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November 5, 2014Cleveland Indians ace starting pitcher Corey Kluber and All-Star left fielder Michael Brantley have been named finalists for the 2014 American Cy Young Award and Most Valuable Player Award, respectively. The top three final vote-getters for the 2014 BBWAA Awards were announced Tuesday evening on the MLB Network.
Kluber, 28, is coming off a season that saw him go 18-9 with a 2.44 ERA in 34 starts. He finished tied for first in the American League in wins (18) and starts (34), second in strikeouts (269) and third in ERA (2.44) and innings pitched (235.2). He is just the fourth Major League pitcher to since 1987 to post 18 wins, a sub-2.50 ERA while recording at least 260 strikeouts, joining Bob Feller (1946) and Luis Tiant (1968) in Indians history and Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens in the last 28 seasons. He is vying to become the fourth Indians pitcher to garner the A.L. Cy Young Award with CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee being the most recent.
Brantley, 27, earned his first American League All-Star selection and led the club and set career-bests in virtually every offensive category, becoming the first Indians player to amass 200 hits, 45+ doubles, 20+ HR, 20+ stolen bases in the 114-year history of the franchise (he’s also just the ninth player in MLB history to reach those numbers). Brantley became the ninth member of the club’s 20 homers/20 steal club and the first Indians hitter since 1996 to record 200 hits. Among AL batters he finished third in in average (.327) and doubles (45), second in hits (200), fourth in on-base pct. (.385), sixth in runs (94), seventh in OPS (.890), eleventh in steals (23) and twelfth in RBI (97). He is vying to become the first Indians AL MVP since Al Rosen in 1953.
Brantley and teammate Yan Gomes were shut out of their Gold Glove nominations, with both awards going to members of the Kansas City Royals—Alex Gordon in left and Salvador Perez behind the plate. Other outfielders to win Gold Gloves this season include a pair of Baltimore Orioles (also a playoff team) thanks to Adam Jones in center and Nick Markakis in right. Eric Hosmer (first) and JJ Hardy (short) rounded out a hardware-filled night for Kansas City and Baltimore.
4 Comments
My opinion is that Kluber deserves the Cy Young, but will fall just short as Felix will still get the old guard votes (and was close enough to deserve it himself).
Brantley is decidedly 3rd in the MVP race. Victor just had that good of a year at the plate and Trout did all his Trout-type things. I can see an argument for 2nd over Martinez, but Michael isn’t beating Mike this year.
Felix should win but I’m anxious to see what Kluber does next year. Can he prove this wasn’t a fluke?
As for Brantley being on that ballot was a win alone. I didn’t expect it. It’s a toss-up for me between Trout and Victor both had help more so Trout but it will be interesting to see who wins.
Totally agree. As an aside, they won’t begin announcing winners until next wk (starting with ROY on Mon and MVP by Thurs). I love baseball, but dear God, EVERYTHING is painfully slow moving in this sport. No wonder why the avg fans get annoyed.
agreed. announce the finalists the day after the WS ends, then have an awards show within the next week and be done with it.