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During the last week of the 2012 MLB season, 10 writers from Beyond the Box Score joined forces to create the greatest collaboration of baseball minds the world has ever known [citation needed]. This elite organization, known only as the BtBWAA, was formed for one and only one purpose: To conduct a player awards vote in which the truly meritorious take home the coveted hardware.
We've already announced our picks for MLB Executive of the Year, Silver Sluggers (AL, NL), Gold Gloves (AL, NL), and Rookies of the Year (AL, NL). On Tuesday, we revealed our pick for the AL Cy Young, so today we'll look at the results for National League Cy Young.
Before we get to the results, a few words on the process. Voting began on October 1 (after 159 games had been played) and continued until October 5, with the balloting closing before the first playoff games started. Each writer voted for three candidates, with voting scored Each writer voted for three candidates, with ballots scored on a 9-7-5-3-1 basis.
Without further ado, here are the results:
Ladies and gentlemen, your 2012 NL Cy Young is R.A. Dickey, who narrowly edges out Clayton Kershaw for the honors in what was easily our closest vote. Gio Gonzalez takes home the bronze, followed by Stephen Strasburg, Matt Cain, Craig Kimbrel, and Kris Medlen. Cole Hamels and Aroldis Chapman also get a vote apiece.
Our dividedness was reflected in the distribution of first-place votes. Dickey got five, Kershaw got four, and Gonzalez got one (that's me!).
Based on these results, it looks like the BBWAA did a pretty good job. Dickey won the real Cy Young, followed by Kershaw, Gonzalez, and Cueto, in that order.
This was by far the hardest award for me. For those curious, my ballot went: Gonzalez, Medlen, Kershaw, Dickey, Kimbrel, in that order.