Jon Lester Has Best Odds Among Red Sox Pitchers to Win American League Cy Young This Season
Jon Lester is the leading Red Sox candidate for the American League pitching prize with 16-1 odds in the Bovada Sportsbook.
Lester is coming off an up-and-down 2011 season. He finished 15-9 with a 3.47 ERA and 182 strikeouts in 191.2 innings, but his month-to-month ERA from April to September fluctuated wildly: 2.52, 5.50, 2.31, 1.56, 2.78 and 5.40. Only three pitchers in baseball have won at least 15 games in each of the past four seasons, with Lester joining the Yankees' CC Sabathia and the Phillies' Roy Halladay. No Red Sox lefty has ever won the Cy Young.
If his final full-fledged spring start is any indication, Lester is up for a big season. He had only one three-ball count and fanned 10 in dominating the Phillies last Monday. Lester threw 88 pitches, 63 of which were strikes.
Lester will take the ball on Opening Day against the AL Central champion Detroit Tigers and their ace, the reigning league MVP and Cy Young winner Justin Verlander. Lester also pitched last Opening Day but was the losing pitcher in a 9-5 defeat at the hands of the Rangers. The loss was the beginning of a six-game slide by the Sox to start the season.
Verlander, meanwhile, is the favorite to repeat as the Cy Young winner this year with 11-2 odds. No player has repeated since Martinez, but Verlander has the best chance after last season, when he won the American League pitching Triple Crown — leading the league in wins (24), strikeouts (250) and ERA (2.40).
Verlander also led the majors with 251 innings while issuing a career-low 57 walks. He pitched four complete games, including two shutouts (one a no-hitter).
Verlander started twice against Boston last year, going 1-0 with a 1.72 ERA and 12 strikeouts in 15.2 innings. The Red Sox hit just .182 against the righty. Lester didn't face the Tigers in 2011.
Two other Red Sox pitchers are listed among the Cy Young betting candidates: Clay Buchholz at 25-1 and Josh Beckett at 50-1. Buchholz was 6-3 with a 3.48 ERA last year in 14 starts before a back injury derailed his season. Beckett bounced back from a terrible 2010 by going 13-7 with a 2.89 ERA in 30 starts last season.
Beckett's injured thumb has some worried, but manager Bobby Valentine insists Beckett will make his first scheduled start of the season. Beckett has been dealing with the thumb issue for nearly two weeks but had an 0.95 ERA and threw 19 innings this spring, the second-highest total on the staff. Beckett was to see a second hand specialist in Cleveland on Tuesday.
Other favorites for the AL Cy Young this year are the Angels' Jered Weaver at 11-2, the Yankees' Sabathia at 13-2, and the Mariners' Felix Hernandez and Rays' David Price, both at 7-1. Weaver finished second in the voting last year behind Verlander, while Sabathia was fourth. Hernandez was the 2010 AL Cy Young winner and already has a start under his belt this year. He went eight innings and allowed five hits and one run while striking out six in a win over Oakland last week in Japan.
The National League Cy Young favorites are the Dodgers? Clayton Kershaw and Phillies? Roy Halladay at 11-2. Kershaw won the award last year, while Halladay finished runner-up in 2011 and won it the year before.
