MLB Midseason Awards: N.L. Cy Young Award

The NL Cy Young has a lot of guys in the mix for the award at this juncture, with no one really standing head and shoulders above the rest.

Depending on your personal criteria, you can easily make a case for Adam Wainwright who is 12-5 with a 2.45 ERA, Matt Harvey 7-2 with a 2.35 ERA and a league-leading 147 strikeouts, Jeff Locke who is 8-2 with a 2.15 ERA, Patrick Corbin who is 11-1 with a 2.35 ERA, or Jordan Zimmerman who is 12-4 with a 2.58 ERA.

All are great choices with excellent records and ERAs. Some people will favor strikeouts, others favor wins/losses.

Personally, I'm an ERA guy. You can't control your run support, so I don't feel that wins/losses should be held against you for an individual award. While high strikeout totals do impress, I'm also not going to hold efficiency against a pitcher if he gets ground ball outs and throws fewer pitches than a power pitcher.

All that said, I'll give my midseason award to Clayton Kershaw, who is a mere 8-6 but has a 1.98 ERA.
The Dodgers started the season off poorly, and clearly Kershaw did not get a lot of run support early on. He is the only pitcher in baseball with a sub-2.00 ERA, and he has only eight wins.

If Kershaw can remain under two runs per game, it will put him in the company of guys like Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez, and Greg Maddux, and definitely makes him worthy of the midseason Cy Young.

See A.L. choices: Cy Young leader - MVP leader

[Editor's note: This post is by John Trifone (@JohnnyT0122), who also contributes at our NFL site: Eat, Drink and Sleep Football (see John's archives).]

Cubs retire #31 for Jenkins and Maddux

Last month, the Atlanta Braves announced they would retire number 31 in honor of Greg Maddux on July 17th.

Today, the Chicago Cubs retired number 31 in honor of Maddux and Ferguson "Fergie" Jenkins.

Previously, the Cubs have retired four other numbers: 10 (Ron Santo), 14 (Ernie Banks), 23 (Ryne Sandberg) and 26 (Billy Williams).

Major League Baseball retired number 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson.

"It's a tremendous honor," Maddux said, "and it's pretty cool to have it up there with Fergie, too."

"The fun part of doing what we did is putting that uniform on, and you're at home on that field in the ballpark," Jenkins said. "It's your second home."

"I always felt like it was a privilege to wear the uniform," Maddux said. "Almost every day, when I was sitting there putting it on, I would realize it was a privilege and an honor to put on the uniform.

"Because I felt that way, I tried to do it right," Maddux said. "I just tried to do it right every day and didn't worry about what the score was in the ninth inning. As long as I did everything right before the game was over, I felt pretty good about myself."

Both pitchers had two separate stints with the Cubs. Jenkins pitched for the Cubs from 1966-73 and 1982-83. Maddux pitched for the Cubs from 1986-92 and 2004-06.

In his career, Jenkins won 284 games, struck out 3,192 batters and had an ERA of 3.34. He won the Cy Young in 1971 when he threw 30 complete games that year.

Maddux finished with 355 wins, struck out 3,371 batters and had an ERA of 3.16 in his career. He won four Cy Young awards consecutively from 1992 to 1995, the first of which was won with the Cubs.

Greg Maddux to have number retired by Braves

Greg Maddux will have his number (31) retired by the Atlanta Braves on July 17th.

From 1992 to 1998, Maddux was a dominant as any pitcher (perhaps ever). His highest ERA during that seven-year span was 2.72. And that season (1996) was significantly higher than the other six seasons. His second-worst ERA during that span was 2.36.

In his career, Maddux won four consecutive Cy Young awards (1992-1995) and eighteen Gold Glove awards.

Maddux, who played with the Cubs, Braves, Dodgers and Padres, finished his career with a 355-227 record, 3,371 strikeouts and an ERA of 3.16.