Brewers: Corbin Burnes Emerging As A 2020 Cy Young Contender

After another dominating performance, Brewers starter Corbin Burnes is emerging as a Cy Young candidate.

Well, well, well, how the tables have turned. In 2019, after I predicted that Corbin Burnes would emerge as an ace and win the Cy Young award, the Brewers young starter turned in an awful season.

Now, in 2020, after reworking his arsenal and mindset during the offseason, Burnes is finally emerging as that ace and Cy Young candidate.

After his most recent outing where he dominated the Tigers, things are looking up for Burnes and the Brewers.

Corbin Burnes Dominating For The Brewers

Let’s talk about Burnes’ outing against the Tigers. He went seven strong innings, allowing just one hit, no runs, no walks, with 11 strikeouts on just 90 pitches. Burnes didn’t allow a hit through the first four innings and faced just one batter over the minimum in his seven innings.

He was carving up hitters left and right, and really only made one bad pitch, which went for the triple.

Burnes has not allowed an earned run in his last three starts and has gone six or more innings in each of those starts, which are the longest starts of his career. After the game Wednesday, Burnes said that was the best start of his career.

He’s allowed just seven hits in his last 19 innings and has 28 strikeouts to just three walks. The Brewers have won each of those three starts.

Another positive is that Burnes is finally getting some run support. In his last three starts, the Brewers have scored seven, nine, and 19 runs. In his previous four outings, the Brewers had just one, two, three, and four runs.

Cy Young Contender

Burnes’ dominance is catching the eyes of the national media, including Pitching Ninja and Robert Murray.

You see those words in there about Burnes emerging in the Cy Young race? That’s absolutely right.

Also, teams tried to acquire him, but he’s not going anywhere.

His ERA is miniscule, hitters across the league and his own team can’t stop talking about how nasty his stuff is. Now the national media is starting to pay some attention as well and the stats speak for themselves.

Now that Burnes has enough innings to qualify, he’s Top 5 in the league in several important categories, including ERA, WHIP, strikeouts, K/9 and he’s leading the league in H/9. Burnes has only allowed more than three hits in an outing one time this year.

The drastic improvement in hits allowed and home runs allowed from last year to this year is very noticeable and part of the keys to his success this year. Last year, fly balls turning into home runs killed Burnes, and this year, almost nothing has left the park against him.

One of the other top contenders for the Cy Young this year, Max Fried of the Braves, just went on the IL and will miss some time which could hurt his chances of winning the award. But there are still guys like Jacob deGrom, Yu Darvish, and Trevor Bauer who are having strong seasons as well he will have to compete with.

Can Burnes actually win the award this year? Maybe. It depends on how the rest of the season goes with Burnes and the other contenders but if Burnes keeps pitching like this he’s going to get some votes.

There’s no doubt that Burnes looks better than last year. His success is paramount for the Brewers going forward.