Rockies lefty starter Jorge De La Rosa is worthy of Cy Young consideration, argues Tracy Ringolsby in his latest column on MLB.com. My initial reaction to the article was that he was intentionally exaggerating to make a point, but he has covered the Rockies for a while, so maybe he legitimately believes this. Ringolsby writes:
That is exactly all of the space he uses to make an argument, the rest is filled with extraneous details about De La Rosa’s struggles in previous seasons. We’ve all heard Brian Kenny’s spiel by now, so we don’t really need to address the 16 wins. We can address the ERA in a bit of detail, though.
There is a stat out there that adjusts ERA for a player’s ballpark, known as ERA+ which is found on Baseball Reference. The average ERA is set to 100, below it is below average and above it is above average. De La Rosa has a 134 ERA+, quite respectable. But Cy Young worthy? Among qualified National League starters, De La Rosa ranks fifth in ERA+. Clayton Kershaw is a mile ahead at 187, Jose Fernandez isn’t far behind at 175, Matt Harvey is at 158, and teammate Jhoulys Chacin is at 141. Kershaw also happens to have 43 more innings on De La Rosa. He is aiming to become the fifth starter since 2009 to post an ERA+ of 180 or better. Only Zack Greinke (205 in 2009) and Clay Buchholz (187 in 2010) have been equal or better since.
If Ringolsby was simply being facetious to draw some attention to De La Rosa, mission accomplished. De La Rosa certainly deserves some praise for his great season. But in no universe, this one or alternate, does De La Rosa rank ahead of Kershaw -- or Fernandez -- in NL Cy Young balloting.