RA Dickey is Better Than You Think

Buster Olney of ESPN tweeted out this afternoon that RA Dickey is officially the front-runner for the NL Cy Young Award after notching his 20th win of the season today. Dickey is currently .01 points behind Clayton Kershaw in ERA. He leads the league in strikeouts after recording 13 K's in his victory this afternoon. And he's currently tied for the lead in wins with the Nationals' Gio Gonzalez.

But even with all those achievements, Dickey is better than even what those numbers can say.

Dickey has recorded these league-leading totals with one of the worst bullpens in baseball finishing out many of his games. Off the top of my head I can think of at least 4 separate occasions where Dickey left with the lead and then had it blown by the infamous Mets' BLOWpen.

On top of that the anemic Mets offense has forced Dickey to lose several games where he has given up 2 runs or less because the Mets couldn't muster any support for their ace.

Add all that up and not only do you have a Cy Young candidate, but a pitcher that has achieved greatness with little to zero help. How many wins would Dickey have if he was on the Nationals or the Braves or even the Yankees? A case could be made that he might be pushing 24 or 25 wins.

Dickey has accounted for nearly 30% of the Mets wins this year, more than any other starting pitcher in baseball. He's the hands down Cy Young favorite, but beyond that his season is one all baseball fans should take notice of.

Fear the Knuckler.