Adam Wainwright’s Third Place Finish For Cy Young Is Rough

Adam Wainwright finishing third for the National League Cy Young award is rough to see.

Clayton Kershaw was undoubtedly the winner. He was declared the winner back in June. It was expected.

Johnny Cueto finishing second, above Wainwright was not as expected. And, quite frankly, it makes me want to vomit.

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According to MLB.com, Wainwright was ranked in the top three pitchers for a 2.38 season ERA, a 1.03 WHIP, 227 innings pitched, five complete games, three shutouts and .4 home runs allowed per nine innings. It should also be noted that, per Baseball Reference, Wainwright had a Wins-Above-Replacement value of 6.1.

But. Take a look … if you can stomach it … at Cueto’s numbers.

According to Cincinnati.com, Cueto finished second in the NL to Kershaw in ERA with a 2.25, WHIP with .96 and wins with 20. Cueto actually led the NL in innings pitched with 243 2/3, 29 quality starts and an .194 opponent batting average. He tied Washington’s Stephen Strasburg in strikeouts with 242.

Cueto has been a sore issue for Cardinal fans since his involvement in the 2010 brawl incident that left Chris Carpenter hurt and forced Jason LaRue into retirement. As much as we like to say we’re over it and that it’s time to move on, our feels as it relates to Cueto are still raw. Cueto being perceived as somehow better than our beloved Wainwright, is almost too much to handle.

So. Take solace in this Cardinal fans.

This is his fourth top three finish for Cy Young. Wainwright finished third in the Cy Young voting in 2009 while receiving more first-place votes than either of the two pitchers who finished ahead of him. In 2010 and ’13, Wainwright was the runner-up in the NL Cy Young Award race.

Wainwright had arthroscopic surgery a couple of weeks ago to repair some damage that is believed to be behind a less-than-Waino-like performance in the second half of the season. This means he’ll be better next season.

While we want the best for our guy right this second, we’re going to have wait another year for Waino to get the Cy Young … the one award he so richly deserves.