We're halfway through the season, baseball fans. As expected, Mike Trout is dominating, Giancarlo Stanton is hitting balls out of the park in bunches, and the St. Louis Cardinals have the best record in the majors.

But it's time to pay respect to the pitchers.

The National League is always full of skilled pitchers. This year multiple pitchers are in the running for the Cy Young award. Zack Greinke is the leader in that department right now for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Greinke leads all of MLB in earned runs against average, 1.39. He has an 8-2 record on the mound and a great strikeout to walk ratio. Greinke is a veteran pitcher having debuted for the Kansas City Royals in 2004, but this is his best season to date. Greinke previously won the award in 2009.

His timing couldn't be better because Clayton Kershaw isn't having his best season. The Dodgers are no strangers to greatness on the mound. The Dodgers have produced the most Cy Young winners in MLB history, 12.

Let's also not sleep on Gerrit Cole. Cole currently has the Pittsburgh Pirates in second place in the National League Central with his league leading 13 wins. Cole is just 24 years old, but his command has been terrific this year. He also made his first All-Star game appearance this season. The last Pirates pitcher to win the Cy Young was Doug Drabek in 1990.

And of course, Max Scherzer will always be in contention. Scherzer won the award in 2013 with the Detroit Tigers, and he's pitching phenomenal yet again this year with the Washington Nationals. Scherzer has 10 wins, a 2.11 ERA, and he leads the league in innings pitched. If Scherzer can win the Cy Young award this year, he would be the sixth pitcher to ever win it in both the AL and NL.

In addition to Scherzer, Cole and Greinke, there are also numerous Latin American born pitchers who could very well win the award this year. While the American League has had multiple Latin American winners such as Bartolo Colon, Felix Hernandez and Johan Santana in recent years, the National League hasn't had a Latin American born pitcher win the award since Pedro Martínez did so in 1997 for the Montreal Expos.

Carlos Martinez has been the most underrated pitcher this year. The 23-year-old Dominican has a 10-3 record with 113 strikeouts, that's seven more than Greinke. Martinez has been improving every year in the league, and you can tell the Cardinals have a special player here.

Bartolo Colon got off to a hot start, but recent struggles has risen his season ERA to a 4.46, basically eliminating any chance of a second career Cy Young.

Johnny Cueto has been involved in trade rumors all season long, but that hasn't effect his play. Cueto ranks near the top in most pitching categories, but with so little run support from the Cincinnati Reds offense, it's unlikely he will win the award this year. Last season Cueto placed second in the Cy Young voting to Kershaw in the NL.

It may be a long shot, but Jeurys Familia of the New York Mets actually has a chance. According to ESPN CY Young probability, Familia has the fifth best odds at winning the award this year. Familia has been an outstanding closer this year with 27 saves and a 1.25 ERA.

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