Clayton Kershaw won the 2011 National League Cy Young Award, the BBWAA announced. The 23-year-old left-hander becomes the youngest Cy Young winner since Dwight Gooden of the Mets won the award as a 20-year-old in 1985. Kershaw posted a league-leading 2.28 ERA in 233 1/3 innings. He struck out 248 batters while allowing just 54 walks en route to a 21-5 record and his first All-Star Game selection.
“I'm extremely thankful and humbled by this award,” Kershaw in a statement. “The company that I'm in now… just to be mentioned with some of those guys. I'm just in awe. I never thought I'd be here."
Kershaw obtained 27 of 32 possible first place votes to beat runners-up Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee. Nine others obtained votes: Ian Kennedy, Cole Hamels, Tim Lincecum, Yovani Gallardo, Matt Cain, John Axford, Craig Kimbrel, Madison Bumgarner and Ryan Vogelsong. Three Phillies placed in the top five and four fifths of the Giants' rotation obtained votes.
Matt Swartz's work for MLBTR suggests Kershaw will earn roughly $8.7MM as a first-time arbitration eligible player in 2012. The Dodgers, who control the southpaw's rights through 2014, will likely consider a long-term deal for Kershaw this winter.
Congrats well deserved.
I HATE everything about the Dodgers, but Kershaw did deserve it this year!
WHAT?!?! I thought for sure it would be Jake Westbrook…
Well done Kershaw.
Nice! Didn’t expect it but this was the right choice.
who’d you expect to get it?
Looks like we’ve got a serious baseball fan here
He deserved it. Now let’s trade for him!!!!!! jk
Congrats to Kersh.
YESSSSSSS
He deserved that award easy! Well done Clayton
nothing new here, this guy´s year was awesome
Good for Kershaw and well deserved. This is the 2nd best thing that has happened for Dodger fans this off-season so far.
Now, are you putting this ahead of the Kemp extension or McCourt and the MLB coming to an agreement to sell the team?
McCourt agreeing to sell the team. the Kemp extension is nice but nothing helps them more than McCourt leaving.
what was the 1st best thing this offseason? going bankrupt?
He just said what was the best thing, right above your post!
Jealous Giants fan is jealous ;D
Hopefully you don’t get to jealous when Kemp wins the MVP on the 22nd.
hey what happened to that MVP trophy? oh thats right, its in Ryan Braun’s trophy case lol. Anyways, Giants fan or not Kemp was robbed BIG time. Kemp deserved it hands down
As he should have. Good job Clayton!
The Kershawshenk Redemption
Congrats Clayton. Well deserved – especially since you had to put up with Frank McCourt.
He definitely was not better at pitching than Halladay. These writers are cluelessly insane.
What r u talking about?! Kershaw beat Halladay in almost every single stat.. On top of that its not the same potching for a losing team, bankrupt, etc than pitching for a 100 win team with the strongest capital in baseball. You are certainly wrong.
I could make a case for his home/road splits (he was much better at home in the pitcher friendly confines of Dodgers stadium) and the division he plays in (I think he faced the Giants like 5, 6 times).
But I thought Kershaw deserved to win it and if I had a vote, I would have voted for him. I could care less about sabermetrics. He was dominant and put up the best numbers.
he faced Tim Lincecum 4 times and went 4-0 against him.
He may have faced off against Linceccum but he was pitching against the Giants Line Up, which is pretty much a guarantee of 8 shut out innings and 9 k’s.
going against Lincecum= winning 1-0 or 2-1. In other words, you have to be nearly perfect. It doesn’t matter who you’re facing, it is very hard to be that close to perfect. He did it every time.
Oh, right. The Giants line-up that crushed the Phillies in the 2010 NLCS. Don’t ever forget that.
Kershaw, great job. Easily deserved the Cy Young.
