In recent years, Topps has reserved six cards within Series 1 for the AL and NL award winners that are being announced this week (the 2013 set added two more cards to the subset, honoring the AL and NL Defensive Players of the Year). Once again, however, this year's preliminary checklist doesn't specify what numbers are being held for the them. But yesterday, we learned who was named the Cy Young Award winners in both the National and American Leagues.
Congratulations to both Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Max Scherzer of the Detroit Tigers for winning the National League and American League Cy Young Awards. At this point, was there really any need to name "finalists?"
Scherzer was the most dominant starting pitcher in the American League in 2013. With a record of 21-3 record, an ERA of 2.90, 240 strikeouts, and a WHIP of 0.970 in 214.1 innngs of work, winning the Cy Young was a no brainer in the minds of 28 of the 30 voters who chose him as their first place choice (for a grand total of 203 points). Behind him were a duo of pitchers from the Land of the Rising Sun: Yu Darvish (93 points) and Hisashi Iwakuma (73), who were the named finalists for the Award this year. Following them were Anibal Sanchez of the Tigers (46, 1 first place vote), Chris Sale of the White Sox (44, 1), Bartolo Colon of the Athletics (25), Red Sox closer Koji Uehara (10), Felix Hernandez of the Mariners (6), Matt Moore of the Rays (4), and Royals teammates Greg Holland (4) & James Shields (2).
Kershaw takes home his second Cy Young Award (he won in 2011) after leading the NL for the third straight year in ERA (a ridiculous 1.83) to go along with a league leading 232 strikeouts, a 16-9 record, a WHIP of 0.915, 3 complete games, and two shutouts. Claiming 29 of the 30 first place votes (207 points) Kershaw outpaced the rest of the field of contenders, including finalists Adam Wainwright of the Cardinals (86 points, 1 first place vote), NL Rookie of the Year Jose Fernandez (62), Braves closer Craig Kimbrel (39), Matt Harvey of the Mets (39), Cliff Lee of the Phillies (32), Jordan Zimmermann of the Nationals (21), Zack Greinke of the Dodgers (19), Madison Bumgarner of the Giants (3), and Francisco Liriano of the Pirates (3).
The fun concludes on Thursday when the Most Valuable Players in both leagues are announced. Let the debates continue. Did your guy win???
Sincerely,
JayBee Anama
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