Shane Bieber received 30 first-place votes, thus, he is the unanimous winner of the 2020 Cy Young award. He’s the 5th Indians pitcher to win the award. Trevor Bauer received 27 first-place votes and he is the first Reds pitcher to win the Cy Young award. Previously, they were teammates in the Cleveland Indians. Let’s look back to see how outstanding these two great pitchers are.
Bieber’s ERA was only 1.63, leading the AL. At the same time, Trevor Bauer’s ERA of 1.73 made him the ERA leader in the NL.
Only 3 pitchers threw at least 100 strikeouts in the regular season. Bieber threw 122 strikeouts, leading the majors. Jacob deGrom, who finished 3rd in the NL Cy Young voting this season, threw 104 strikeouts. Bauer threw 100 strikeouts, 2nd most in the NL.
Kenta Maeda had a very successful season in his first year in Minnesota. He posted a WHIP of 0.75, leading the majors. Trevor Bauer’s WHIP was only 0.79, leading the NL. Dinelson Lamet was really solid in the regular season, his WHIP was only 0.86. He’s going to be a core player of the Padres rotation. Shane Bieber’s WHIP was 0.87, 2nd lowest in the AL.
Against Trevor Bauer, batters only hit .159 during the regular season. Batting against Dinelson Lamet is not easy, batters only hit .161 against him. Shane Bieber is dominant in the AL and batters only hit .167 against him.
Bieber and Bauer are in the top 3 in almost major stats. There is no doubt that they won the Cy Young award. Let’s go a little bit deeper to see what makes them so different this season.
xwOBA against Bauer was only .219, that really tells us that Bauer is surely dominant on the mound this season. It’s extremely hard for MLB hitters to make quality contact against Bauer. Meanwhile, Shane Bieber is also dominant. xwOBA against Bieber was .242. In the top 3, we see Ian Anderson. xwOBA against Ian Anderson was only .239. It will be worth watching Ian Anderson’s performance next season.
Shane Bieber made his major league debut in May, 2018 and earned 11 wins in that season. He became an All-Star in 2019 and was the 2019 All-Star game MVP. In this season, Bieber mainly relied on his four-seamer (37.4%) and curve (26.3%). Back in 2019, he used curve 20.5% of the time. Bieber’s curve is truly devastating. Batters only hit .095 against his curve. In 2020, Bieber adds cutter in the mix.
Bauer was the 3rd overall pick in the 2011 draft and he made his MLB debut with the Diamondbacks in 2012. He was sent to the Cleveland Indians in late 2012. Bauer and Bieber were teammates in 2018 and 2019. Bauer was involved in a 3-team trade in the 2019 season and this time he was sent to the Cincinnati Reds. It wasn’t going well after he was traded to the Reds. He only earned 2 wins and took 5 losses with an ERA of 6.39. In 2020, Bauer mainly used his four-seamer (40.9%) and he threw cutter, slider and curve effectively. These four pitches truly fooled MLB hitters. Hitters batted below .200 against these four pitches. No surprise. Trevor Bauer and Shance Bieber won the Cy Young award. They were dominant on the mound and gave MLB hitters a really hard time. Bieber will surely be Indians’ ace next season. Bauer is a free agent. Which team will be Bauer’s next team? It will be something interesting to see this off-season.
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