MLB futures: Cy Young bets for the second half

The MLB All-Star break is the perfect time to reset and target some futures for the second half of the season. We're specifically interested in the Cy Young Award markets because neither league has a runaway winner to this point.

Here are the two Cy Young bets we're locking in before the season gets back underway.

NL Cy Young: Paul Skenes (+500 FanDuel )

We missed all the juicy prices on Skenes when he first came up from the minor leagues, but this number is only going to keep dropping. The rookie phenom has been spectacular through 11 starts. Skenes is 6-0 with a 1.90 ERA, a 0.920 WHIP and 89 strikeouts already.

The kicker, though, is that he ranks 10th among all pitchers in WAR (3.2) despite pitching only 66.1 innings. For reference, Tarik Skubal leads all pitchers with a 4.5 WAR in 116.0 innings of work. If you extrapolate Skenes' stats to the same number of innings as Skubal, he would have a WAR of 5.6.

The knock against Skenes is going to be his low total innings, but he's that much better than every other contender. The excessive media hype surrounding him doesn't hurt this bet, either.

AL Cy Young: Garrett Crochet (+2500 FD )

Crochet isn't getting enough credit for how dominant he's been this season. The left-hander has a 3.02 ERA through 20 starts, and he leads the league in strikeouts (150) and FIP (2.36). Opposing hitters are batting just .199 with a .318 slugging percentage against him this season.

Crochet also ranks fifth among pitchers in WAR (4.1), which is especially impressive considering the Chicago White Sox have the worst record in MLB at 27-71. Skubal will be a tough favorite to beat, but if Crochet keeps carrying this dreadful team on his back, voters will have no choice but to respect the stellar job he's doing under tough circumstances.