Jump to content
THE BROWNS BOARD

Kluber 3rd in 2016 Cy Young voting, but was on all 30 ballots


mjp28

Recommended Posts

Lost in the close American League Cy Young Award voting between former teammates Rick Porcello and Justin Verlander was the strong finish of their longtime rival. Indians ace Corey Kluber earned three first-place votes on his way to a third-place finish, his second top-three finish in three years.

 

With votes turned in at the end of the regular season, Kluber's role in the Indians' run to the World Series wasn't a factor. Still, his 18-9 record, 3.14 ERA and two shutouts along Cleveland's path to its first division title since 2007 didn't go ignored.

 

Kluber and Porcello were the only pitchers selected on all 30 ballots from members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America announced on Wednesday. In addition to the three first-place votes, Kluber received six votes for second place, a dozen for third, eight fourth-place selections and one for fifth.

 

AL Cy Young Award voting results

 

Pitcher, Team ........1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Pts.

Rick Porcello, Red Sox 8 18 2 1 1 137

Justin Verlander, Tigers 14 2 5 4 3 132

Corey Kluber, Indians 3 6 12 8 1 98 <--- 1 5th?

Zach Britton, Orioles 5 3 2 5 9 72

Chris Sale, White Sox 1 4 9 6 40

J.A. Happ, Blue Jays 3 2 1 14

Aaron Sanchez, Blue Jays 1 3 6

Masahiro Tanaka, Yankees 1 4 6

Andrew Miller, Yankees/Indians 1 3 <--- Andrew 1 4th

Michael Fulmer, Tigers 1 1

Jose Quintana, White Sox 1 1

 

Esurance MLB Awards week concludes Friday on MLB Network and MLB.com at 8 p.m. ET with the MLB Awards. Categories include Best Major Leaguer, Hitter, Pitcher, Rookie, Executive and Manager.

 

Kluber had a case for first-place votes. Among AL starters, Kluber finished first in Fielding Independent Pitching (3.26), second in bWAR (6.5 per Baseball Reference) and fourth in fWAR (5.1 per Fangraphs). He was among the top five in the AL in ERA, innings, strikeouts, WHIP (1.06), shutouts (two), opponents' average (.216), home runs per nine innings (0.9), strikeout percentage (26.4) and strikeout-minus-walk percentage (19.8).

 

A quadriceps issue cut short Kluber's regular season at the end of September. It's unclear if an extra start would've made much difference with voters, though it could've made a difference in the statistical closeness of the race. He fell an inning shy of qualifying for the win when he left his final start after four innings Sept. 26. A victory there, plus one more start in the final series of the regular season, could've given Kluber a 20-win season.

 

Nevertheless, with two strong cases in three years, the ace has forced himself into the conversation among the pitchers to watch going into next season.

 

"Corey has been building this now for four years here, and I think if you put yourself in that position [each season], sometimes you win," Indians manager Terry Francona said Tuesday. "He is now in that conversation with the best pitchers in the game because he's done it year after year, and I think that's the biggest compliment you can give anybody.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...