TBOH 2016 Predictions: AL Cy Young Award
By Matt Veasey
Major League Baseball 2016 award winner predictions are now being released by the TBOH staff.
Our staff has just released our predictions for the winners of each division, as well as our postseason predictions, including the 2016 World Series winner. I released my own predictions for the Phillies in the coming season. Now we begin the process of releasing our predictions for some of MLB’s major award winners.
The Cy Young Award is given annually to the top pitchers in Major League Baseball. Instituted for the 1956 season, the award was originally given to just one pitcher as the best in all of baseball from 1956 through the 1966 season.
In the American League, 11 different pitchers have won the award over the last 11 years. Johan Santana became the last to win it multiple times in the 2004 and 2006 seasons. Former Phillies stars Roy Halladay in 2003 with the Toronto Blue Jays and Cliff Lee in 2008 with the Cleveland Indians have won the AL version of the award.
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The last two years saw surprise winners in the junior circuit, as both Corey Kluber of the Cleveland Indians and Dallas Keuchel of the Houston Astros came apparently out of nowhere to take home the honors.
Kluber was a 28-year old with just 13 career victories before going 18-9 with a 2.44 ERA and 269 strikeouts over 235.2 innings to win the 2014 award. A year ago, Keuchel went 20-8 with a 2.48 ERA and 216 K’s over 232 innings to take home the honors after the 27-year old entered the season with just 21 career victories.
This year, our TBOH staffers could not come up with a clear favorite. However, a pair of pitchers each received three votes to become our front-runners for the 2016 American League Cy Young Award.
David Price signed as a free agent with the Boston Red Sox, and is one of the reasons that many are picking the Bosox to go from worst-to-first in the AL East. He won the award as a member of the Tampa Bay Rays back in 2012, and finished as the runner-up with the Rays back in 2010 and last season while with the Toronto Blue Jays.
Chris Sale is a big, lanky left-hander with the Chicago White Sox who finished fourth in the voting a year ago. The 27-year old has finished in the top six of the AL Cy Young voting for the last four seasons since first transitioning from the bullpen to the rotation with the Chisox.
Besides that pair, single votes for this year’s honors went to Kluber as well as 27-year old right-hander Chris Archer of Tampa Bay. Archer finished fifth in the actual voting a year ago, while Kluber followed up his 2014 win with another strong season that saw him finish 9th in the voting.