Different team.
and yeah he did deserve it, I just said I could make the case, which I did.
no offense, but it was a pretty weak case…
How’s it a weak case? His home road splits clearly showed he pitched better at home and not as well on the road as Halladay did.
I’d be making a better case if I didn’t think he deserved to win it.
That you’re a Phillies fanboy? If Halladay had pitched a better season I would have completely agreed, but Kershaw was the best pitcher in the NL this year and it’s pretty ridiculous if you don’t see that. Not only did he win the pitching Triple Crown but his WHIP was lower than Halladays and it’s not like Halladay didn’t have to go against the Nationals, Marlins and Braves this year who all had weak offense. Compare the batting statistics of the West and East teams alone and you’re argument becomes garbage.
When did I say wasn’t or he didn’t deserve it? Read through the thread.
I think I’ve CLEARLY SAID in this thread that if I had a vote for Kershaw I would have voted for him, I just said he wasn’t head and shoulders over Halladay and that I could make a case for Halladay to win it.
Kershaw was the best pitcher in the NL this year. I would have voted for him for the Cy Young.
i’m thinkblue. your capital letter does not change this.
Just like CC was better than Verlander. Stop complaining.
Brandon McCarthy for the FIPx AL Cy Young Award Winner, it’s not as great as the real Cy Young Award, but in theory…it should be
In what way was CC better than Verlander? He gave up a few less HR but other than that, Verlander beats him (CC FIP was better due to a lower HR rate).
ballparks, bro.
You must be a writer. Kershaw was better. Accept it.
Quit speaking in such absolutes, Halladay had an awesome year but so did Kershaw. It really could’ve gone either way.
You are right.
You know it’s funny, Halladay had a WAR more than 1.0 higher than Kerhsaw, and Sabathia had a WAR of just .1 higher than Verlander. You said CC was robbed, but now you say the NL Cy Young could have gone either way. Why is that?
Only a Sith deals in absolutes.
Darth Pete? Doesn’t exactly have a nice ring to it.
Am I a nerd if I laughed really hard after reading this?
please, explain? I could understand that you think Halladay could have won, but cluelessly insane? Really?
Its insane to give a pitcher a stat to base award voting on that literally every player on his team participates in. You can’t have “pitcher wins” mean anything, baseball is a team game. Explain to me why pitching 6 innings and giving up less runs than your offense means you singlehandedly “won” the game?
Pitcher W-L must be abolished as soon as possible. Its the least logical stat in all of pro sports.
Kershaw didn’t win because of win lose record. If you think thats the reason, you’re lying to yourself.
And you’re preaching to the choir about how useless W/L record is..
I think it had more to do with his amazing WHIP, ERA, and Strikeout Numbers.
Halladay probably wins it if Michael Schwimer doesn’t blow 2 of his leads and Hurricane Irene doesn’t rob him of a start (assuming he pitches well).
I think Kershaw’s numbers are a little skewed by playing in LA (ERA and WHIP), but I can’t argue he doesn’t deserve to win. In fact, I would have voted for him.
Dodger Stadium is not the same pitchers park that it used to be. They cut a very large chunk of foul territory out a few years ago with new seating, and the park is much more nuetral now. its still a pitchers park, just not an extreme.
I’m not saying if he pitched in CBP, he’d have an ERA of 5.00, I’m just saying his ERA and WHIP are probably closer to Halladay.
Guessing: road ERA, it’d probably be around 2.40-2.50ish. His WHIP would probably be 1.00ish because a lot of fly balls in Dodgers stadium are wall scrapers in Philly. Pitching in CBP in the summer is a lot different than pitching in Dodger’s Stadium at night. In addition, hurricane Irene and Michael Schwimer basically removed any chance Halladay had at the wins title.
Not taking anything away from Kershaw and I’m certainly not punishing him, I’m just making the case. I would have voted for him, or anybody who wins the Triple Crown for that matter.
