Chicago Cubs: Move over Bauer, Yu Darvish is the real NL Cy Young

Upon further review, Chicago Cubs flamethrower Yu Darvish is the real Cy Young.

Admit it, you too have bought-in to the Trevor Bauer hype. We don’t blame you, his 2020 campaign was masterful. Unfortunately for Bauer, however, there was another pitcher in his division that was better. I’m talking about none other than Chicago Cubs ace Yu Darvish.

Today, we’re going to walk you through a number of stats – traditional and advanced – that shows just how much better Darvish was over Darvish. Let’s start with the all-encompassing win stat; the most traditional of the bunch.

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Darvish is tied with Cleveland Indians ace Shane Bieber with the most wins in MLB with eight. Conversely, Bauer managed to obtain just five wins this season. One plausible explanation for this is that Darvish played for the first-place Cubs (34-26), while Bauer pitched for the third-place Reds (31-29).

If wins don’t do it for you, how about perhaps the most advanced of stats: WAR. According to FanGraphs, Darvish (3 fWAR) has the edge over Bauer (2.5 fWAR) in this wide-ranging advanced stat as well. Baseball-Reference, however, has Bauer (2.7 bWAR) edging Darvish (2.6 bWAR) by a meager margin.

To settle this, we move on to baseball’s three true outcomes: walks, strikeouts, and home runs.

1. In terms of walks, in 76 IP this season, Darvish has walked just 14 batters for a BB/9 of 1.66. On the other hand, in 73 IP, Bauer walked 17 batters for a BB/9 of 2.1. Edge: Darvish
2. Moving to strikeouts, this season Bauer was only the third pitcher to reach the 100 SO mark. As for Darvish, he finished the season with 93 SO. Edge: Bauer
3. Finally, let’s compare home run totals for each pitcher. This season, Darvish allowed 5 HR, third-fewest of any qualified starter. Bauer, on the other hand, allowed 9 HR, 11th most in MLB. Edge: Darvish.

What’s more, in FIP, a measure of a pitcher’s effectiveness that removes his fielders from the equation, Darvish (2.23 FIP) is second only to Bieber (2.07 FIP) in MLB whereas Bauer ranks eighth with a 2.88 FIP.

So there you have it, a number of reasons why Chicago Cubs ace Yu Darvish is the real 2020 NL Cy Young. This doesn’t discount Bauer’s contributions either. For his dominance, he’ll likely get rewarded handsomely in free agency this offseason.