{"id":815,"date":"2020-08-05T15:41:44","date_gmt":"2020-08-05T15:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.houzzofballerzz.com\/?p=815"},"modified":"2020-08-05T18:29:01","modified_gmt":"2020-08-05T18:29:01","slug":"why-there-should-be-a-cy-young-for-relievers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.houzzofballerzz.com\/?p=815","title":{"rendered":"Why there should be a Cy Young for relievers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Keep in mind that this article was written on July 15th, not August 5th.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disclaimer: This article is inspired by MLB.com\u2019s article \u201cA Cy of relief? These 9 could win the award\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the starting pitcher gets tired, for example the 8th or 9th innings, who does the manager call on to seal the deal? That person is called a relief pitcher. This position could be, arguably, the most overlooked position in baseball. Let me tell you why. In order to be a successful relief pitcher in baseball, you have to be cool, calm and collected on the mound. Additionally (if there would be fans in the stands), the fans will be rowdy and at the edge of their seat just begging you to get a clutch out in a tough situation. I know for a fact that I wouldn\u2019t be able to deal with that type of noise and still be confident enough to throw good pitches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because these pitchers are placed under really tough circumstances in most of their outings, they should get praised for it. Some people could argue that there already is a Cy Young for relievers. It\u2019s called the Reliever of the Year, one for the American League and one for the National League. But, with all due respect to the winners, it\u2019s boring and it\u2019s not as hyped up as say, THE ACTUAL CY YOUNG AWARD! Over the course of the award\u2019s history, 9 out of 116 winners have been relief pitchers. That\u2019s about 8%! Some notable relievers to win are Rollie Fingers, Dennis Eckersely, Eric Gagne and Sparky Lyle. Of those four that I mentioned, they have a combined 1.58 ERA and 40 saves. Additionally, Edwin Diaz\u2019s famous 2018 season in Seattle with a whopping 57 saves and a 1.96 ERA didn\u2019t even have him close to cracking the top 3 finalists for the award, in which he finished 8th! The writers (the people who vote for the Cy Young award) seem to be strict when it comes to voting a reliever as the winner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Usually, about a month after the World Series is over, awards season approaches. MLB Network and The Baseball Writers Association of America announces four awards over the course of four days. Those awards are the Rookie of the Year, Manager of the Year, Cy Young, and of course the MVP. Across the baseball landscape, people get super excited and start to make predictions of who will win each award based on the 3 finalists that get announced. I always thought that they just left that fifth day empty with no awards to announce. If the writers decide to put the Reliever of the Year (or some modified version) into that empty spot in the week, it will give reliever\u2019s just as much hype as position players and starters do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, the next time you see guys like Josh Hader, Aroldis Chapman, or Kirby Yates on the bump in a clutch situation, give them some praise for what they do. They need it because they absolutely deserve it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources: mlb.com, baseball-reference.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Keep in mind that this article was written on July 15th, not August 5th. Disclaimer: This article is inspired by MLB.com\u2019s article \u201cA Cy of relief? These 9 could win the award\u201d.  When the starting pitcher gets tired, for example the 8th or 9th innings, who does the manager call on to seal the deal? … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,26,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","category-news","category-sports","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.houzzofballerzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.houzzofballerzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.houzzofballerzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.houzzofballerzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.houzzofballerzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=815"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.houzzofballerzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":869,"href":"https:\/\/www.houzzofballerzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815\/revisions\/869"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.houzzofballerzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.houzzofballerzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.houzzofballerzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.houzzofballerzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}