Top 5 National League Cy Young Award Candidates

Jimmy Nelson

Yes.

You are reading this right.

The Milwaukee Brewers' Jimmy Nelson is second in this slideshow. It's quite surprising that he is even on this list at all.

I know it sounds ridiculous, but hear me out.

In 23 starts this season, Nelson has a solid, but unspectacular 9-5 record, and a 3.24 ERA, but his underlying numbers are incredibly impressive. His 3.04 FIP is third among NL starters (there is a lot of offense to go around this year), and his 4.0 fWAR is tied with Kershaw for second. He is ahead of the likes of Zack Greinke, Stephen Strasburg and Jacob deGrom in terms of both FIP and fWAR, to put it in perspective. He has been a legitimate top end starter and deserves to be included on this list.

His 21.4% K-BB rate is tied for fourth in the NL, and his 3.32 SIERA sits in fourth place as well. His 27.3% strikeout rate is seventh, and is around seven percent higher than the league average. While it is not the gaudy strikeout numbers Kershaw and Scherzer put up, his strikeout digits are impressive. He's been an ace on a team that is sniffing around the playoff hunt.

Nelson is a long-shot mostly due to his unimpressive win-loss record and ERA, but his underlying numbers suggest that he deserves to be in the conversation.