Yes, the Rick Porcello won the Cy Young award. That same guy who Red Sox fans wanted to personally drop kick onto the Mass Pike after an incredibly underwhelming first year in Boston, after signing a 4-year, $82 million deal with the team. Porcello went from worst-to-first himself, as a player, and bringing his own team from worst-to-first, too.
The BBWAA voted Rick Porcello first, Justin Verlander second and Corey Kluber third. This came with a bit of outrage. Porcello racked up only 8 first place votes, whilst Verlander had 14 first place votes. Though, Porcello did end up with 137 total votes, and Verlander came up just short with 132 total votes. Two writers did leave Verlander off of their ballot, which, in my opinion, is blasphemous. Verlander’s fiancee, Kate Upton, took to Twitter to express her feelings about that:
I get the displeasure, Kate, but did you have to bash Rick in the process? Blatant disrespect to Pretty Ricky. Porcello didn’t give a flying heck about Kate’s Twitter tirade:
Anyways, this isn’t the first time Verlander has come just that close to taking the Cy Young award home. In 2012, David Price beat Verlander by a measly four votes in Cy Young voting. Verlander has been on the wrong end of this particular award voting twice in just four years, some of the smallest voting gaps in baseball award history. He’s been only 12 votes away from having 3 Cy Young’s with his name on them.
Porcello is only the fourth Red Sox pitcher to win the Cy Young award, joining Jim Lonborg (1967), Roger Clemens (1986, 1987, 1991) and Pedro Martinez (1999, 2000). Not bad company at all.
Notable Rick Porcello 2016 stats:
W/L: 22-4 (lead MLB in wins, career best in wins, career low in losses)
ERA: 3.15 (career low)
IP: 223 (career high)
WHIP: 1.009 (career low)
CG: 3
K: 189 (career high)
FIP: 3.48
WAR: 5.0 (5th in AL)
ERA+ (adjusted to player’s ballpark): 145
In my opinion, Porcello is 100% deserving of this. He worked his tail off after a disastrous 2015 season to make 2016 the complete opposite. Red Sox fans even joked about Porcello winning the Cy Young before the season even started. All of his coaches praise him for his endless hard work, consistency and reliability. He made it his mission to make Red Sox fans love him and make a “comeback”, and he did just that, and thankfully it was recognized by the baseball community. Say whatever you want about the voting, but if anyone was deserving of this award, it’s Porcello. He was ultimately the most consistent pitcher in the league, and it paid off every five days. He stayed healthy and remained as confident as ever, even making his teammates around him more confident when he took the mound. Who knows if his 2016 success can/will translate to 2017, but at least we know that he’ll try his absolute best to make that happen (Keep in mind, MLB award voting takes place before the first postseason game is played, so no postseason performance is taken into account, only regular season play).
Comentários