Panthers' Griffin Smith And Wiffle Dees' Kadin Abegg Named Cy Young Award Winners

Throughout the week, we are announcing the winners of each regular season award voted on by all eighteen Managers. A player/manager received 3 points for a 1st place vote, 2 points for a 2nd place vote, and 1 point for a 3rd place vote. Today we announce the 2022 National and American League Cy Young Award winners.

Starting off in the National League, it was Granger Panthers ace Griffin Smith who ran away with the voting as he finished with a total of 48 vote points which was 26 points ahead of Mishawaka's Anthony Rieff who finished in 2nd place.

This is Griffin Smith's record setting 4th Cy Young Award as he continues to separate himself as one of the top pitchers in ORWBL history, only six years into his already polarizing ORWBL career. When Smith won his 3rd Cy Young Award in 2020, he became the first player in ORWBL history to win the award on three different occasions. Now just two years later, he becomes the first person to win Cy Young honors in four separate seasons.

Smith now holds two more Cy Young Awards than George Stainko, Shane Anderson, Andrew Doran, Wes Ellis, Matt Serge, and Jared Emmons as those six players are the other pitchers to have won the award multiple times. In just six years, Smith already has an argument as the most decorated pitcher our league has ever seen. There is no reason to believe that this will be the last time that the young pitcher wins this award either as we are witnessing a phenomenal stretch on the mound out of Smith that will be hard to be beat.

The Granger Panthers won their first ORWBL World Series title last year with Griffin Smith on the mound as he also picked up World Series MVP honors. Fresh off of their 2nd Hometown Cup title a few weeks ago, Smith and the rest of the Panthers are positioned well to defend their ORWBL title. Smith was the only pitcher in the league to win 20 games this season as he finished the year with a 22-4 record, finishing six wins ahead of Maple City's Jared Jonkman's sixteen wins. He finished nine wins ahead of Glen Lee's Kade Stone who finished 2nd in the NL in the wins department with thirteen.

The pitch to contact pitcher struck out 7 batters across 134 2/3 Innings Pitched. Smith is at his best when he is getting opposing hitters out on that front foot as they often hit the ball right to his fielders. That is normally not the recipe for success against Granger as the Panthers now have two Gold Glove Award winners after Daivyn Davis was named the NL Gold Glove Award winner on Wednesday.

Smith's 4.76 ERA ranked 3rd in the NL and 4th in ORWBL while he finished with the 4th most Innings Pitched. He and the rest of the Panthers will look to continue their defense of their World Series title on Sunday as they take on the Mishawaka Meatspins with a trip to the World Series on the line. There will be plenty of great pitching in that series as the top two Cy Young award vote getters from the National League oppose each other.

Moving over to the American League, it was Cityless Wiffle Dees' All Star Kadin Abegg who came away with the most votes to win his first Cy Young Award. Abegg finished with 42 vote points which was 14 points ahead of Maple City's Jared Jonkman who finished with 28.

Just one day after being announced as the American League Manager of the Year, Abegg takes home his 2nd award of the week as he becomes the twentieth different ORWBL pitcher to earn Cy Young honors. As noted in yesterday's Manager of the Year article, Abegg assumed a new role this season as the Manager of the Wiffle Dees. Abegg shined both at the plate and on the mound all season long as he blossomed into one of the top all around players in the league.

His hitting numbers took massive leaps from years past as he also made a run at the American League Comeback Player of the Year Award. On top of getting full time at bats, Abegg assumed the bulk of the Wiffle Dees pitching duties throughout the season. He was voted in by the Manager's as one of the three American League pitchers for the 2022 ORWBL All Star Game.

Abegg finished his breakout season with a 15-4 record on the mound as his 15 wins ranked 3rd in all of ORWBL and 2nd in the American League only behind Jared Jonkman. He finished with 118 Innings Pitched which was the 9th most among pitchers. Despite only having the 9th most Innings Pitched on the mound, Abegg led all of ORWBL with 23 Strikeouts as his wide array of pitches had many hitters looking silly in the batters box. Abegg boasted a very respectable 6.91 ERA as the loaded lineup of the Wiffle Dees scored a lot more than that on many different occasions.

While there were many reasons for the Wiffle Dees 2022 success, Abegg's growth on the mound was arguably the biggest reason that this team was able to finish 22-8 in the regular season while also earning the number 2 seed in the American League Postseason. The crafty pitcher did a great job in their ALDS matchup against Maple City as he did everything that he could on the mound to put Cityless in position to win the series. Although they were not able to close the door on the Magic, the Dees still ended up having a fantastic inaugural season as members of ORWBL.

The Wiffle Dees regular season success has been highlighted all week long as they have now taken home four out of the first five American League awards handed out this week. By winning American League Cy Young honors, Abegg joins himself (AL Manager of the Year), Kody Webb (AL Gold Glove), and Brayden Ruiz (AL Rookie of the Year) as the Wiffle Dees players to earn regular season awards. Tomorrow, we will hand out our final regular season award as we will name the 2022 National and American League Most Valuable Player Award winners.

National League Cy Young Full Results:

Griffin Smith: 48 (Panthers)

Anthony Rieff: 22 (Meatspins)

Kade Stone: 13 (Skeeters)

Aidan Cotter: 8 (Newts)

Jake Lawrence: 5 (Billy Goats)

Doug Benner: 5 (Heat)

Andrew Doran: 5 (Billy Goats)

Jarod Michael: 2 (Kings)

American League Cy Young Full Results:

Kadin Abegg: 42 (Wiffle Dees)

Jared Jonkman: 28 (Magic)