Keuchel wins AL Cy Young

He made two starts in LA’s narrow 3-2 loss to the NY Mets in the NLDS.

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

Talk about getting trapped in a maze.

There was no magic wand, no cinematic moment of truth that can explain Arrieta’s rise from Baltimore bust to Chicago Cy Young.

Dodgers right-hander Greinke, 19-3 with a 1.66 ERA, finished second in the NL voting ahead of his team mate Kershaw, 16-7 with a 2.13 ERA.

Toronto Blue Jays left-hander David Price was a distant second in the AL with eight first-place votes and 143 points.

Justice would have been served, in fact, had Arrietta and Greinke tied. Cy Young voters list their top five.

Instead, Arrieta had this thing on cruise control.

“It is something I definitely never expected”, Keuchel told Major League Baseball Network after the selection was announced. That’s because Jake Arrieta’s performance was absolutely stunning in 2015 – especially after the All-Star break, which is when he took his game to the next level. Smoltz, who played 10 years with fellow Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, endorsed the increasingly common comparison between the two extreme control pitchers. He received 17 first-place votes and 169 points. But Maddon did a phenomenal job, too, and clearly is a worthy victor. He has an outstanding 6-1 record with a 2.68 ERA across 50.1 innings in which he has yielded just 36 hits.

Arrieta is the first former Horned Frog to win a Cy Young Award. He also gave up the fewest hits (5.9) and home runs (0.4) per nine innings pitched.

Perhaps the most wonderful part of Keuchel’s 2015 performance was his record at home, especially considering the dimensions of Minute Maid Park, which aren’t exactly pitcher friendly. His four complete games and three shutouts joined his 22 wins as tops in the NL.

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.

And yes, I know what you’re saying.

“I thought a lot about it”, Ortiz said Wednesday in the two-minute, 26-second video. “He’s relaxed here, and that’s been huge”. The Cubs have given him more latitude than did the Orioles. “And just to be in the same category as Sonny and David was special in its own right, but there’s a number of pitchers I look up to”. Kershaw had the other three firsts and 101 points.

When Arrieta was on the mound, the Cubs could be confident in their chances of winning.

“Nuff said? It was for one of the Los Angeles-area writers (the Orange County Register’s Jeff Miller) who went with Arrieta over the Dodgers” horses. This game’s very hard.

Fortunately, Kershaw had one of those seasons where an incredible season like that could go without being recognized with an award and it won’t be considered a snub. Probably. Is he or anyone else going to make a big issue of it?

Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.