Clayton Kershaw named National League Cy Young Award winner – MLB Update
While analysts and observers continued to rank Philadelphia Phillies’ Roy Halladay above Los Angeles Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw, it was the latter who bagged the 2011 National League Cy Young Award on Thursday, November 17, to officially stamp his authority
in Major League Baseball.
While the Dodgers were baffled by their off-field problems this past season, Kershaw and Matt Kemp continued to show brilliance in their on-field performances, while avoiding all off-field controversies. Now that he has been declared as the supreme National
League pitcher, the Dodgers will be proud of their ace.
Kershaw became the eighth Dodger to win the award and it was the ballclub’s tenth award in total. He was entrusted with the responsibility of pitching on the opening day of the 2011 season and his young shoulders were given the responsibility to lead a rotation,
which was not so established. Dodgers’ manager Don Mattingly showed confidence in Kershaw and that rightly paid off.
However, his contract, at 500-thousand-dollars, was not so tempting. Only 23-years-old, Kershaw is now eligible for arbitration and thus can bad a hefty amount if he manages to negotiate for the next season. He is now the owner of a top baseball award and
if the Dodgers do not give value to Kershaw, other teams might lure him to their side. Where monetary value matters, changing alliance is not an issue.
One notable achievement of Kershaw was his performance against San Francisco Giants’ Tim Lincecum. He faced Lincecum four times during this past season and won every game in a convincing manner. To summarise Kershaw’s performance, he allowed just one earned-run
against Lincecum in 30.1 innings, playing a major role in halting the flow of the defending World Series champions and thus denying them a postseason spot. Although they failed to qualify themselves, their performance towards the end of the season was impressive
and the team will now want a repeat when the new season embarks on April 4, 2012.
In a short span of time, Kershaw has earned a lot of recognition and is compared with some of the best pitchers to have ever played baseball. His performance in the next season will be vital for the Dodgers.
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