Zac Gallen +700 to Win NL Cy Young
The MLB season is long and very unpredictable. However, there is money to be made when it comes to player prop bets. This article will explain why you should bet Zac Gallen +700 to win the NL Cy Young.
The Change In Cy Young Voters
It used to be that to win the Cy Young; you had to lead the league in ERA, Wins, Strikeouts, or a combination of those. However, will new analysis measuring the true value of pitchers, traditional pitching stats are not as important.
This is good news for pitchers who play on bad teams and don’t get run support, as they naturally won’t have as many wins as average pitchers on good teams. When the bullpen blows a lead late, and the starting pitcher doesn’t get the win, it used to affect his voting at the end of the year.
However, now voters are aware that other stats can truly predict if a pitcher is the best in his league or not, and for Zac Gallen, this is great news as he plays for the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Diamondbacks will likely not make the playoff, and Gallen won’t have the highest win totals, but now he shouldn’t be punished for that.
Zac Gallen’s Stats
Although it is early in the season, Zac Gallen currently leads the league in innings pitched and WHIP with a ridiculous 0.798. Gallen also led the league in WHIP last season with a 0.913 and hits per nine innings with a 5.9.
Gallen proved last year that he can be one of the most effective pitchers in baseball at getting hitters out, and if he leads the league in WHIP again on top of continuing his pace to lead the league in innings pitched, he will easily be in the top three for Cy Young voting.
Gallen finished 5th in Cy Young voting last season and is already off to a better start than last season as he improved his strikeouts per nine innings from 9.4 to 11.2, which will also lead to him most likely having over 200 strikeouts.
Gallen’s Stuff
Any pitcher that wins the Cy Young needs to have electric stuff on top of his stats to win the award, as the human voters still value the eye test to a degree. Gallen currently ranks in the 80th percentile of fastball spin rate and whiff percentage.
Gallen also has a great curveball that he uses that is currently helping him reach the 79th percentile in chase rate on pitches outside of the zone. Gallen doesn’t overpower hitters with velocity so seeing these numbers give confidence he knows how to use his stuff to get hitters out.
Overall, +700 is a great return on your investment for a pitcher that already showed a top-five finish in Cy Young voting last season, and has only gotten better for this season. So, do yourself a favor and place your futures bet on Zac Gallen to win NL Cy Young.
