Skubal Cy Favorite? I Don't Get It.

AL Cy Young Market

Futures are not something that I do very well on in baseball. I've actually drastically reduced the number of plays that I put out for baseball futures. First off, the season is far too long for me to tie up money for that long. Second, I think you can find good odds during the season. I will try and write a futures article to help those who do like baseball futures rack up some plus money options as we go through the remainder of the season. This article is going to look at a really interesting AL Cy Young Market.

Tarik Skubal -110 

I need to be honest about something: The Athletic Pulse is one of few emails that I read daily. It isn't that the newsletter is phenomenal, but it usually is a good digest of the sporting world from the previous day. Today they had a mention about if the season ended Tarik Skubal would be the Cy Young winner. I strongly disagree. He is currently the market favorite and is coming off of a phenomenal start. He also was the Cy Young last year. The Tigers are in first place and look great, so why shouldn't he be? Read on to who I think is a good bet at the moment.

Detroit Tigers LHP Tarik Skubal delivers against the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field. (Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports)

Max Fried +425

Fried is my favorite for the award. The fact that you can get him at this number is crazy to me. He should be, at most, +200 at the current moment. Fried leads the Majors, not just American League, the Majors in ERA. He is 7-0 for the season, and even when wins don't matter much nowadays, he still is one of just three pitchers with seven wins. He has thrown more innings than Skubal who has the same number of starts. His WHIP is at 0.93, which is eighth in the Majors. His batting average against is also the eighth-best in the league. The only thing that Skubal really is better than him at the moment is that he has fewer walks. It is early, and Fried tends to get injured, but he has been phenomenal. 

Nathan Eovaldi +1200

I'm not thinking Eovaldi will win the award, but I also think his value is off. Eovaldi has been one of the best pitchers in the league to start the season, and at 12:1 I think you get some value here. He has made 11 starts, has one complete game shutout (I believe it was the first one of the season, not that it matters much), and he is currently fourth in the Majors with a 1.60 ERA. Most impressive is that he leads all of baseball in WHIP at 0.73. People aren't really hitting him either as they have a .183 batting average against him. Call me nuts here, but the fact that he isn't first, second, or third in odds is absurd to me. 

Additional Options

Hunter Brown looks good right now, but I wouldn't blame you for not betting on him. I don't know that I feel overly confident that he can get this done. Putting together a couple of good months is one thing, but having this last all season isn't something I want to back at just +800. Garrett Crochet is pitching very well for the Red Sox, and he has shown he can keep it up for a full season. However, he is another one that seems like he will be a finalist at best. I don't see him winning the award. Kris Bubic is the only other person to mention. At +3000, Bubic currently is second in the majors in ERA, but he is 12th in average and 13th in WHIP which makes me fairly concerned that he will probably lose his place with the ERA rank.  

Again, I don't bet a lot of futures for baseball, and going against Skubal probably doesn't make a ton of sense given that he has been the best pitcher in baseball for over a year. To me, I'm going to put something on Fried and Eovaldi, as both have odds that I think are decent right now, and I think both would have more votes for Cy Young than Skubal if the season ended today. There is still a lot of season to play, though. 

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