CDIH

Of course there's still plenty of baseball to be played...

Right now, here's how I see it.

Jason Schmidt - The favorite right now. #1 in ERA, WHIP, BA, SLG, OBP, OPS against. It's his to lose right now. The only argument against him is that he pitches in the best pitcher's park. That argument is pure bullshit. He's pitched more on the road than he has at home, and was exceptional in Coors. Look at his road numbers - 2.43 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, .200 BA against.

Mark Prior - Time on the DL hurts his cause. Still, he's second only to Schmidt in ERA and WHIP and pitches in Wrigley. He's simply dominant. Not better than Schmidt though, not this year at least.

Kevin Brown - Comeback player of the year in the NL. Has been incredible for the Dodgers.

Brandon Webb - My ROY pick, and a solid Cy Young candidate. Pitches in the second worst pitcher's park in the majors (only Coors is worse), and his 3.10 home/1.99 road split shows it.

Eric Gagne - Fucking incredible. The best single season for a closer, so far, since Dennis Eckersley's 1990 performance. Still, a guy who won't even pitch 80 innings shouldn't be aCY contender.

Also:

Livan Hernandez
John Smoltz
Hideo Nomo
Russ Ortiz (shouldn't be mentioned, but will be cause of Wins)

although Gagne deserves it for his complete and utter dominance, I don't think a closer will ever win the award again... the emphasis is too much on the starter. That said, Jason Schmidt is probably the clear choice here, but any kind of colapse by him down the stretch will just persuade voters to go for the bigger names like Prior

I drafted Schmidt in the 8th round of our draft.