Turnarounds are always amazing to watch in sports. Watching a rookie struggle and then figure it out is always interesting in all levels of sporting events. Baseball is no different, and in some ways is even more fascinating. Last season, Luis Severino was coming off a gangbusters late season callup from 2015 and was expected to elevate to the ace of the staff. Well, even though he threw 96mph on average with the heat, even though he had a lights out slider, he was abysmal as a starter. He was 1-8 with an ERA over 7 as a starter. He was in the pen by seasons end and was lighting it up in shorter stints, making many fans wonder if his future was akin to Betances as a failed starter capable of being a solid 1-2IP pitcher. Well, fastforward one season later, and Sevy has overtaken Tanaka as the ace of the staff and he had the best season by a Yankees pitcher since CC's insane 2011 season in terms of WAR. His ERA is sub 3, something we haven't seen from a Yankees pitcher who threw 190+IP since Cone and Pettitte did so in 1997. Everything about his season has been absolutely amazing and hence, Luis is probably going to finish 3rd in the Cy Young race.
193.1IP 150H 51BB 230K 2.98ERA 10.7K/9IP 4.5K/BB 1.04WHIP 5.5WAR. And this is from a guy who the Yankees have been pulling early to keep his innings down. He also doesn't turn 24 until February and has the highest average velocity of any starter in baseball. He is going to be around for awhile
On to Aaron Judge. He came up last year with a fair amount of fanfare. He homered in his first AB, but proceeded to homer just 3 more times in 84AB's, striking out in half of them. He came into ST needing to win the RF job and didn't win the job until the last day of camp. Oh how Yankee fans are glad he did. Judge has joined the 50HR club, something that hadn't been done in all of baseball since 2013 (and Stanton did it with him). A Yankee hasn't hit 50HRs in 10 seasons. A rookie has never hit 50HR. He is also on pace to be the first player to lead the league in all true outcomes since Dale Murphy in 1985 (HR, K, BB) and something only 5 players have done in history (Ruth did it 4 times). All but one are HOFers (Dale Murphy). Judge also leads baseball in runs scored and has 111RBI. His line is:
.284/.421/.622 50HR, 125R, 111RBI, 124BB, 204K, 9SB. He also happens to play a very good RF for NY (UZR/150 of 7.4). This all leads to his WAR at this point of 7.8.