Few would dispute that Corbin Burnes had a fantastic season for the Milwaukee Brewers, but there are a number of people unhappy that he claimed the NL Cy Young Award.
Many fans were upset to see Burnes beat out Philadelphia Phillies ace Zack Wheeler for the NL’s top honors. The biggest argument was that Wheeler’s body of work was much larger than Burnes’. The Brewers ace threw only 167 innings in the regular season, qualifying for the NL ERA title by only five innings. Wheeler’s ERA was higher — 2.78 to Burnes’ 2.43 — but Wheeler posted his mark in 213.1 innings.
This point was argued by many on Twitter, including ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
There was ample support for Burnes as well, and not just among voters. His FIP, a popular metric among the stats-oriented crowd, was a miniscule 1.63, significantly lower than Wheeler’s 2.59. That, in the eyes of many voters, made up for the fact that Burnes threw 46.1 fewer innings than Wheeler did.
If Wheeler feels snubbed, we may well hear about it. He hasn’t been shy about blunt public criticism before.
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