From Tom –
Jake deGrom wins his 2nd straight Cy Young award, going just
21-17 over the 2 years. Congratulations.
Now:
In 2020, would you prefer he:
1) Win 20 games but not the Cy Young
or
2) Eleven games and his 3rd straight Cy Young?
If you choose # 1, what does the team and Jake have to do to
improve to get there?
5 comments:
Number one would likely make him a frontrunner for the Cy Young again anyway. To get there they need to:
Improve the bullpen
Improve the defense
Awards are nice. Wins are nicer.
To get Jake to 20 wins, 1) keep the offense strong 2) try to have someone other than Scherzer and the other team's ace pitch against him 3) seriously bolster the pen. If one or two key pen guys are under-performing, there needs to be other strong alternatives. Don't be afraid to hurt a pen arm's feelings; a pitcher needs to earn their role - and keep earning it - or they can be slid down the pen priority list.
4) If the pen is struggling, Jake needs to figure out how to economize his pitches to go deeper into games. Because a tiring Jake is still a lot better than a crappy pen arm.
5) Lastly, never let a scrub pitcher pitch against a decent (or better) hitting team that Jake started where the team has less than a 10 run lead. Really good hitters in a 9th inning focused state can demolish marginal pitching.
Jake has always been a team player first.
20 wins
You take the 20 wins, because someone could a ridiculous season even if you did to and the wins are better for the team. what does the team have to do, score 3 runs a game and not blow saves in more then 10% of his starts. maybe play some defense too, for once.
2 Cy Young’s, 64 starts, just 21 wins (32% of starts) in 2018 and 2019. Winning essentially is the only thing.
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