The voting for the Cy Young Award in both leagues this year promised to be intriguing and they did not disappoint with R.A. Dickey winning the award in the National League and David Price receiving the AL honor.
For Dickey, the win was truly historic as he becomes the first knuckleballer ever to win the Cy Young. What made his win even more impressive was his margin of victory as he ran away from a very competitive pack of contenders with 27 of 32 possible first place votes. The only other pitcher to receive multiple first place votes was defending NL Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw, who received just two. Kershaw, who had a very similar if not better stat line than Dickey, was also shockingly completely omitted from two ballots, which would have been a huge controversy had this vote been as close as most expected. Alas, it was Dickey in a landslide, which only makes the story of his career that much more amazing. Now the pressure is really going to be on the Mets to sign the wildly popular Dickey to a contract extension.
In the American League, the vote was much closer, in fact it was one of the closest in history with David Price besting Justin Verlander by a mere four points. With his win, Price became the first Tampa Bay Ray to ever win the Cy Young and he ironically might owe the preservation of that win to his closer, Fernando Rodney. In one of the more scrutinized votes of this award season, Drew Davison of the Fort Worth Star Telegram cast a first place ballot for Rodney. It was the only first place vote to go to anyone other than Price or Verlander and the only vote above third place that Rodney received. Also drawing attention were two Angels beat writers casting the only ballots that placed Jered Weaver second and Justin Verlander third. Those votes only cost Verlander two points, but factor in the Rodney vote as well and the outcome of this award could have been much different.
