Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Corey Kluber Wins BBWAA's 2014 AL Cy Young Award!

way to go, CyKluber! today, on November 12, it was announced that Corey Kluber won Baseball Writers' Association of America's 2014 American League Cy Young Award! this is Kluber's first career Cy Young. he was a finalist along with Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners and Chris Sale of the Chicago White Sox, and he won the award by 10 points.

photo courtesy of @Indians twitter
photo courtesy of @MLBastian twitter

after he was revealed as the winner, in typical stoic Klubot fashion, he looked off camera to his wife, Amanda, and gave her the thumbs up lol

photo cropped from a video on Indians.com

two writers in each American League city cast their ballots for this award before the conclusion of the regular season. a 1st place vote is worth 7 points, 2nd place is worth 4, 3rd place is worth 3, 4th place is worth 2, and 5th place is worth 1.

here are the complete AL Cy Young voting results:
Player, Team
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
Points
Corey Kluber, Indians17112

169
Felix Hernandez, Mariners1317


159
Chris Sale, White Sox
2195378
Jon Lester, Red Sox/Athletics

315746
Max Scherzer, Tigers

46832
David Price, Rays/Tigers

23416
Phil Hughes, Twins


146
Wade Davis, Royals



33
Greg Holland, Royals



11
 *chart copy and pasted from BBWAA's website

Kluber and Hernandez were the only 2 players to appear on every individual ballot. Dennis Manoloff of The Plain Dealer and Jim Ingraham of The News-Herald were Cleveland's media voters for this award and, of course, they voted for our boy. to see all the individual ballots, click here.

now let's take a quick look back at some of Kluber's final #s for the 2014 season:
18-9 record
235.2 IP
269 K
51 BB
64 ER
2.44 ERA
2.35 FIP
34 G, 3 CG, 1 SHO

he also
--worked into the 7th inning in 26 of his 34 starts
--struck out 8 or more batters in 21 games
--struck out 10 or more batters in 11 games
--struck out a season-high 14 batters in a single game 2 times
**thanks to Hoynsie for these tidbits
 
photo courtesy of @ESPNStatsInfo twitter

and he did all that in his first full season in the big leagues and on a $514,000 salary. the bonus he received for winning this award is reportedly between just $10,000 and $25,000. hey, Cor, ask for a BIG raise in a long-term deal ;D

Kluber had this say about his first Cy Young: "yeah, it's pretty awesome. i definitely didn't expect it, so it's a pleasant surprise. i'm definitely surprised. it's a credit to all the hard work and stuff that i've put in through the past. a lot of people have helped me out along the way. a lot of things had to come together at the right time."

"when i switched to that [sinker] pitch instead of a four-seam fastball it really allowed me to command my fastball better, and that in turn made all my other pitches more effective. it all came together at the right time this year i guess."

has that slurve always been his go-to offspeed pitch? "uh yeah. it's kind of evolved over time. there's been, for the most part, the same grip since college, tweaking things here and there. because it's a pitch i've thrown for so long, it's something that i'm pretty comfortable with."

so what does he plan to work on to get better? "i think there's always room for improvement and i think you can improve every pitch, become more consistent with them. me personally, i think my biggest pitch that i can improve on is the changeup."

and how is he going to celebrate this momentous occasion? "probably go home and give my daughters a bath or something boring like that." well, Kendall and Kennedy are lucky little girls to have a father like him lol =D

photo courtesy of @AmandaKluber twitter

Kluber did another interview with MLB Tonight to talk about his award and his season. you can watch that one here.

prior to Kluber, the last Indians player to win the Cy Young Award was Cliff Lee in 2008. C.C. Sabathia and Gaylord Perry are the only other Indians to win Cy Youngs (2007 and 1972) in franchise history.

photo courtesy of @dmansworld474 twitter

Kluber became the ace of the Indians' pitching staff long before the Justin Masterson trade to the Cardinals on July 30. he's a true team leader and had one hell of an outstanding season. congratulations, Corey! well-deserved! =D

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