Houston Astros: Three reasons why Justin Verlander should win the Cy-Young

His WHIP and other stats are phenomenal

Advanced metrics are becoming more and more a part of what the sport of baseball is. However, there is a contingent still within baseball that is vehemently opposed to the advanced metrics movement.

With that being the case, it’s starting to become impossible to tell which stats voters are going to value from year to year. Wins and ERA are becoming less important while stats like WHIP and FIP are becoming more important.

Verlander may very well be the perfect option for both sides of the equation. In some respects, he is very old school and older voters will like the stuff he brings. He’s a grinder in every sense of the word (more on that later), still rocks a hard four-seam fastball as his primary pitch, and thew 290 strikeouts to 37 walks, good for 7.84 strikeouts per walk. Verlander also surpassed the 200 win plateau this year.

But on the other hand, Verlander has some advanced statistics that give him favor with some of the younger, more advanced-statistics minded voter. Verlander has the best WHIP of any pitcher in the entire league this year at 0.90. Verlander also has a good FIP, which measures a pitcher’s ability to prevent home runs, walks, HBP, and causing strikeouts.

However, if you get further into the advanced statistics, Verlander still looks very good. He had a 32% whiff rate which means on 32% of his pitches that a batter swung at, they missed. That is absolutely phenomenal. Verlander also had the second-best soft contact rate of career at over 20%.

So, regardless of where one falls in the advanced statistics argument, Verlander can be viewed as a favorite. He’s simply dominated in every aspect of pitching this year. But now let’s look at the most convincing aspect of his Cy Young candidacy.