Award Winners

The time has come, 2012 season is fully concluded with the last bit of the awards handed out today.  The MVP awards came out and the Cy Young awards came out already, giving credit to the super stars of 2012. First off the AL Cy Young award went to Tampa Bay Rays pitcher David Price, as he came away on top of Justin Verlander by only four points in the voting.  That is one really close race. Price finished the season with 31 starters and a 2.56 ERA, the best in the AL. He had a 20-5 record and 205 strikeouts.  Price received 14 of 28 first place votes finishing with 153 points, coming out on top after finishing second in the race last year.  Weaver, Rodney, and Hernandez were also in the conversation but the real race was between the big boys.  Voting may have shifted in a different direction and favored Verlander more if the Tigers had come away with the World Series.  But with Prices tough competition in the AL East, voters sided with him and his outstanding numbers.

The National League was a different situation as R.A. Dickey took the award by a landslide getting 209 votes and beating Clayton Kershaw, Johnny Cueto, and Gio Gonzales by plenty. Dickey got 27 first place votes out of 32 total.  The 38 year old pitcher is the first knuckleball pitcher to win the award.  Only two years ago the Mets cut Dickey in the spring training, and now he shows them he is the best in the league.  Dickey went 20-6 with a 2.73 ERA, doing a great job with a poor offense and a tough division.  He got 230 strikeouts and showed the league is not all about young age and pitching speed.  Dickey is the third Met is history to take the award and is someone I look forward to pitching over the next couple years.

Then there were the MVP awards.  Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera won the AL MVP award with 362 points, winning by a ton over Mike Trout who came away with 281. Cabrera slapped 44 homeruns and got 139 RBIs.  There was a lot of talk about why this award should go to the AL Rookie of the year Trout, but how often do you get a Triple Crown winner? Not very often.  A few other players were in the talk, Beltre got 210 votes, Cano came away with 149 and Josh Hamilton took fifth with 127.  Cabrera faced a little extra challenge having to switch back to thirdbase to make space for Fielder, but that did not slow him down when it came to offense.  Cabrera is the second Tiger in a row to win the MVP award after Verlanders wonderful performance last year.   

Last but definitely not least is the National league MVP winner, Buster Posey.  MVPosey came away with the award after a great year supporting the World Series championship team all season.  After taking such a catastrophic injury in the 2011 season, Posey launched his offense and hit great in the challenging AT&T Park surroundings of San Francisco. Posey hit .336 with 24 homeruns, also taking home a couple other awards on the season including his second ring.  Two completed seasons, two rings, sounds good for Posey and the Giants.  Posey finished with 422 points, way out in front of the other runners.  Braun took second with 285 and McCutchen followed him with 245.  Yadier Molina got two first place votes and got 241 total votes.  Though Posey was not the king of power in the NL, he showed that is not always what you need to become the champions. Congratulations to the 2010 Rookie of the Year for coming away with this award, and congratulations to Cabrera, Dickey, and Price for their great 2012 performances.