I know what you are thinking.  What the hell?  We all know this and some have already voted for the St. Louis native who now pounds strikeouts and collects wins like bottles of water for the Detroit Tigers.  Some people don’t get why Max Scherzer is so damn good and forget to include that in their debates.   The Cy Young award winner isn’t only linked to just their win total or they shouldn’t be.   Don’t misjudge this for a girlfriend telling her best friend about this new guy she met and only including the physical traits and forgetting that the guy has a killer sense of humor and does work for a charity instead of getting drunk and plastered with his friends.   Basically, don’t disregard the good old fashioned stats that are sitting right in front of you on any player profile page.  Scherzer has broke out of the decent starter for a good team mold and turned into a Cy Young award caliber talent.  Yes, his team scores runs for him and he takes them with open arms and turns them into wins.  However, a pitcher must pitch effectively and consistently to accumulate a record of 18-1 on August 24th.  Here are the reasons I think he is the best and you may have heard them before.

To go with the 18-1 record, he has put together a 1.88 ERA this month, which means he isn’t wearing down but simply sharpening up for the long haul.  He has a better ERA on the road than at home.  He pitches better at night than during the day.   More precisely, he has put togther very good stats.

2.73 ERA

185 K-38 BB

Opponents bat only .191 off him.

He has given up only 14 home runs in the offense friendly American League.  Yes, he does pitch in a pitcher friendly park but still he faces DH heavy lineups every night.

He doesn’t have shutouts or complete games but he has pitched 177.2 innings this year and consistently bangs out quality start after quality start.

His WHIP(average of hits and walks allowed per inning) is .091.  He doesn’t offer a lot of free passes.

He has struck out 10 or more batters in a start 6 times this year.

Fielding independent ERA is 2.66, which is pretty solid for an AL pitcher.

His individual numbers are right there with the perennial favorite Felix Hernandez.  Felix has more walks and a worse WHIP.  Hold off on the praise for him because I know he plays for a bad team but still, individual stats are what is being explored and not win totals.

Today, Max pitched 6 innings, struck out 11 and allowed 3 hits and the Tigers are shutting out the Mets in New York.  Oh yeah, Max has an RBI double.

And then there is the 18 wins(soon to be 19) to go with all the other stats.   In my opinion, Max Scherzer is the Cy Young Award winner because he has the showy numbers and the much needed more detail oriented stats to go with it.

Yu Darvish and Hernandez are credible candidates but unless Scherzer has a horrible September, he is the Cy Young Award winner this year.  I am taking about 2013’s best pitcher in the AL.  Not the past few years.   This may sound like I am simply agreeing with others but I am not.  I looked at the stats and made a choice.

Check back for more blogging later on tonight…..as always, GO CARDS!

Next I break down whether Adam Wainwright deserves the Cy Young award attention over Matt Harvey or is there a silver lining in there?

-Dan Buffa