This should be a no-brainer. The only reason -- and it’s not a good reason -- that anyone would not have Zack Greinke listed #1 on their ballot is because they don’t think his 16 wins for an awful team are worth the 19 wins CC Sabathia, Felix Hernandez and Justin Verlander posted for good teams.
Such a vote would have to come despite Greinke’s better ERA and better ratios. Such a vote would also have to ignore the fact that Greinke had four starts in which he got no decisions despite allowing zero runs or one run. Indeed, overall, Greinke averaged seven innings and an ERA of 2.35 in his nine no-decisions. He’d easily have 20 wins -- and probably more -- if he played for even a merely crappy team instead of that train wreck in Kansas City. The upshot: if Greinke doesn’t win the Cy Young Award today, we’ll be witnessing one of the larger miscarriages of justice in postseason awards history.
Beyond Greinke I put them in this order: Felix Hernandez (great season, but behind Greinke everywhere that matters), Roy Halladay (ditto, but behind Hernandez), Justin Verlander (ERA too high for serious consideration) and CC Sabathia (a win for CC would be to give the CY Young to the Yankees lineup).