Madison Bumgarner finishes fourth in Cy Young voting, Johnny Cueto sixth

Before the season started, the Giants’ rotation was supposed to be the biggest question mark. If you knew that they would produce two top-10 Cy Young finalists, how many wins would you have predicted? I probably would have gone with 160, but only because I’m cynical.

The season didn’t turn out to be quite that magical, but the starting pitching was just about as outstanding as we could have hoped. Madison Bumgarner finished fourth in the 2016 National League Cy Young Award voting, and his teammate and fellow equiphile Johnny Cueto finished sixth.

Quick notes and facts:

• This was the fourth season in a row in which Bumgarner has finished in the top 10, and fifth season overall that he’s received a vote.
• This is the third time Cueto has finished in the top 10, as he finished fourth in 2012 and was the runner up to Clayton Kershaw in 2014.
• This is the ninth consecutive season in which at least one Giants pitcher has finished with a Cy Young vote
• The last time the Giants didn’t have a pitcher receive a Cy Young vote, Jake Peavy won the award unanimously. Makes you think.
• Makes me think, anyway
• Kenley Jansen didn’t receive a single vote, which is odd, considering the Giants are about a month away from giving him $110 million. This also makes you think

For now, Bumgarner is still on the Juan Marichal career path, which is fine. One World Series MVP is worth at least two Cy Young Awards, which is why I still introduce Edgar Renteria as “two-time Cy Young winner, Edgar Renteria.” Maybe next year is the year for our wondrous, ornery ace. As is, he’s already built one of the most ridiculous resumes a 27-year-old could build.

A season with two Cy Young vote-getters? Probably a good season. Seems like that’s a team that should be hard to beat in the postseason. Would take something pretty special to mess that up. Pretty, pretty special. Yup.

The good news is that both pitchers will be around next year. Here comes that optimism again!