FanSided's AL Pitcher of the Year: Justin Verlander

Note: Every writer who is a member of the FanSided Family was given the opportunity to vote for who we thought deserved to win multiple awards this season. The awards we voted for were Manager of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Reliever of the Year, Starting Pitcher of the Year, and of course MVP (Most Valuable Player). Every writer for a team in the AL only voted for AL players. Each winner will be announced on FanSided’s general baseball blog, Call to the Pen. However, I will also post the winner every time it is released on the site, give you a link to the article, and throw in my own opinions.

The Pitcher of the Year, or, as it’s better known, the Cy Young Award, is typically an easy one to vote for. This season, it was even easier. This time, we were asked to vote for our top 5 pitchers of the year and my votes and the winners are as follows.

Duh. Justin Verlander. Finishing with a perfect 231 points out of a possible 231 points (meaning every one who voted, voted for him as number one), he earned the AL pitching Triple Crown this season and was close to winning the Triple Crown across the board. He finished the season with 24 wins, 28 quality starts, and led the league with a 0.92 WHIP. Amazing, amazing stuff.

131 points behind Verlander was runner-up Jered Weaver. I had him in third place, just below C.C. Sabathia in my own voting but they were pretty much interchangeable to me. Over FanSided, Sabathia came in third place and 23 points behind Weaver. Weaver finished with 18 wins, 198 strikeouts, a 2.41 ERA, and a 1.01 WHIP. Sabathia earned 19 wins with a 3.00 ERA, 230 strikeouts, and a 1.23 WHIP so they were pretty much equal.

I voted Rays’ starter James Shields fourth as did all of FanSided. He had 16 wins on the season with a 2.82 ERA, 225 strikeouts, and a 1.04 WHIP.

Fifth, I had (possible) future Oriole C.J. Wilson who compiled a 16-7 record, a 2.94 ERA, 206 strikeouts, and a 1.19 WHIP. FanSided didn’t agree with me, however, because he was voted 6th on the list. Just above him was another good starter from the Angels, Dan Haren. He had 16 wins, a 3.17 ERA, 192 strikeouts, and a 1.02 WHIP on the season.

To read the rest of the article, go here!

On the National League side, Clayton Kershaw took the top honors as well as the Triple Crown. He finished with 21 wins, a 2.28 ERA, and 248 strikeouts. Behind him in second place was Philadelphia Phillies ace Roy Halladay. In third place came another Phillies ace by the name of Cliff Lee.

To see the full NL article, go here!