I’m not sure how much Kershaw’s numbers would change because he doesn’t rely on flyballs to win. He is very weak-contact oriented and his ‘flyballs’ are usually weak pop flys. Just an observation from watching so many of Kershaw’s starts
Well his Home/Road splits are pretty drastic. I’m not saying he’d be that much worse, what I’m saying is that when he DOES make a mistake, Dodgers stadium bails him out and if he does get a routine fly ball, in Citizens Bank Park, that ball will carry out of the stadium and into the flower beds.
The ball doesn’t travel well in Dodgers Stadium regardless of the dimensions. I think his numbers would be much more comparable to Halladay and Lee in terms of ERA/WHIP if he played in more of a hitter’s park.
It can also be an effect of small sample sizes. In Kershaw’s case, his away numbers were hurt by a 6ER, 6IP outing in Anaheim, which is a total pitcher’s park. Though he also had a bad outing in Cincinnati.
Also, during day games, Dodger Stadium becomes quite a hitter’s park. Not sure how many home day games Kershaw pitched, but just saying…
Kershaw generally doesn’t give up many deep fly balls. I’d be curious how many fly balls hit against him in Dodger Stadium would’ve gone out in other parks. I doubt it is that many.
CBP multi-year: Batting – 102, Pitching – 101 · one-year: Batting – 105, Pitching – 103
DS multi-year: Batting – 97, Pitching – 97 · one-year: Batting – 98, Pitching – 98
and just to throw a real extreme pitchers park in there…
AT&T multi-year: Batting – 94, Pitching – 93 · one-year: Batting – 89, Pitching – 89
Petco multi-year: Batting – 93, Pitching – 93 · one-year: Batting – 92, Pitching – 92
i don’t remember that much dismissiveness (not from you phillies aces) when Timmy won cy twice in a row in an extreme pitchers park
Tim Linceccum also was that much further out ahead of everybody statistically when he won to my knowledge.
I wasn’t happy when he won it in 2009 though, I thought it was horrible that he got it over Carpenter but whatever.
Like I’ve said at least 3 times in this thread, I would have voted for Kershaw. I think his ERA and his WHIP tick up a few percentage points and his numbers would have been closer to Halladay. I don’t think he was that much better than him and if you use his road stats compared to Halladay’s, that would back that theory up.
Not taking anything away from him, I just said I could have made the case. Again, I would have voted for him and couldn’t be happier for him.
Did you see carpenters innings pitched in 09? Nvm not even going to start an argument.
He missed four starts and still put up better numbers than Linceccum besides strikeouts.
The 2010 MVP missed a ton of time too and still won.
You’re right though, not worth arguing about it, I was just responding to the “why wasn’t there this much outrage with Linceccum.” comment.
trollilicious
Kershaw won the pitching triple crown–how could he not win
lead league in wins on a team that was terrible at producing runs
led league in K’s=dominance over hitters
Led league in WHIP
led league in h/9=another show of dominance over hitters
kershaw put people down…if you managed to avoid striking out you were still probably out
What proof was there that Halladay was better? Damn Philly fans….
FIP AND WAR!!!! (The only “stats” @twitter-15165733:disqus uses)
W/L Kershaw-21-5…roy 19/6
innings are a wash
K/9 Kershaw-9.57 Roy-8.47
BB/9 Kershaw 2.08 Roy.1.35
HR/9 Kershaw .58 Roy .39
BABIP Kershaw- .269 roy-.298
ERA Kershaw-2.28 Roy-2.35
FIP/xFIP Kershaw- 2.47/2.84 Roy-2.20/2.71
WAR- Kershaw 6.8 Roy-8.2
Shut outs Kershaw-1 roy-2
K/BB kershaw-4.59 Roy-6.29
WHIP kershaw-.98 roy-1.04
SIERA Kershaw-2.81 Roy-2.79
to be totally honest it could go either way, I bet kershaw got it simply because he is a new face and had to do this all on the dodgers where as with the phillies roy has won it before and had a great offense to give him support
The great offense thing, IMO is overblown. They both averaged just over 5.5 runs of support a game. Percentage points different, Halladay getting slightly more.
