Arrieta, former TCU pitcher, wins NL Cy Young award

Kuechel was an integral piece in the surprisingly decent Houston Astros ballclub that improved its record by 16 wins this season as the team reached the postseason for the first time since 2005.

A three-year letterwinner for Arkansas, Keuchel went 9-3 with a 3.92 ERA for the Razorbacks in 2009.

But the Baseball Writers Association of America got this one wrong. He won the AL Wild Card game against the NY Yankees. His ERA after the All-Star break was a record 0.75. He acknowledged the super stats piled up by his Los Angeles rivals spurred him.

Listen, we know it’s tough to catch up on everything happening in the baseball world each morning. His full season totals were 22-6 with a 1.77 ERA.

But Greinke was excellent the entire season, going great from his first start to his last.

“There was a few anxiety involved”, Arrieta said on a conference call.

During that span, he also hit two home runs while giving up just two.

Stare at his historical second half this summer and of course he should have won it. No doubt about it.

Chicago has its first Cy Young Award victor since the Cubs” Greg Maddux and the White Sox’s Jack McDowell won the award in the early “90s.

Greinke emerged from a shortened spring training caused by a persistent elbow issue to put up one of the best seasons in the game’s history.

Both the Cubs and the Astros won a combined five regular season awards, as Chicago’s Joe Maddon won NL manager of the year while third baseman Kris Bryant won NL rookie of the year.

“It looks like we’re going to have a pretty bright future”, Arrieta said. As well, the NL Central is a fairly brutal division, so even a 97-win squad like the Cubs would do well to seek out upgrades – even expensive upgrades like Greinke. Now should we expect Anthony Rizzo to stun Bryce Harper in Thursday’s NL MVP voting, too? Greinke’s streak of 45 2/3 scoreless innings during that stretch is the fourth-longest since 1961. He became Houston’s first Cy Young victor since Roger Clemens in 2004, when the team was in the National League. Which three former Cy Young award winners went on to pitch for the Orioles later in their career? The bearded 27-year-old with a dominant sinker and sharp slider had a 2.48 ERA and 216 strikeouts.

“Man … 19-3 with a 1.66 doesn’t get the votes?!” the exec said.

Greinke was second, with 10 first-place, 17 second-place and three third-place votes. Kershaw’s three first-place votes means the Greinke probably finished third on at least one voter’s ballot.

“Just playing the game is good enough for me and just to be in the same category as Sonny (Gray) and David was special in its own right”.