2017 McDonald Award winner: Johnny Cueto

Vancouver's Johnny Cueto easily held off three left-handers and was a near-unanimous selection for the 2017 Ben McDonald Award after a league-leading 22-5 mark.

The 31-year-old Dominican set a career-high in wins and caps a five-year stretch of consistency in which he hasn't missed a start and logged double-digit wins annually. The 22 wins are the highest total in the DMBL since 2014 when Sonny Gray went 23-6 as a rookie for the Durham Bulls (now the Tucson Kingsnakes).

Cueto placed 1st on five of the six ballots; San Francisco ace Chris Sale earned the other 1st place vote, among 13 pitchers who received support:

1. Johnny Cueto, VAN: 5-1-0-0-0---> 57 points
2. Chris Sale, SF: 1-1-3-0-0----> 32 points
3. Rich Hill, TUC: 0-2-1-0-1----> 20 points
4. Clayton Kershaw, HBK: 0-1-1-1-1---> 16 points
5. Jake Arrieta, TUC: 0-1-0-0-0---> 7 points
6. Chris Devenski, LIV: 0-0-0-2-0---> 6 points
7. Jake Odorizzi, BR: 0-0-1-0-1---> 6 points
8. Carlos Martinez, HIL: 0-0-0-1-0---> 3 points
9. Joe Ross, SCS: 0-0-0-1-0---> 3 points 
10. Max Scherzer, HBK: 0-0-0-1-0---> 3 points
11. Tyler Anderson, SF:  0-0-0-0-1---> 1 point
12. Rick Porcello, HBK: 0-0-0-0-1---> 1 point
13. Seung Hwan Oh, TUC: 0-0-0-0-1---> 1 point

Cueto was the only pitcher to appear on all six ballots submitted among the league's 16 owners. It's the sixth time that an Iron Fister has taken home the Larry Benard McDonald Award as the league's most valuable pitcher but Cueto is just the fourth player to win it for Vancouver. Greg Maddux won three in a row (1996-1998) for the Iron Fist. Jake Peavy brought the award to Vancouver during its last title run in 2008 and Zack Greinke did in 2010 for the Iron Fist. In addition to his 22-5 mark, Cueto finished 4th in ERA (2.80), WHIP (1.08) and slugging allowed (.351), tied for 6th in R/9 (10.2), tied for 4th in quality starts (22), and 10th in innings (215.3).

Sale was a favorite among SABRmetricians, going 18-10 but leading the league in WHIP, batting average against and hits per 9 and bearing a heavy workload at 241 innings, second in the league. His three 3rd-place votes were the most of any pitcher. The league's ERA champion, Rich Hill of Tucson and Hoboken ace Clayton Kershaw finished right behind Sale in WHIP but both missed time to injuries and likely why they finished behind him in the voting too. Hill garnered two 2nd-place votes, more than any other recipient, and the rest of the ballots were split all over the place.

Arrieta, last year's McDonald winner, finished 5th on the strength of one 2nd-place vote, just one point ahead of Livingston rookie reliever Chris Devenski and Blue Ridge starter Jake Odorizzi. The final six candidates each garnered one vote apiece, with Hillsborough's Carlos Martinez, Sardine City win leader Joe Ross and the league's strikeout king, Max Scherzer of Hoboken, getting one 4th-place vote each. Rounding out the results with one 5th-place vote each were San Francisco rookie lefty Tyler Anderson, 19-game winner Rick Porcello of Hoboken, and Tucson closer Seung Hwan Oh, the league's saves leader, one of three rookies recognzied on the ballot.

Voting is based on ballots of the league's owners, with 10 points for 1st place; 7 points for second place; 5 points for 3rd place; 3 points for 4th place, and 1 point for 5th place. Six of the league's 16 owners (37.5 percent) voted this year.