Few were caught off guard on Wednesday evening when former Stetson standout Jacob deGrom added 2018 Cy Young Award winner to his resume.
 
deGrom captured 29 of 30 first place votes from the members of the Baseball Writers Association of American, narrowly missing out on becoming the first unanimous winner since Clayton Kershaw in 2014.
 
The voters were obviously able to look past the historically low run support deGrom received in his 32 starts this season, resulting in a 10-9 overall record. It was the other numbers deGrom posted that jumped off the stat sheet this year.
 
deGrom posted a 1.70 ERA to lead all of Major League Baseball. That number was more than half a run per nine innings better than Aaron Nola of Philadelphia. He allowed the fewest home runs per nine innings in the National League (.415) and dominated the advanced metrics that have become so much a part of the game – leading the NL in eight of the nine major categories that stat junkies hold dear.
 
Those categories include Wins Above Replacement, Adjusted ERA+, Fielding Independent Pitching, Adjusted Pitching Runs, Adjusted Pitching Wins, Base-Our Runs Saved, Win Probability Added and Base-Out Wins Saved.
 
deGrom averaged 11.157 strikeouts per nine innings, second only to Max Scherzer, who has three Cy Young Awards to his credit and finished second this year. deGrom was also second to Scherzer in innings pitched and total strikeouts as well as in strikeout to walk ratio.
 
By capturing the Cy Young Award, deGrom joined an extremely elite fraternity of pitchers who have captured both that award and Rookie of the Year. Only six other players in the history of the game have ever done that – Don Newcombe (same year), Tom Seaver, Rick Sutcliffe, Fernando Valenzuela (same year), Dwight Gooden and Justin Verlander.
 
deGrom was named the National League Rookie of the Year following the 2014 season.
 
The 2018 Cy Young Award was the third for a former Stetson hurler in the last five years. Corey Kluber was named the American League Cy Young winner in 2014 and again in 2017, and the Cleveland Indians Ace was one of three finalists again this year, finishing third behind Blake Snell of Tampa Bay and Verlander.
 
Having two Cy Young Award winners come from the same college baseball program is also an incredibly rare feat. Stetson joins with just four other programs that have produced multiple Cy Young winners.
 
Southern California - which has a total of nine Cy Young Awards, the most of any school – leads the way, having produced a trio of winners in Randy Johnson (5), Tom Seaver (3) and Barry Zito. No other program has produced more than two players to have won the award.
 
Other schools with multiple winners are the University of Missouri (Scherzer and David Cone), Campbell University (brothers Gaylord [2] and Jim Perry) and Stanford University (Jim Longborg and Jack McDowell).
 
With three total Cy Young Awards, Stetson is tied for fourth behind USC, the University of Texas – Roger Clemens won seven on his own – and Missouri. Other schools with three Cy Young Awards are Cincinnati (all from Sandy Koufax) and Campbell.
 
The Cy Young Award was first presented in 1956 with Newcomb winning the award. For the first 11 seasons, it was a combined award, with just one winner. That changed in 1967 when both leagues began presenting a Cy Young Award winner.
 
There have been a total of 82 players who have earned Cy Young Awards - 19 of those players won multiple times, accounting for 56 of the 119 total awards. Of those winners, only 33 came out of a college program. Those 33 players account for 53 of the 119 total awards.
 
About Stetson University Athletics: Stetson University's Athletics Program has a vision of developing a culture of champions athletically, academically and within the community. This vision is accomplished through a mission of recruiting and developing student-athletes, coaches and staff, creating a culture of champions, within and outside of competition. The department operates with five core values: Championship Culture, Integrity, Excellence, Pride/Tradition and Leadership. To learn more about the Vision, Mission and Core Values for Stetson Athletics, visit GoHatters.com and click on Mission Statement under the Inside Athletics tab.