Houston Astros Ace Near Top of Recent Cy Young Poll

Houston Astros starter Framber Valdez would finish fourth in Cy Young Award voting if the season ended this week, per an MLB.com poll of 49 experts on that award’s race two months into the season.

The experts voted in the same manner that voters for the Cy Young Award will vote at the end of the season — a 5-4-3-2-1 scale format, with five points for a first-place vote, etc.

Valdez received three first-place votes in the poll.

Valdez has been the glue that has held the Astros’ rotation together in spite of a myriad of injuries this season.

The right-hander is 6-4 with a 2.16 ERA through 12 starts. That includes 84 strikeouts and 16 walks. He has one complete game and is tied for the MLB lead in complete-game shutouts with one. Entering his next start he has the best WHIP of his career (1.025) and has a strikeout rate of 9.6 per nine innings.

Valdez is building on last year, when he went 17-6 with a 2.82 ERA in helping the Astros win the World Series. He finished fifth in Cy Young voting, with former teammate Justin Verlander taking the prize.

The leader was Tampa Bay starter Shane McClanahan, who received 29 first-place votes. He was followed by Texas starter Nathan Eovaldi, who received six first-place votes, along with the New York Yankees’ Gerrit Cole, who finished third and also has six first-place votes.

After Valdez was Minnesota starter Sonny Gray, who got two first-place votes.

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