Why Clayton Kershaw should win the National League Cy Young Award

Jesse Yomtov | USA TODAY

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With the Wednesday announcement of baseball's Cy Young Awards, USA TODAY Sports breaks down the cases for the three National League finalists:

The case for Clayton Kershaw

Despite back issues, Kershaw was the best pitcher on the best team in baseball, leading the National League with a 2.31 ERA and 6.73 K/BB ratio. You can knock the lefty for only making 27 starts and tossing 175 innings, but those aren't that far behind Scherzer, who also missed a few turns over the course of the season.

The case for Max Scherzer

Led the National League with 268 strikeouts and his .178 BAA was the best in the majors. If you subtract a September outing in which he gave up seven runs, Scherzer had a better ERA on the season than Kershaw. He had 15 starts with 10 or more strikeouts and his K/9 was up from his Cy Young season a year ago. Scherzer led the National League with 22 quality starts.

The case for Stephen Strasburg

Strasburg was the best starter in baseball after the All-Star break (0.86 ERA in 10 starts) and helped the Nationals run away with the division even as injuries piled up. He only gave up 13 home runs, best among starters who pitched at least 140 innings. Critics will point to the fact that Strasburg only pitched 175 ⅓ innings and made 28 starts, but both of those are more than Kershaw managed.

X factors

Of all the awards, the NL Cy Young may be the hardest to project this season. It's easy to forget how good Kershaw was in the first half, and we'll have to see if the recency bias of Strasburg's dominant second half factors in. It's been a two-season drought (!) for Kershaw, and voters could choose to reward the three-time winner rather than going back-to-back with Scherzer.

Winning time

It's a toss-up between Kershaw and Scherzer, but the southpaw's performance for the 104-win Dodgers puts him over the top. It may have been his "worst" year since 2012, but Kershaw overcame injuries and deserves the award for his season-long body of work.

PHOTOS: Recent Cy Young winners