Brewers’ Corbin Burnes wins NL Cy Young’s tight vote for dominance over workload – The Athletic

Reordering the grand total also has its perks, but modern beginners can take a different route to dominance. Corbin Burnes, for example, threw baseball’s best cutters. He’s also mean. He paired a 96 mph throw with a sinking player dashing in the opposite direction at the same speed. He bullies with a breakout throw that’s equally difficult: a slider. Maintain the psychological advantage with a change. Then – because, why not? – NS Brewerace weaponized a curved sphere. In the celebrity special hell that Corbin Burnes creates in 2021, there’s little hope, and that’s why he was recognized Wednesday for an elite season.

By winning the National League Cy Young Award, Burnes, whose hair was coveted in shampoo ads, reinforced that baseball’s view of pitching dominance had evolved. He hit 167 hits, a new low for a Cy-starter in over a year. He beat Phillies starters Zack Wheeler, who led the baseball team in innings (213 1/3). Burnes and Wheeler earned the same number of votes in first place (12). It’s only happened once before: 1981 (Tom Seaver / Fernando Valenzuela). Burnes is just 10 points ahead of Wheeler overall, 151-141.

Counting just 162 off-season games, only two have started to win Cy Young despite throwing less than 200 innings: the 2019 American League winner Blake Snell (180 2/3 turns) and won the 2014 National Championship Clayton Kershaw (198 1/3 inning). Three in less than 10 years.