Mets: What does Jacob deGrom need to do to win Cy Young?

Each of the last two seasons, Max Scherzer won the N.L. Cy Young Award. Is this the year Jacob deGrom wins it for the Mets?

Despite not getting any run support from the New York Mets, this is looking to be Jacob deGrom’s best season.

He’s now thrown 72 innings this season. That’s no longer a “small sample size” but can he keep these numbers up?

If Jake wins the Cy Young Award, it will be based on two stats, his ERA, and his strikeouts. His ERA is phenomenal through 12 starts. Despite the fact that Max Scherzer has six more wins than Jake, his ERA, which is under two, is nearly .5 higher than his.

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Jakes ERA stands at 1.49 and it’s been consistently going down after each of his last eight starts. ERA wise, 2015 was jakes best season, where he posted 2.54. Even with a couple bad starts here and there, his ERA looks like it can stay below 2.0 for a while.

Then you have the strikeouts. Last season Jake finished with 239 strikeouts, which is a lot. The last Mets pitcher to throw more than 239 strikeouts in a season, was David Cone in 1991. Aside for Cone, the only two Mets pitchers to throw more than Jake in a season  were Tom Seaver and Dwight Gooden.

Jake is looking to expand on those numbers this season. Right now, Jake has 98 strikeouts over 72 innings. The only N.L. pitchers with more are Patrick Corbin and Scherzer.

Scherzer recorded 133 strikeouts, but in 15 more innings than Jake. The thing is, if Jake didn’t have one start cut short and another skipped, he could have had more than 100 strikeouts before being one third through the season.

A Met pitcher with 300 strikeouts in a season? That sounds both wonderful and made up.

Jake pitches tonight, in the Mets 59^th game of the season. Including tonight, he should still be able to make 20 more starts this season. If he keeps up his incredible K/9 ratio, he could finish the season with anywhere between 255 and 270 strikeouts.

An ERA under 2.0 and 250+ strikeouts would look good on any resume. Scherzer is on pace for 315 strikeouts and 25 wins.

If Jake can keep up the numbers, would the difference in ERA between his and Scherzer’s be enough to pull voting in favor of Jake?

One category that Jake is miles ahead of Scherzer is ERA+. After 12 starts, Jake’s ERA+ is 253 while Scherzer’s is 203.

203 is great, but 253 is phenomenal. Only seven pitchers in history have gone a full season with an ERA+ above 250. The only two to have done it since 1970 are Greg Maddux and Pedro Martinez. It’s more than likely that Jake’s would drop from now, but it should still be a number that’s associated with some of the best.

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Will Jake finish high up in Cy Young voting winning only five to eight games total? He’s a few starts from the halfway point, so the answer isn’t too far away.