With a little more than six weeks left in the 2018 Major League Baseball season, our staff is taking a look at where the races for some of the major individual awards stand this week. In discussing the race for the National League, Mets ace Jacob deGrom needs to be discussed and invariably there will be some discussion about his record being 7-7. 

It's frustrating. 

Back in 2016, I had an NL Cy Young vote and here's what I wrote to explain why I ignored the W-L column: 

This is generally where someone will yell at me that "a pitcher's job is to win," but that person is wrong. A pitcher can't win games by himself, especially not in today's climate of bullpen specialization. A pitcher's job is to put his team in the best position to win by allowing the fewest number of runs possible (ERA, ERA+). Along the way, the best pitchers do this for a high number of innings (IP, CG, SHO), as to take pressure off the bullpen. They also keep pressure off the defense by striking out batters (K, K/9), inducing weak contact (Soft hit percentage) and keeping runners off the bases (WHIP, H/9, BB/9).  

Here's where deGrom ranks among National League pitchers in those categories: 

  • ERA: 1st
  • ERA+: 1st
  • IP: 2nd
  • K: 2nd
  • K/9: 4th
  • Soft hit %: 1st
  • WHIP: 2nd
  • H/9: 3rd
  • BB/9: 4th

 On the flip-side, among 37 qualified NL pitchers, deGrom ranks 34th in run support provided to him by his teammates. 

I've said in the recent past that I think the battle has pretty much been won when discussing that individual pitcher W-L shouldn't be used as a primary indicator when it comes to judging who is good and who isn't. 

It is concerning, however, that deGrom finishing something like 9-10 would disqualify him from getting first-place Cy Young votes for at least a decent portion of the BBWAA voting bloc. 

The 30-year-old right-hander is getting no run support regularly. The bullpen has also blown four of his wins.

If someone thinks, say, Max Scherzer or Aaron Nola was the better pitcher while ignoring W-L at the end of the year, I can live with that. But if W-L is a factor in costing deGrom a Cy Young, it's utter lunacy. 

Quite simply: That would be saying "Jacob deGrom wasn't the best pitcher in the National League because his teammates were bad." 

The logic is mind-boggling.