A 23 year old beats experts doc roy halladay and cliff lee. We can expect more CY’s for Kershaw, what an impressive year!
“A 20-year-old wins the pitching triple crown and runs away with the CY young! We can expect a few more for Gooden!”–A Mets fan in 1985.
Parade raining aside, you’re probably right.
Well deserved. Fantastic numbers across the board and looking forward to see how he builds on this performance.
I think the best is yet to come for him.
4 pitchers from the giants got votes.
Phillies with 3 of the top 5 is more impressive, given some of the random guys that get a vote or two each year
4 pitchers on one team getting votes isn’t anything to cough at either though.
are philly fans really going to go on this thread and just complain and say how much better their team and their pitchers are than everyone else? just curious
Its the fans of teams like the giants that feel the need to point it out like noone would notice if they didn’t say so
I’m speaking in general terms, but Philly fans have become VERY vocal over the last few years about how their team is better than everyone else
so what, 4 out of 5 is impressive, you’d be happy too if your rotation was recognized more in the votes, he’s not complaining or jumping up and down saying we’re the best
no they are too busy throwing up on little kids.
NL MVP will be Either Kemp or Braun… My Guess in Braun… Team made the Playoffs, slightly tougher division
AL MVP Will be be Adrian Gonzalez… was the media darling all season, they voted him MVP in July…
“AL MVP Will be be Adrian Gonzalez… was the media darling all season, they voted him MVP in July…”
Doubt it. He wasn’t even the MVP of the Red Sox. My bet is the vote is between Ellsbury, Granderson, and Bautista.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Braun won, but I do think Kemp deserves it. On a losing team he put up a simply amazing season, one hr away from 40/40, lead in every major category with the exception of BA while playing a tougher position than Braun
I’m pulling for Kemp. He was the best position player in the National League, he doesn’t control what team he plays for, the emphasis on winning/losing is stupid to me.
I think in the American League it’s going to go to Verlander, at least that’s the way I see the Writers going. Not saying whether or not I agree with that, just the way I see it playing out.
Would love if Verlander got it, and he might.. esp if Granderson/Cano split votes and Ellsbury and Gonzalez split… But the writers are so filled with Boston love that it will be hard to believe if Gonzalez doesnt take it
I don’t think Granderson is going to finish way ahead of Cano and will be much further split than Ellsbury/Gonzalez. Ellsbury and Gonzalez are arguably in the Top 5. Cano probably is in the bottom 3, and I wouldn’t be shocked if he is left off many ballots.
What I find interesting is that while I understand why people criticize Granderson’s batting average (.261), no one seems to even look at his OBP (.365) which was higher than Jimmy Rollins OBP in his 2007 MVP year (.344)
However, my pick is Ellsbury for MVP also. The Sox did not miss the playoffs because of Ellsbury. If I can recall, he hit a game tying home run in the 9th against Tampa (although the Sox lost) and he hit a go ahead 3 run homer in extra innings that won their final game of the season at YS (I give him all the credit on that HR, but it was off Scott Proctor for crying out loud!)
Shows how awful the rest of the Dodgers were with the Cy Young Winner, the MVP favorite, and 82 wins…
It’s not the NBA, you need more than two star players to make the playoffs.
I agree 100%, but 18 times the MVP and Cy Young have come from the same team. 17 were in the playoffs and the 1962 Dodgers were tied with the Giants and lost in a playoff to get there. This would be the first time that a team out of contention has done it.
Granderson and Kemp
Just like they voted for the Silver Slugger in July. Adrian Gonzalez
had a great year, but was behind Cabrera in every category (traditional
and SABR) yet still won the award.
cabrera was much closer to bautista than gonzalez. best year of his career by far
Vogelsong?? really??
