Cleveland Indians: The AL Cy Young is Shane Bieber’s to lose

The Cleveland Indians own Shanae Beiber should be viewed as the leading candidate for the AL Cy Young award after completing a third of the season.

The Cleveland Indians should dust off a spot on the Cy Young shelf because Shane Bieber just had his fourth win of the season, this time against the Detroit Tigers on Saturday night. Their 19th win over the Tigers in a row. Bieber now has 54 strikeouts on the season with a whopping 1.30 ERA, against only six walks given up. He’s averaging 3.8 hits against him for the year as well. A truly dominant performance and one that, assuming he keeps this pace, will see him join C.C. Sabathia, Cliff Lee, and Corey Kluber as AL Cy Young winners over the last fifteen years.

His only real competition as of press time is Lance Lynn, the 33-year-old from the Texas Rangers. Lynn in his own right is putting up big numbers this year as well. Some nearly identical to Bieber’s. He’s got a lower ERA but he has fewer strikeouts and more walks than Bieber. They’re battling pretty hard and one bad start may change the tide for either man The reason why Bieber is the de-facto favorite at the moment is due to the fact that Lynn isn’t known for having stretches of this kind of dominance.

All of Cleveland saw what Bieber did in 2019. This isn’t a fluke, he’s a prime, young flamethrower with untouchable stuff. Lynn is putting together great seasons, both in 2019 and now in 2020 but at 33-years-old and never once showing this type of dominance before in his previous eight seasons, it’s safe to say that Lynn isn’t this guy. Not for a whole season at this age.

He’ll have a good year, but he’s racing a machine at this point. Bieber isn’t expected to slow down, and his season is going to be one of the reasons the team makes the playoffs. He’s the obvious leading candidate for the Cy Young. All he has to do is stay consistent and the team will get it’s fifth Cy Young winner since 2005.