Zack Wheeler should have been the NL Cy Young Award winner

Corbin Burnes had a breakout season in 2021 and last night, won the National League Cy Young Award, barely beating out Phillies ace Zack Wheeler who finished in second. Burns earned 151 points to Wheeler’s 141. Both received 12 first place votes from the Baseball Writers Association of America. 

Burnes notched 14 second place votes. Wheeler finished with nine second place votes. In third place was Max Scherzer, who earned the other six first place votes. Did Wheeler get robbed? Honestly, yes. I believe he did.

Burns finished the season 11-5 with a 2.43 ERA in 167 innings pitched which is good for an average of 5 2/3 innings per start. Compared to Wheeler and even Scherzer, that’s pretty ridiculous. 

Burns essentially pitched a month less than Wheeler. Unfortunately for Phillies fans, we had to rely heavily on Wheeler down the stretch and we all remember the late inning games that hurt Wheeler and the Phillies. It wasn’t even his fault though. You can blame Aaron Nola and The Phillies historically bad bullpen for putting that type of responsibility on Wheeler in the final month of the season. 

Wheeler pitched 46 1/3 innings more than Cy Young winner Burnes. Huge difference. Wheeler had a 2.32 ERA with 202 strikeouts in 186 innings with opponents batting a miserable .209/.258/.307 through the first six innings. From the seventh to ninth innings, Wheeler’s ERA skyrocketed to a less than stellar 5.93 ERA. 

Regardless, Wheeler pitched more innings, led the league in strikeouts, and was consistently solid every fifth day for the Phillies rotation. Of course Corbin Burnes had a great season, it just wasn’t as good as Wheeler. 

Shout out Charlie Goldsmith. He’s the one who gave Wheeler a fifth place vote. What an idiot. 

My Cy Young ballot⁰

1. Corbin Burnes
2. Scherzer
3. Buehler
4. Woodruff
5. Wheeler https://t.co/9n6EKhJovB

— Charlie Goldsmith (@CharlieG__) November 17, 2021

How this guy was allowed to cast a vote for the NL Cy Young Award is beyond me.

Will let Crossing Broad’s Kevin Kinkead take it from here.

graduated high school in 2017, jeez. I remember back in the day you had to do the shit hours in a place like West Chester before getting a big newspaper job

— Kevin Kinkead (@Kevin_Kinkead) November 18, 2021

Bryce Harper has to be a lock for NL MVP tonight or I will burn the entire city to the ground. We’re going to dish out a Harper jersey on Twitter when we get word that he won, along with some t-shirts from our DSGN Tree shop. Make sure you’re following for a chance to win.