Did you see his numbers? It’s not exactly farfetched that someone gave him a throwaway vote.
ya it was for 5th place to, its whatever really.
Good choice. He deserved it.
Bumgarner 2012 cy young winner.
Easy guy to root for and he’s fun to watch pitch. The only problem is he’s not on my team. Congrats to the kid. Well deserved.
He deserved the award. He was better than (though not by much) both Lee and Halladay. I think Lee had the stuff this year to win but he didn’t have it all together all year. Good for Clayton. Many awards still to come for this fine, young pitcher.
I probably would have voted Halladay, but it’s hard to say that Kershaw isn’t deserving.
^that’s how it’s done, pete
Did you notice that despite Doc’s 2.35 ERA he still under-performed his FIP? That’s the definition of insanity.
Yah, Doc is good. Crazy thing is, he may get even better next year.
Good for both Kershaw and Kemp, but how does a team have the Cy Young winner and MVP and be that bad?
The other players are all bad expect for them.
Proves that Baseball is a very team oriented sport. Can’t dominate with only one or two players.
Have you yet to watch Jose Uribe play or witness the other bums the team rolled out there last year alongside Kemp? Pitching was fine, but Ethier losing his power bat, Furcal stinking until he was traded, Loney doing nothing for half a season, and the significant playing time given to Gwynn, Miles, Carroll, Sellers, Barajas.
“Juan” Uribe I think you mean there. And they rolled out Marcus Thames and Jay Gibbons too. Ugh that team was atrocious.
Kershaw pitches only every 5th day and Kemp can’t cover the whole field and bat 1 thru 8 in the lineup.
What reasoning is there for Ian Kennedy to get a first place vote? Don’t get me wrong he had a great season, but I’d take Halladay, Kershaw, or Lee’s any season.
Obviously a dback writer gave him a 1st place vote. Just like someone gave ackley a 1st place ROY vote.
I thought beat writers were assigned to the opposite league, or am I completely making that up?
I could be wrong, but I didn’t think team writers can vote for their own team members.
Obviously they can otherwise there would be no Unanimous winner lol
I’m pretty sure they can vote for who they want, but I think they’d lose their job if they would have made a ridiculous vote (Like Bronson Arroyo for instance). Many of them tend to make homer picks.
Its funny, for a how dominant and consistent at being dominant Doc is, it just seems like every year he puts a nice run together that another pitcher one ups him.
Look at his stats in non cy young winning years
2002- 19-7, 2.93 ERA 239 IP 168 k 2 cg
2006 – 16-5 3.19 ERA 220 IP 132 k 4 cg
2008 -20-11 2.78 ERA 246 IP 206 k 9 cg
2009 -17-10 2.79 ERA 239 IP 208 k 9 cg
2011 – 19-6 2.35 ERA 233 IP 220 k 8 cg
its nuts that this guy only has 2 CY’s ..
It almost like the Pujols argument. You come to expect such awesome years from these guys that it’s easy to write a narrative for why someone else deserves it more.
I disagree with that point. In each year that Halladay lost you can make the argument that another pitcher was in fact better and it wasn’t because writers were handicapping Halladay.
for sure, and thats what I meant in my post.. I don’t think there’s a reason for Doc not winning other than bad dumb luck that a good pitcher puts together a great year.. Like Lee, Grienke or in this case Kershaw.
It’s the “fresh face” argument too. A player explodes on the scene and writers act like there has been nothing like him ever seen before. In Kershaw, they are somewhat correct (as a lefty).
There are negatives in continued dominance. This is why Steve Nash has 2 MVPs and Kobe has 1.
Kershaw has often been compared in recent years to that other Dodger lefty who exploded on the scene at an early age, you know the one who’s name also starts with a “K.” It’s not entirely a fair comparison to either one really, since the other K didn’t really become massive until he was in his late 20s and Kershaw is getting on top of his game years earlier.
huh, I was expecting the votes between Halladay and Kershaw to be closer than that. Agree with the winner though.
