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Corey Kluber is your 2014 American League Cy Young Award, beating out Seattle's Felix Hernandez in a close vote. Kluber received 17 1st-place votes, Hernandez received 13. Chicago's Chris Sale was a distant third, which is understandable, because while he had the best adjusted ERA (ERA) of any AL pitcher, he threw ~60 fewer innings than Kluber or Felix, and that's too wide a margin to overlook.
You can find the full results from the BBWAA here.
Last month I made the case for why Kluber deserved the AL Cy Young. Deserves sometimes have nothing to do with it though, and in that column I noted that I didn't expect Kluber to actually win. Happy to be wrong!
Here are some of the key stats:
Pitcher | IP | ERA | ERA+ | FIP | K% | BB% |
Corey Kluber | 235.2 | 2.44 | 150 | 2.35 | 28.3 | 5.4 |
Felix Hernandez | 236.0 | 2.14 | 170 | 2.56 | 27.2 | 5.0 |
Kluber had the edge in each version of WAR as well, including a margin of more than a full win at FanGraphs.
Going into 2014, Kluber was viewed by most Tribe fans as maybe a decent #3 starter, and was viewed by most of the rest of the world as a guy they'd never heard of. To go in a matter of months from that to being crowned as the very best pitcher in the American League is an incredible accomplishment.
It was one hell of a season for Kluber, one of the best in franchise history, and he joins Gaylord Perry, CC Sabathia, and Cliff Lee as Cy Young winners for the Indians.
Let's party!!!