He should have 15 wins at the moment if the pen didn't implode on several of his starts back in June. Sucks because I'm worried national voters will still look at wins as a deciding factor (even though he still is up there at the moment) for Cy-Young. Really want JV to take this home, doubt he'll get another.
Verlander has 5 no decisions. 6-4 loss where he gave up all 4 runs 4-3 win where he gave up all 3 runs 8-7 win where he left with a 5-1 lead and 2 on 6-3 loss where it was 3-3 when he left 6-5 win where they were ahead 5-4 when he left The bullpen ‘imploded’ on two of his June starts and in one of those implosions they gave up 1 run in 5 innings.
The AL pitching leaders (this is not updated with this game, btw) are all over the map when you look at pure stats. JV is tied for most wins. His WHIP is about 0.2 less than the nearest competitor, which is pretty shocking. Top 3 or so in ERA (Charlie's leading that). He'd make a good case if the season ended today being so good in so many categories. Leading in HRs allowed, though, is a real wild card. If he's leading in a few solid categories at the end of the year, but it's not overwhelming, do voters look at that HR number and say "WHOA!" or do they say "Eh, that weird, but it obviously didn't ruin everything"? I dunno. Best way to get it in the bag is to get him well over 20 wins. It shouldn't matter in today's age, but it does, so the rest of the team needs to win games if JV makes them winnable. And they need to do that anyway. Cole and JV should have been way into the 20s in Ws last year, but the bats deserted them on a shameful number of occasions. Oh, and speaking of him, the Cole Train has been accelerating pretty crazily lately, so that's good for the Astros, and don't count him out of the running before all is said and done if he keeps this up.
I feel that Myles, with all the talk about the Cubans and their launching, draws the short end of the Straw. He's been really good at finding a way on base. .407 OBP, yeah you know me. Sure, it's a 32 game sample size but when has that ever stopped anyone. =) all star 2021!
The league may have to start getting involved with hitters and their exaggerated follow through swings.