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When Justin Verlander underwent Tommy John surgery after just one start in 2020, it felt like it could be the end of the road for one of this generation’s greatest pitchers. While many pitchers have successfully returned from UCL surgery, most weren’t 37+ years old at the time. After missing almost all of the 2020 season and all of 2021, Verlander returned this season as a slightly different pitcher, but as good as ever. He helped lead a rejuvenated Moonshiners pitching staff to their first ever DTBL Championship. In a year of countless great pitching performances, Verlander was quite clearly the best. In a unanimous decision, Justin Verlander is the 2022 DTBL Cy Young award winner, earning the award for the third time in his career.
Verlander’s comeback season was quite magical. The 39 year old defied odds to put up one of the best seasons of his career, which is saying something since he had already authored some of the best seasons in league history. His ERA and WHIP tell most of the story. His 1.75 ERA ranks sixth all time while his 0.83 WHIP is the fourth lowest single season mark in DTBL history. Both marks easily led the league this season and were personal bests as well. His 18 wins also led the league this year, but doesn’t quite stack up with historical records due to the modern suppressed pitcher win environment. 185 strikeouts is an impressive number, but was not near the league leaders and highlights a changed approach for Verlander in which he no longer dominates simply by not allowing hitters to put the ball in play. Verlander’s 14.8 Pitching PAR led the league by over 2 points and is the eighth highest mark since 2005. He now holds three of the top 8 figures in that stat’s single season leaderboard.
The Moonshiners are the third DTBL team for which Verlander has starred. Originally drafted in the second round by the Demigods way back in 2007, he spent a dozen spectacular seasons with the Kings with whom he won four DTBL Championships and a pair of Cy Young awards. Those two Cy Young campaigns (2011 and 2019) are on the short list of the greatest pitching seasons in league history. He won 24 games while striking out 250 in 2011. In 2019, he had a 0.80 WHIP with 300 strikeouts and a record Pitching PAR of 17.5. Tommy John surgery ultimately ended his run with the Kings as he was dropped from the league roster while recovering from surgery in 2021. The Moonshiners made him a second round selection for the second time in his career when they picked him with the 17th overall pick in this season’s draft. That proved to be quite the steal for the Moonshiners. Verlander joined Alek Manoah and Yu Darvish to make up the league’s best starting pitching trio. Their championship gives Verlander a smooth five DTBL rings to go along with three Cy Young awards. This is the second straight season in which a pitcher has won his third Cy Young, following Verlander’s former Tigers and Kings teammate Max Scherzer turning that trick last year.
Verlander’s gaudy numbers made him the obvious choice for this award. He received all nine first place votes to become the unanimous choice for this award, totaling 90 points. That is definitely not to say there weren’t other great pitchers this season though. In one of the most under-the-radar dominant seasons in recent memory, Diamond Dogs righty Sandy Alcantara put himself into the company of the league’s elite pitchers. Perhaps most impressive was his 228.2 innings pitched, which was 26 more than any other pitcher. Oh, and he also struck out 207 with a 2.28 ERA and 0.98 WHIP. Alcantara was the only pitcher besides Verlander to appear on every ballot. He received three second place votes and a total of 41 points. Next comes what might be the most anticipated aspect of this vote: where will Dylan Cease and Alek Manoah rank following their narrow Rookie of the Year competition? Well, turns out they flipped for this award. Rookie of the Year runner-up, Moonshiners young hurler Manoah finishes third for the Cy Young in his debut season. His 2.24 ERA and 0.99 WHIP were incredible for such a young pitcher. He received a pair of second place votes and a total of 31 points. Right behind him is Rookie of the Year winner, Choppers fireballer Cease. Cease received three second place votes, but was left off three ballots, which ultimately caused him to fall three points behind Manoah with 28. For the record, nobody swapped the order between Manoah and Cease on their Rookie of the Year and Cy Young ballots. It was just a matter of how those points were distributed. One other pitcher received a second place vote, that being Cougars ace Corbin Burnes. Burnes finished second in the league with 243 strikeouts. He is the only pitcher to rack up 200+ strikeouts with a sub 3.00 ERA each of the past two seasons. Burnes finished in fifth place in the vote with 13 points. A total of 10 different pitchers received Cy Young votes.
Click here to view the full voting results.
It’s looking like I won’t get around to announcing the 2022 DTBL Most Valuable Player until early next week. There probably isn’t too much suspense surrounding who will win that award anyway though.