The Baseball Writers’ Association of America announced Thursday that Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw has been voted the National League Cy Young Award winner for 2011.
Kershaw, 23, registered a sparkling 2.28 ERA in 33 starts this year, striking out 248 batters and walking only 54 across 233 1/3 innings. He snagged 27 of 32 possible first-place votes to win it handily.
Phillies right-hander Roy Halladay, who had a 2.35 ERA, 220/35 K/BB ratio in 233 2/3 innings this season, finished second with four first-place votes, 21 second-place votes and seven third-place votes.
Phillies left-hander Cliff Lee, who posted a 2.40 ERA and 238/42 K/BB ratio in 232 2/3 innings, finished third in the balloting with five second-place votes, 17 third-place and nine fourth-place votes.
Diamondbacks right-hander Ian Kennedy (2.88 ERA, 198/55 K/BB ratio in 222 innings) finished fourth with one first-place vote, three second-place votes, six third-place votes and 18 fourth-place votes. He was the only candidate other than Kershaw and Hallday to get a first-place nod. Let the outrage begin.
MLB.com put together this snazzy Kershaw retrospective, featuring a wonderful amount of Vin Scully.
