Max Scherzer Now Even-Money Favorite to Win 2019 NL Cy Young Award

Baseball fans have witnessed an incredible run of dominance by Max Scherzer over the past four-plus years. He's won NL Cy Young Award twice in the past four seasons and the oddsmakers really like his chances of making it three out of five.

In what could be the best season of his career with the Washington Nationals, Scherzer remains atop the odds to win the 2019 NL Cy Young Award, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. Now sitting at +100 to win the award, Scherzer has extended his odds-lead from the end of May when he moved ahead of last year's winner, Jacob deGrom.

Dodgers starter Hyun-Jin Ryu, who leads the National League in wins (10), ERA (1.73) and WHIP (0.91), sits in a close second at +160. It's odd to see that Ryu, who has the statistical advantage over Scherzer in almost every stat category, isn't favored to take home NL Cy Young honors.

The Nationals' ace is third in the NL in ERA (2.30), second in wins (9) and second to Ryu in WHIP (0.92). However, what separates Scherzer from Ryu is the extreme disparity in strikeouts and WAR between the two. Scherzer has been mowing down batters at an incredible rate in 2019, having punched out an MLB-leading 181 batters, a whopping 82 more than Ryu has this season. Additionally, Scherzer's 5.5 WAR absolutely dwarfs Ryu's, as the latter owns a 3.7 WAR on the 2019 season.

After Ryu and Scherzer, there's a tremendous drop off in odds for the rest of the field. Walker Buehler (+1400) has the third-best odds to win the NL Cy Young in a field that includes former Cy Young winners like Clayton Kershaw (+2300), Zack Greinke (+2300) and deGrom (+3500).

Barring a historic second half by another pitcher in the the field, we may have a two-horse race for the NL Cy Young Award for the rest of the season.

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Mike Esposito is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Mike Esposito also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username espo6891. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.