Scott Proctor didn’t get any votes?!?!?! I demand a recount.
Neither did D-Lowe . Go figure .
congrats kersh…you earned it!!!
I’m fine with either pitcher but Halladay was the better pitcher when using advanced metrics IMO.
Numbers are provided plus the ranking within the NL:WAR – Halladay (8.2 – 1st) vs Kershaw (6.8 – 2nd)FIP – Halladay (2.20 – 1st) vs Kershaw (2.47 – 2nd)SIERRA – Halladay (2.79 – 3rd) vs Kershaw (2.81 – 4th)K/BB – Halladay (6.29 – 1st) vs Kershaw (4.59 – 3rd)
The biggest difference lies in their ballparks. The fact that Halladay matched or bested Kershaw in traditional stats (IP, ERA, WHIP) while playing half his games in a little league park is amazing. Compare that to Kershaw pitching in one of the most pitcher friendly parks and the gap widens even more.
Using traditional stats look at both players AWAY lines:
Halladay – 121 IP / 2.23 ERA
Kershaw – 116 IP / 2.87 ERA
The gap between Kershaw’s home ERA and away ERA is OVER a full run to his advantage. Halladay, meanwhile, suffers from a slightly higher ERA at home.
When you add everything up Kershaw’s “stronger” performance is simply a by-product of his home field. Throw Roy Halladay in Dodger stadium for 17 starts and I bet his ERA drops half a run.
This isn’t to take anything away from the amazing year that Kershaw had. However, when you remove something as simple as ballpark it is abundantly clear who the better pitcher in 2011 was.
my guess is that the BBWAA doesn’t bother with the advanced metrics and {gasp} watches the games while checking out true pitcher stats ike k/9, bb/9, BAA, and WHIP. I agree that ERA, wins and HR/9 can all be affected by things such as park size, weather, the defense behind him and so on but those 4 stats i gave you are all on the pitcher and noone else except maybe the catcher.
batting average and WHIP are all on the pitcher? someone needs to watch more games
What’s your reasoning? Unless the scorekeeper is a dunce and can’t reccognize errors, hits and walks are on the pitcher and him only.
hahahahahahaha
I don’t think Halladay’s stats would change that much. I think Kershaw’s would if he was in Citizens Bank Park during the summer vs LA.
You could make that case for Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels that their stats would be that much better (especially Cole) in Dodgers Stadium, but Halladay gives up a ton of fluky base hits and runs that the stadium probably wouldn’t impact him that much.
now he will want a big contract hanging around 100 to 150 million and the dodgers wont for it out and they will lose him to someone like the yankees or redsox where he will win a cy young for them lol
I suggest you search the name Matthew Ryan Kemp on google
Nice, goofy guy. Spoke to him during BP once and he managed to fall over a bucket of balls while showing off his skills at slapstick. Ever since I’ve always liked him.
The most surprising aspect of the voting is that Kershaw received two third place votes. What were those guys thinking?
What they wanted for lunch?
Keith law was one of them
Kershaw: 21-5, 2.28 ERA, 248 SO, 0.98 WHIP, 233.1 IP
Halladay: 19-6, 2.35 ERA, 220 SO, 1.04 WHIP, 233.2 IP
Why should Halladay have won?
Because Halladay had a higher fWAR and rWAR, lower SIERA, lower tERA, better K/BB ratio, lower FIP and xFIP, better HR/FB%.. all with a higher BABIP by 29 points (you know, stats that actually matter on MLBTR?).
Still though, Kershaw had a great season and earned his Cy.
lol, siera, fwar, rwar, fip, bab…. english please.
SIERA: A version of ERA that is solely about the pitchers skill.
fWAR: Fangraphs’ wins above replacement.
rWAR: Baseball Reference’s wins above replacement.
FIP: fielding independent pitching. A tool to show what his ERA should be next season, or should have been this season.
