Consecutive Cy Young Awards Shortlist
Max Scherzer (2016-17)
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Finally, there’s the newly adorned World Series champion Max Scherzer, whom some consider the toughest pitcher currently in MLB. Unlike many of the starters on this list, Scherzer didn’t fully bloom into the type of pitcher that he is until his age 28 season, his sixth big-league season.
Since then, beginning in 2013 until now Scherzer has pitched to an 118-47 record and a 2.82 ERA. He has struck out at least 200 or more batters in each of those seasons, striking out 300 in 2018, and has secured three Cy Young Awards.
While we can agree that we probably will never see a 300-game winner, with the direction in which the game is going, we may never even see a 200-game winner, let alone one with 3000 strikeouts. At this rate, not only will Scherzer win at least 200 games, he will most certainly punchout at the very least 3000 hitters.
What compiling this list has taught me is that we are in the midst a golden age of elite starting pitchers. This despite the fact that we’re seeing a record number of home runs. Enjoy it, baseball fans, we may never see this level of performance again.