Milwaukee Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski is having a historic season and is the favorite to win the National League Cy Young Award.
Misiorowski is on pace to set the Brewers' single-season franchise record for ERA, WHIP, hits per nine innings, strikeouts per nine innings and adjudted ERA+. He is currently fifth in the ranks for strikeouts in a single season by a Brewers pitcher and is 42 strikeouts shy of setting the record.
The Brewers limiting his innings and using a six-man rotation could prevent him from reaching the strikeout record, but he could break an MLB record this year. Currently, the best batting average allowed in a season is .167. Pedro Martínez set that mark in 200 with the Boston Red Sox, winning his second consecutive Cy Young Award that season as well.
Trevor Bauer allowed a .159 batting average in 2020, which is technically the all-time best single-season mark, but the 2020 season was shortened due to the pandemic. Misiorowski has a chance to beat that mark as well.
Misiorowski has a .150 batting average allowed this season, a whole 17 points better than Martínez's record-setting mark. With only a handful of starts remaining for Misiorowski, he could lock up the Cy Young Award and the record.
Martínez threw 217 innings and struck out 284 batters in 2000. Misiorowski is not going to reach those marks, but his season is impressive nonetheless. In his first full season, he has a chance to win the Triple Crown and his first Cy Young Award.
Misiorowski will undoubtedly be the Brewers' Game 1 starter in the postseason, and if they want to win the World Series, he will need to continue his dominance in October. He got a taste of October baseball last year, but this year he is going in as the team's ace.