This week we are announcing who would win the major baseball awards if the SB Nation baseball bloggers got the vote instead of the BBWAA. On Monday we put up our Rookie of the Year vote and Tuesday we did the AL Cy Young. Today it is the NL Cy Young.
There was a little intrigue in the NL voting (I didn't get a vote, AL bloggers vote on the AL awards). They had a tie between Clayton Kershaw and Roy Hallday.
The way the BBWAA gets the point total is 7 points for a first place vote, 4 for second, 3 for third, 2 for fourth and 1 for 5th. If we just did it 5 for first and so on, Roy Halladay would have won, because one person figured there were 4 pitchers that had a better season than Clayton Kershaw. I find it pretty hard to imagine how you could list him 5th. Which 4 guys do you list in front of him?
But then I'd have given the award to Doc. He won 2 less games than Clayton and Clayton struck out a few more batters (9.57/9 compared to Roy's 8.47). Clayton's ERA was a tiny bit better (2.28 to 2.35). But Clayton pitched his home games in Dodger Stadium while Doc pitched in Citizens Bank Park. Dodgers Stadium is a big time pitchers park, Citizens Bank is a hitters park. They were 1 and 2 in the NL in ERA but I think Halladay's number is more impressive, considering where he pitched.
Doc's WAR (by Fangraphs) was 8.2 while Kershaw's was 6.8, good for first and second in the NL, respectively.
I understand it being a close vote, though I think Roy should have won, but then I don't understand the 5th place vote for Kershaw, so many the tie is the best result.
| Num | Name | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Clayton Kershaw | 14 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 149 |
| 1 | Roy Halladay | 13 | 13 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 149 |
| 3 | Cliff Lee | 0 | 4 | 21 | 2 | 0 | 83 |
| 4 | Ian Kennedy | 0 | 0 | 3 | 14 | 6 | 43 |
| 5 | Cole Hamels | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 8 | 29 |
| 6 | Madison Bumgarner | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
| 7 | Tim Lincecum | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
| 8 | Matt Cain | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| 9 | Chris Carpenter | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 10 | Johnny Cueto | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 11 | Zach Greinke | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 12 | Craig Kimbrel | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Beyond that, who voted for Johnny Cueto? I mean, the guy was kind of good, but he was 9-5 in 24 starts. He threw 156 innings (not enough to be listed in the ERA race) and only struck out 6 per 9. I don't see how you pick that out as one of the top 5 pitchers in the NL. I don't really get the vote for Craig Kimbrel either but I'll write that off to a Braves fan's homerism.