Clayton Kershaw, NL’s 2011 Cy Young Award winner; supersedes Roy Halladay -- MLB News
Clayton Kershaw is booming with full throttle. Bringing some good news to an already depressed Los Angeles Dodgers, the left-hand starting pitcher has proved that he’s ready to make an impact in the game.
At a mere age of 23, Kershaw has won many laurels that not many individuals have secured in baseball. Playing for the Dodgers for just 1 season, the 2010/2011 season, he has recorded impressive stats that helped him gather 7 prestigious awards, including
the National League (NL) Cy Young Award 2011.
The Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) conducted the balloting to select the best pitcher for the 2010/2011season on Friday, November 18th. The highly probable nominee to be picked, who has already made his place in the news because of his prolific
statistics, is none other than Clayton Kershaw.
The voting system used for selecting the winner of this award is somewhat same as the Rookie of the Year award. 32 members of the BBWAA, representing 16 National Leagues with 2 writers for each league, vote for the best pitcher for 5 places. A vote for the
1st place gives the recipient 7 points, a 2nd place vote makes the recipient eligible to collect 4 points, 3rd place gives 3 points, 4th place results in 2 points whereas the last and the 5th place adds just one point, giving a tabulation methodology of, 7-4-3-2-1.
Clayton’s performance was the driving factor that led the decision makers in giving the 23-year-old young lad the 1st place, almost unanimously. Clayton scored a total of 207 points, accumulated from 27 1st place votes, three 2nd place votes and
two 3rd place votes.
An important aspect that the young lad will remember for a lifetime is the fact that he substantially superseded the two time winner of the Cy Young Award, Roy Halladay, Philadelphia Phillies’ pitcher. Another factor that is likely to motivate him to further
enhance his game is that he is the second youngest player to win the award since Dwight Gooden. Gooden was a New York Mets’ player who won the award in 1985 at a very young age of 20.
As far as Clayton’s stats are concerned, being associated with Dodgers since 2008, in 2011, the Texan born had an impressive year. In all the 33 games he played, Kershaw pitched as a starting pitcher and secured an astonishing 21-5 win-loss figure, while
posting a .808 win-loss percentage.
In 233 1/3 innings pitched, the Texan lad restricted the opposing hitters to an Earned Run Average ERA of just 2.28, while striking out 248 hitters and securing a WHIP of .977.
Kershaw also made a major impact in the National league. He secured the first position in terms of wins, strike outs, ERA, and WHIP, a second position in win percentage statistic and 3rd position in games completed (5) and innings pitched.
Clayton has also been glorified with numerous awards, including the All-star, Gold Glove Award, NL Triple Crown and Strike out Award, and the MLB ERA Champion Award, all won in 2011. Kershaw is the 10th Dodger to secure the NL Cy Young Award.
Roy Halladay, the right-hand starting pitcher for Philadelphia Phillies, was second to Clayton with a total of 133 points, accumulated through four 1st place votes among others. Nicknamed, The Doc, Roy was the 2010 Cy Young Award winner but this year, he
wasn’t able to perform as well as Kershaw did. In 2011, the 8 time All-Star player had a win-loss ratio of 19-6 and an ERA of 2.35. He completed 8 games out of 32, the 2nd highest in the league, and was able to strike out 220 batters, sending them back to
the dugout.
Roy has a total of 1,934 strike outs with a win-loss record of 188-92 in his illustrious career, ranging from 1998 to 2011.
On the other hand, the young gun, Clayton, in his short 4-year career with Dodgers, has a win-loss statistic of 47-28 along with an impressive total of 745 strike outs. If both these individuals are compared in the long run, Roy may be a mentor for Clayton,
who is likely to far exceed his record.
A total of 12 men were selected to contend for the Cy Young Award 2011 and the details of the total points gathered by them are as follows:-
Pitcher, Team
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
Points
Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers
27
3
2
207
Roy Halladay, Philadelphia Phillies
4
21
7
133
Cliff Lee, Philadelphia Phillies
5
17
9
1
90
Ian Kennedy, Arizona Diamondbacks
1
3
6
18
3
76
Cole Hamels, Philadelphia Phillies
2
13
17
Tim Lincecum, San Francisco Giants
1
5
7
Yovani Gallardo, Milwaukee Brewers
1
3
5
Matt Cain, San Francisco Giants
1
1
3
John Axford, Milwaukee Brewers
2
2
Craig Kimbrel, Atlanta Braves
2
2
Madison Bumgarner, San Francisco Giants
1
1
Ryan Vogelsong, San Francisco Giants
1
1
Kershaw is happy about winning the award but he has a long way to go ahead. With immense competition ahead, he has a major advantage of still being young age, giving him ample time to learn the game. Clayton Kershaw can definitely become the future Chris
Carpenter, provided he remains consistent with his performance.
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