the first four and a half months. He’s struck out in THIRTY consecutive games. Not my MVP. I’m upset that I even had to put his name and “MVP” in the same paragraph. Lastly, there’s Jose Altuve, whom, if the season ended today, would most likely take home the American League MVP hardware, and is batting above .400 since the end of May.
Unfortunately, Chris Sale isn’t getting even an ounce of national attention compared to those three names I previously listed. Judge’s batting practice home runs are getting more stardom, for crying out loud. I’m looking at you, ESPN. Outside of New England, Sale is getting little to no recognition, despite him drawing local comparisons to Pedro freaking Martinez, and rightfully so.
Why should Sale be a legitimate MVP candidate? First off, he leads the American League in WAR at 7.4, which is .9 points higher than his closest challenger, Jose Altuve. Most BBWAA folks, when submitting their MVP ballot, will look at who has the highest WAR and go from there. Wins Above Replacement is one of the most popular statistics in sports, and for good reason. It’s a simple yet effective measurement of one’s value to their team.
At the same time, though, these writers will argue here that Sale only takes the mound every five days as compared to a Jose Altuve, who plays the field every day. Fair, but look at it this way. Sale controls an entire game nearly single-handedly. With every pitch he throws, about 100-plus each appearance, that’s a whole lot of stock going towards a whole lot of value. This is compared to a Jose Altuve, he who gets maybe a few ground balls in his direction along with 4 at-bats each game. That’s how I look at it, at least, and I find it to be logical.
To add on to my argument, the Red Sox are 18-6 when Sale starts, and he himself currently owns a 14-4 record. The Red Sox are 48-44 in non-Sale starts; they’ve hovered around .500 in that category for nearly the entire season. That alone speaks volumes to his value and the way Boston’s season has played out. This ballclub simply isn’t in first place without Chris Sale. That begs the question, are the Astros still more than comfortably in first place without Altuve? Who knows.
Sale’s 14-4 record could be better if he had received more run support earlier in the season. His four losses came on April 10 in Detroit, a 2-1 loss; April 27 against the Yankees, a 3-0 loss; May 19 in Oakland, a 3-2 loss; and June 15 in Philadelphia, a 1-0 loss in which Sale had Boston’s only extra-base hit. It is what it is, but he didn’t deserve any of those four losses when you really look at it, further showing that Sale should be taken seriously in a national manner.
Because Chris Sale stats are such a joy to look at, why not rattle some off right now to further his MVP case?
I don’t care whether you think a pitcher should win MVP or not; these numbers are mind-blowing in every sense of the word. For starters, Sale averages 7 innings and 10 strikeouts each start. Each. Start. Sale has struck out at least 10 hapless batters in 16 out of his 24 starts, and did so in eight straight starts earlier this year. He currently owns a 12.9 strikeouts per 9 innings, good for the third highest rate of all-time (Randy Johnson in 2001, 13.41 and Pedro Martinez in 1999, 13.20).
To show just how good Sale has been this year compared to past seasons, he has allowed more than four runs in a single start just twice this year in 24 starts. In each of his past two seasons, he had seven starts in which he allowed more than four runs. Only two times this year has Sale failed to finish 6 innings and has made 17 starts where he’s went 7 full. I think that might be good, or something. Dare I say, MVP-worthy?
Sale leads all of baseball in strikeouts with 241, which means that he is on pace to become the first AL pitcher to hit the 300 strikeout mark since Pedro last did it 18 years ago. Sale’s name has been tied to Pedro’s many a time this 2017 season, and the comps are accurate. Whether you’re enjoying Sunday Night Baseball watching him completely demolish Yankee batters on their home turf or you’re studying both of their Baseball Reference pages, there’s no doubt that they’re eerily similar. Each time I watch him, I always tell myself that this is just like Pedro all over again. You can just feel it.
These comps are a bit scary in this particular MVP conversation because you may recall that Pedro probably should have won MVP in 1999 but didn’t, mainly because he was a pitcher and not a traditional position player. It feels like that’s the road we’re going down with Sale this year, unfortunately, but there are reasons why we can still hold out hope that the old farts who make up the BBWAA will at least partially change their minds this time around. I say this because in recent years, these writers have softened up a bit to the idea that pitchers can receive MVP votes and are actually allowed to win the award.
Most recently, Clayton Kershaw took home the award in the National League back in 2014, and Justin Verlander did so for the American League in 2011. Kershaw led both leagues in WAR while Verlander had the second-best WAR. Verlander also led baseball in wins, strikeouts and ERA that season. Five pitchers ended up placing in the top 10 in MVP voting in 2015 between the AL and NL, which was the same number that made up the top 10 from 2006 to 2010. Plus, at least one pitcher has reached the top 10 in at least one league since 2010. The tables have recently begun to turn as more and more starting pitchers are getting more votes than relievers. In the past, it was the opposite for quite some time.
By September 3rd the Red Sox will have faced the Yankees a total of ten times, and manager John Farrell purposely slated Sale to get a start in each of the three series, for good reason. Sale gives the team their very best chance to win every time he takes the mound, and right now more than ever, every game counts, especially against a division rival, no matter how big the lead may be in the standings. Sale continues to prove time and time again that he’s Boston’s ace and has the ability to shut the Yankees down in any situation. If Sale does what he did to New York this past Sunday night again in his next two starts versus them, it will only bolster his case for MVP.
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