2011 SB Nation Awards: American League Cy Young Winner

by John Sickels on Nov 8, 2025 1:01 PM EST

Every year SB Nation takes a poll of the various Major League Baseball network blogs to determine winners for Rookie of the Year, Cy Young, and Most Valuable Player. The official BBWAA awards come out next week, but we name our own winners this week, continuing today with the American League Cy Young Award.

The 2011 American League Cy Young Award Winner is Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers. The voting:

Num	Name	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	Total
1	Justin Verlander	22	2	Ê	Ê	Ê	162
2	CC Sabathia	2	17	4	1	Ê	96
3	Jered Weaver	Ê	5	10	4	Ê	58
4	James Shields	Ê	Ê	3	8	6	31
5	C.J. Wilson	Ê	Ê	4	4	5	25
6	Dan Haren	Ê	Ê	3	5	4	23
7	Josh Beckett	Ê	Ê	Ê	Ê	3	3
8	David Price	Ê	Ê	Ê	1	Ê	2
9	Jon Lester	Ê	Ê	Ê	1	Ê	2
10	Brandon McCarthy	Ê	Ê	Ê	Ê	2	2
11	Mariano Rivera	Ê	Ê	Ê	Ê	1	1
12	Doug Fister	Ê	Ê	Ê	Ê	1	1
13	Felix Hernandez	Ê	Ê	Ê	Ê	1	1
14	Gio Gonzalez	Ê	Ê	Ê	Ê	1	1

My personal ballot went 1-Verlander, 2-Jered Weaver, 3-C.C. Sabathia, 4-James Shields, 5-Dan Haren.

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Read More: Dan Haren (P - ANA), CC Sabathia (P - NYY), Brandon McCarthy (P - OAK), C.J. Wilson (P - TEX), Justin Verlander (P - DET), Josh Beckett (P - BOS), James Shields (P - TAM), Felix Hernandez (P - SEA), Mariano Rivera (P - NYY), Jered Weaver (P - ANA), Jon Lester (P - BOS), Gio Gonzalez (P - OAK), David Price (P - TAM), Doug Fister (P - DET), Detroit Tigers

Comments

No love for Ricky Romero?

When I saw Haren’s name so high, and Romero’s name missing, I was a bit shocked (granted I was just discussing the two names in my SIM league, so the comparison is fresh in my mind).

ERA
Haren: 3.17
Romero: 2.92

ERA+
Haren: 120
Romero: 146

K/9
Haren: 7.3
Romero: 7.1

WHIP
Haren: 1.024
Romero: 1.138

W/L
Haren: 16-10
Romero: 15-11

Only real differences is in BB/9…

Haren: 1.2
Romero: 3.2

Seems to me, Romero should at least have a vote or 3.

by Domino427 on Nov 8, 2025 1:40 PM EST reply actions

????

I would LOVE to know what two voters actually voted for Sabathia over Verlander…

Ridiculous.

by hunteralan on Nov 8, 2025 4:07 PM EST reply actions

Sabathia was close enough to Verlander that it isn't ridiculous

I would still vote Verlander (and I am a Yankees fan), but it is closer than what many have said.

by cookiedabookie on Nov 8, 2025 4:29 PM EST up reply actions

Not close

Verlander had more innings, less runs, more Ks, less walks, more wins, and most importantly, 1.7 more WAR. This was about as violent a beating you can have in a Cy Young race.

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by rwperu34 on Nov 8, 2025 5:55 PM EST up reply actions

1.7 more rWAR

Fangraphs actually gives CC a 0.1 edge in fWAR, given the significant difference between ERA and xFIP for Verlander, while CC’s ERA and xFIP matched up. Add in the fact that CC played in the much tougher division, routinely starting against the Rays, Red Sox, and Blue Jays. The AL East combined to score 271 runs more than their non-AL East opponents, or 54 runs/per team on average, while the AL Central scored 249 runs less than their non-AL Central opponents, or -41.5 runs. Fact is it was close, even closer if you factor in BABIP variance, and fairly dead even when strength of division is factored in.

by cookiedabookie on Nov 8, 2025 8:43 PM EST up reply actions

Predictive/Descriptive

fWAR, xFIP…etc are great predictive stats, but they are complete crap at describing what actually happened. For descriptive stats (ie the type you use to vote for awards), you want ERA, rWAR, WPA (another stat Verlander dominated) and numbers of that ilk.

This really should be a very easy, slam dunk, unanimous Cy Young award, because Verlander was miles ahead of everybody else.

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by rwperu34 on Nov 8, 2025 10:35 PM EST up reply actions

fWAR

is not a predictive stat

by blue bulldog on Nov 8, 2025 11:07 PM EST up reply actions

I agree with you that most of the focus for awards should be on descriptive stats

I also agree with you that Verlander should be the CY winner. I find it odd that you can’t see that this is not a “very easy, slam dunk” CY case. There is ample statistical evidence to suggest that this race is too close for it to be a “very easy, slam dunk” case. If you switched CC and Verlander’s teams, do you not think that CC would have had a better year than Verlander based on quality of competition?

by cookiedabookie on Nov 9, 2025 8:52 AM EST up reply actions

Divisional Difference

No way is it 30 points of RA/9. I’d be surprised if it’s bigger than 15. Which all goes to my point. Even if you take a huge hypothetical and switch teams, Verlander still has a 30+ point lead in RA/9 and still a big lead in WAR and WPA.

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by rwperu34 on Nov 9, 2025 3:54 PM EST up reply actions

If you can't see it is much closer than "ridiculous" to vote for CC

Than we will just have to agree to disagree.

by cookiedabookie on Nov 9, 2025 4:27 PM EST up reply actions

WAR is definitely not the most important stat

People really need to stop using that as the key to any discussion. Your other stats made your point, WAR did not.

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by King Billy Royal on Nov 9, 2025 10:11 PM EST up reply actions

I would have taken Sabathia's year over JV's.

by mr. maniac on Nov 8, 2025 10:51 PM EST up reply actions

JV

Great, great season. He was always a workhorse. A very good pitcher, but this year he took his level up a notch to elite status in my eyes.

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by sportznut3081 on Nov 8, 2025 5:19 PM EST reply actions