The Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu has been one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball (MLB) this season as he is having his best year of his career. He is the favorite to win the Cy Young Award, an award given out to the best pitcher in each league as he also leads the league in multiple pitching categories.
Ryu is in his seventh season in the MLB after spending seven years pitching professionally in Korea. He made his debut in the Majors in 2013, but due to injuries missed the entire 2015 season and made only one appearance in 2016. Ryu bounced back from injuries the following year and has had two stellar pitching seasons since in 2018 and so far in 2019.
With a 1.45 Earned Run Average (ERA), Ryu has proven his dominance this season. ERA is a statistic measuring the number of earned runs a pitcher allows per nine innings pitched. The less runs a pitcher allows, the lower their ERA will be. Ryu also hasn’t allowed more than two earned runs a start with the exception of one outing this season which has allowed him to keep his ERA to a historically low point. Ryu’s excellence this season allows him to battle for and possibly win the Cy Young award which would obviously be a great achievement for his career.
Hyun-Jin Ryu’s number one competition for the award would be Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals. Scherzer has won the Cy Young Award twice in the last four seasons and three times in his career. He has proven himself to be one of the best pitchers in the game right now.
However, Ryu leads Scherzer in many categories this season. On one hand, Ryu has a lower ERA, allowed less runs and walks, and a lower WHIP which shows how well you keep hitters off of the basepaths by measuring how many walks and hits a pitcher allows per inning. On the other hand, Scherzer also has more strikeouts, which is a big reason why he could possibly win the award over Ryu. If Ryu can keep his ERA low enough and under 2.00 for the remainder of the season, he has a big chance of winning the Cy Young award and being possibly the best Korean player to ever play in the MLB.
If Ryu wins the Cy Young award, he would have a huge impact on the Korean fanbase and community in Korea. Many people would hail him as the best Korean player of all time and his success would provide great joy to Korean fans who may have followed his career since pitching in Korea.
Hyun-Jin Ryu has a legitimate chance at winning the Cy Young award in 2019. His stellar season is having a huge impact on the Korean fanbase and will have an even greater impact if he wins the Cy Young award. If Hyun-Jin Ryu can keep up his dominance until the end of the season, the Cy Young award will be his to take once and for all.
Jonathan Kim, Grade 8
Culver City Middle School