You should know these though. I sense a tongue in your cheek :p
that’s some solid research you did there.
Great year !! At least Roy `I want to be traded` Halladay didn`t win…lol
use quotation marks next time. It took me a full minute to figure out what you actually said. funny though.
i’m a phillies fan, and a huge fan of doc, but I can’t argue with the choice
He won the pitching triple crown. How people are saying anyone else is deserving, is beyond me.
the pitching triple crown: Almost as bad, just as bad, or worse than the hitting triple crown?
Am i missing something here? I thought Ian Kennedy had a great shot to win but no one mentioned him thru the comments. He had an amazing year as well.
Hahahaha.. wait you’re serious?
The Yanks should offer the Dodgers, Cano – Montero – Hughes – Nova – Nunez – Swisher & pick 2 from the group of Phelps/Warren/Dellin/Noesi…..4 Kershaw
No way they turn that down
Stupid for the yankees to put everything out there for one player, no matter how good he is.
I was way off! I thought Miguel Batista locked it up when he 2-hit the Reds in his final start, but I guess that Kershaw guy was alright…
He’s a member of the BBWAA but he doesn’t vote for Cy Young, MVP, etc. The only thing he votes for are HOF players.
The Yanks should offer the Dodgers, Cano – Montero – Hughes – Nova – Nunez – Swisher & pick 2 from the group of Phelps/Warren/Dellin/Noesi…..and 1 prospect to be name later from the group of Culver/Gumbs/Williams/Bichette jr/
No way they turn that down…If they do…Give the Same offer 2 the Giants 4 Tim.L
I’m a Giants fan. I hate the Dodgers. I like seeing three Giants names on that list, but I’ll fully admit that none of them deserved to win. Kershaw did. He had a tremendous year. Congratulations to him. Kemp as MVP makes sense too. He also had a great year.
But after that, I’m back to being a curmudgeon and hating all things Dodgers.
Well deserved.
Congrats to Clayton Kershaw. Seems like a truly good guy with an amazing amount of talent. Looking forward to more great seasons to come. I got to see his 1-0 win over Lincecum and he was dealing.
Dodger fan here.
I think Halladay was slightly more deserving but I’m ok with this choice considering Kemp deserves MVP and is going to lose.
what? why is Kemp going to lose?
the winning ball club factor most likely. Braun was a beast so its not like it wouldn’t be a bad choice.
Yeah, just like Kershaw winn the Cy I don’t have a particularly big issue with Bruan taking MVP. However, I personally feel that Kemp is more deserving but the whole “valuable” debate will probably kill his chances.
I wanna know how someone could have NOT voted for him. Easy winner
I was inclined to think Kershaw would win it simply from Halliday and Lee splitting votes, but for him to outright destroy was very surprising. I’m glad he won (as a Dodger fan, one of our lone highlights) but would have been just as ok if Doc took it because that guy was insane.
I think Kershaw’s 2nd half insanity may have won it for him
Remember how I drafted Kershaw in my keeper league 2 years ago? Yeah, me too! I might just keep him until he’s 40.
cousin of Bob Loblaw… which reminds me I need to check the Bob Loblaw Law Blog.
how far did that $160M payroll take you guys this year?
Yeah.. congrats to your Phils. that kid Worley was no slouch either. I would’ve voted for Worley before Vogelsong.
Yeah, this is the thread about the guy who WON the Cy Young.
Not 3 of the guys who lost, but happened to get votes.
best rotation? possibly. the giants top 3 could give you a run for your money though (lincecum, cain, vogelsong), and in a years time the nats could do the same (strasburg, zimmermann and 1 of either wilson, oswalt, or buehrle. pitching will only get you so far though. 102 wins? sure thats nice, but your magic rotation wasn’t very effective in the postseason and had a mediocre offense to try to supplant that. for the record i am not a giants fan, i am a nationals fan.
But you couldn’t get 3 in the first round.
