Having trouble with the idea of the league leader in walks winning the NL Cy Young Award? Can’t stomach the idea of a Cy Young winner who has never pitched eight innings in a major league game? Hard to believe the Cy could go to someone who ranks 10th in innings and WHIP in his league?
Get used to it. Padres lefthander Blake Snell represents the state of the art of pitching. And nobody has been better in the National League.
The main idea of pitching is not to generate fancy rate stats or, as happened a generation ago, to “eat up innings.” It is to disrupt and diminish hitting as much as possible, especially slugging. Even with his 97 walks, Snell has been the best at that task.