Had the MLB Cy Young Award been a postseason award, the Giants’ Madison Bumgarner would have been the winner, but since it’s not the obvious winner of the NL award had to be Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers. On the AL side, there was a bit of a surprise as the Cleveland Indians’ Corey Kluber won the award.
Voting for the awards takes place just after the regular season, with 30 members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America picking the winners. They had to giver Kershaw his second straight Cy unanimously. It is also his third Cy in four years.
Kershaw, 26, joins an elite crowd with this win. He’s the youngest winner of three Cys, as the LA Times notes. He’s also just the ninth pitcher to join the three-time winner club.
Some baseball writers have even suggested that Kershaw could win the NL MVP award, which is announced later today. He would be the first NL pitcher to win the MVP since Bob Gibson in 1968.
“I try to think about where I was five years ago, where I was six years ago, just starting out,” Kershaw told the Times. “If you were to tell me I would be in that kind of company, I would have laughed at you. I just wanted to make it. Never really thought that any of this could happen. It's overwhelming. It really is.”
Kershaw’s numbers in the regular season were dizzying. He finished with a 21-3 record and a 1.77 ERA. He threw six shutouts.
The AL Cy Young race was much more interesting, since it was between Kluber and the Seattle Mariners’ Felix Hernandez. In fact, Kluber told Cleveland.com that he thought Hernandez would win.
Kluber finished the season at 18-9 with a 2.44 ERA. What really launched Kluber into the race was his stunning second half, earning a 9-3 record after the All-Star break.
image courtesy of INFevents.com
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