It doesn’t matter. He was congratulating the pitchers for having a great year. In actuality, the pitchers performed exceptionally well in the playoffs except for a lousy inning from Lee.
..and thats not a biased opinion at all with Worley and Vogelsong. I am a Dodger fan.. I hate the Phils and Giants equally 😉
The correct answer was 160mil got you to the exact same place as 28 other teams. I’m sure the Phillies are happy with their 102 wins but don’t kid yourself into thinking the front office called it a successful season. Teams with insane payrolls like the Phillies, Yanks, Red Sox are all or nothing teams. Anything but a world series title is a failure
I’d disagree with that. I think the Cy Young is a fine award. I think the Voters are sometimes questionable in their judgement, but that doesn’t take away from the winners.
I would have voted for Kershaw over Halladay this year.
“The correct answer was 160mil got you to the exact same place as 28 other teams”
I think you meant 7 other teams. I mean you can’t honestly say Philadelphia accomplished as much as Houston and Minnesota did, can you?
the Giants message board would say otherwise, your guys can’t seem to keep themselves away from it
awwww, come on that’s not fair!! I thought we were your worst enemies now that the Mets have fallen off the face of the earth…
It’s because you’ve beat us. I guess its not as much the Phills, as a whole. Mostly Carlos Ruiz and Matt Stairs. Those guys were brutal.
time #10290294048038 that ive typed this out. Im from NY, born and raised. Moved to LA, couldnt watch yankee games, started to watch dodger games
Kershaw is 23, Halladay is 34. Halladay obviously has the longer track record, but at this point you have to wonder when all the great years will start to catch up. Taking nothing for Doc, but if you’re building a franchise, I take Kershaw before Doc every time
So what does that make us? Chopped liver? Because I don’t like liver.
I always respected the Braves. I hate the Mets and their fans though, especially when they used to come to the Vet and Citizens Bank Park.
I disagree. Honestly, i don’t care what others think. If people really wanna attack an internet posting name, at least i have a way to defend what mine is
Why can’t you be a fan of two different teams?
For me, Kershaw needs to have more than One good, breakout year, I don’t care if he’s 23.
For instance, last year, I would have though King Felix was the 2nd best pitcher in baseball, but he didn’t replicate his performance.
i think it’s settled at this point actually. keeping in mind that these are his age 21-23 seasons, the last 3 years:
SIERA
halladay 2.94
kershaw 3.39
tERA
halladay 3.09
kershaw 2.85
FIP-
halladay 67
kershaw 74
ERA-
halladay 61
kershaw 68
doc is amazing. so is kershaw. except, insanely, kershaw still has a good chance at getting better
look at the last season and a half. He has been very good since June of last year
no i understand, and id probably agree if it didnt happen to me. Now i know more about the dodgers than the yankees
may of 2009*
Doc’s been amazing since 2002.
How are Cubs fans when they swarm in to Philly? They have got to be the most rude, obnoxious and annoying people I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting.
Hey you’re not getting it! The World Series no longer decides the best team. Now there’s a stat for that — probably several!
I disagree Mets fans for me, at least the ones who used to come to the ballpark. I’ve gone to Citi field a lot and never really had a problem with anybody but there were some obnoxious people who came to CBP.
Now it’s mostly Red Sox fans who flock down (and there’s some idiots there too).
I can’t really comment on Cubs fans since I haven’t been to a Cubs/Phillies game since the Vet.
Halladay’s age 21-23 seasons were also around the steroid era and in the AL East.
those are just the last 3 seasons for both players, during which kershaw was 21-23 and halladay was 32-34. halladay’s age 21-23 seasons were bad
A $400MM payroll probably isn’t too far off in MLB.
Im not saying he hasn’t been. Im saying Kershaw has been performing at a very high level for more than 1 breakout year, like you said. He put it all together this year, specifically his walks, but he has been performing for over a season
oh. Yeah he was awful back then.