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New York Mets: Jacob deGrom’s case for the NL Cy Young Award

By David Burton

NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 03: Jacob deGrom #48 of the New York Mets looks on in the fifth inning against the Atlanta Braves at Citi Field on August 3, 2018 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 03: Jacob deGrom #48 of the New York Mets looks on in the fifth inning against the Atlanta Braves at Citi Field on August 3, 2018 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images) /
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WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 16: Max  Scherzer #31 of the Washington Nationals and the National League and Jacob  deGrom #48 of the New York Mets and the National League stand in the outfield during Gatorade All-Star Workout Day at Nationals Park on July 16, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 16: Max  Scherzer #31 of the Washington Nationals and the National League and Jacob  deGrom #48 of the New York Mets and the National League stand in the outfield during Gatorade All-Star Workout Day at Nationals Park on July 16, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images) /

Chicks Dig the Long Ball (And the Strikeout)

Aside from his wins, another thing that Max Scherzer supporters brag about are his strikeout numbers, which admittedly are as impressive as they are important.

For clarification, strikeouts are such an important baseball statistic because they, although this may seem obvious, are the only guaranteed way to retire a batter.  Strikeouts can eliminate the chance of, for example, a ground ball finding a hole or a player making an error on a fly ball.

While Scherzer’s strikeout numbers are ridiculously good, Jacob deGrom’s are quite superb as well.

However, I will argue that an equally relevant statistic to the strikeout is home runs allowed, as the HR is the only guaranteed way to score a run.

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While Scherzer averages 12.1 K/9, good for first in NL,  deGrom’s 11.04 is fourth in the NL.

Scherzer also allows 0.91 HR/9 which is an unimpressive 11th in the NL. 

Jacob deGrom, on the other hand, allows 0.45 HR/9 which is second best.

Jacob deGrom, while striking out one less batter per nine innings, allows more than half the amount of home runs as Max Scherzer. If you were an MLB pitcher, would you rather strike out one less batter per game or give up twice as many HRs?

The easy choice here is wanting to have deGrom’s stats.

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