No surprise here, the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) named Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw as the unanimous National League Cy Young award winner for the second consecutive season.

Kershaw led all of baseball in wins (21), ERA (1.77) and was seventh in strikeouts (239) even though he pitched only 198.1 innings. What makes Kershaw’s accomplishments even more astounding (if that is even possible) is that he spent nearly five weeks on the disabled list with a strained teres minor (shoulder) injury yet lost only three of his 27 starts. He also led the league in winning percentage (.875), complete games (6), WHIP (0.857), K/9 (10.8) and K/BB Ratio (7.71).

Kershaw becomes the first pitcher to win consecutive IBWAA Cy Young awards.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

In the American League, the IBWAA awarded the Cy Young to Seattle Mariners ace “King” Felix Hernandez.

Hernandez finished the season with a 15-6 record which actually ranked eighth in the league. However, his league-leading ERA (2.14), WHIP (0.915) H/9 (6.5) and games started (34) pushed him to the top of the IBWAA leaderboard.

The IBWAA put more emphasis on tangible stats such as ERA and WHIP than on wins. It will be interesting to see if the BBWAA does the same thing. (Photo credit – Elaine Thompson)

Here are the IBWAA Cy Young award vote totals as tabulated by Brian Wittig & Associates:

NL Cy Young

1^st Place:     Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers – unanimous, 1106 points
2^nd Place:     Johnny Cueto, Cincinnati Reds – 513 points
3^rd Place:     Adam Wainwright, St. Louis Cardinals – 470 points

4^th Place:     Madison Bumgarner, San Francisco Giants – 179 points

5^th Place:     Jordan Zimmermann, Washington Nationals – 73 points

AL Cy Young

1^st Place:     Felix Hernandez, Seattle Mariners – 69 first-place votes, 815 points

2^nd Place:     Corey Kluber, Cleveland Indians – 75 first-place votes, 765 points
3^rd Place:     Chris Sale, Chicago White Sox – 11 first-place votes, 435 points

4^th Place:     Jon Lester, Oakland Athletics – 221 points

5^th Place:     Max Scherzer, Detroit Tigers – two first-place votes, 192 points

Here is how yours truly voted:

NL Cy Young

1^st Place:     Clayton Kershaw – (I did not vote for anyone else)

AL Cy Young

1^st Place:     Felix Hernandez

2^nd Place:     Chris Sale

3^rd Place:     Corey Kluber

4^th Place:     Jon Lester

5^th Place:     David Price