By Erik Matuszewski Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) — Zack Greinke of the Kansas City Royals won the American League Cy Young Award after recording almost a quarter of his team’s 65 victories this season. The 26-year-old right-hander beat out Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners, Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers and CC Sabathia of the New York Yankees in balloting by the Baseball Writers Association of America for the AL’s best pitcher. Greinke had a 16-8 record for a Royals team that went 65-97 to tie Cleveland for the AL’s second-worst record behind Baltimore (64-98). While Greinke’s 16 wins equaled the fewest for a Cy Young-winning starter in either league, his 2.16 earned-run average was the lowest by an AL pitcher since 2000, when Pedro Martinez won the award with a 1.74 ERA for Boston. “My main goal was to focus on every pitch and not give in to any batter the whole entire year,” Greinke said today during a media conference call. “I felt that if I didn’t make mistakes and be myself, the results would end up being good at the end of the year.” Greinke received 25 of the 28 first-place votes to claim the award, four years after he led the AL with 17 losses. He spent two months away from the sport in 2006 because of a social-anxiety disorder and didn’t become a full-time starter again until 2008. “I’ll try to get a little better from a physical aspect of pitching, but my mental aspect was as good as I could have done this year,” Greinke said. “I’m just going to try to keep it there and not try to change anything.” Vote Breakdown Greinke finished with 134 points to 80 for Hernandez, who received two first-place votes after going 19-5 with a 2.49 ERA. Verlander led one ballot and totaled 14 points, while Sabathia, the 2007 AL Cy Young winner with Cleveland, had 13 points. “I thought Felix had an amazing year and he would get a little more credit,” Greinke said. “I thought it would be real close between the two of us.” Votes were cast before Major League Baseball’s postseason, where Sabathia helped the Yankees win their record-extending 27th World Series championship. Sabathia was 19-8 with a 3.37 ERA in his first season with the Yankees after signing a seven-year, $161 million contract that was the largest in major-league history for a pitcher. Greinke, the Royals’ first-round draft pick in 2002, had a $3.75 million salary this season. He started the year by winning his first six starts and recording a 0.40 ERA. Greinke also finished strongly, going 6-1 with a 1.75 ERA in his last 11 starts. He pitched six complete games, including three shutouts, and was third in the majors with 242 strikeouts in 229 1/3 innings. Royals Winners The previous Kansas City pitchers to win the award were Bret Saberhagen (1985, 1989) and David Cone (1994). Cone was the only other AL pitcher to win the Cy Young with as few as 16 wins and he did it in a strike-shortened season. Brandon Webb of Arizona won the NL award in 2006 with a 16-8 record. Selected members of the writers association vote for their top three Cy Young choices, with players receiving five points for a first-place vote, three for second and one for third. The player with the most points wins. The BBWAA is scheduled to announce the winners of the Manager of the Year Award in the American and National leagues tomorrow. The NL Cy Young Award announcement is set for Nov. 19. To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net
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Zack Greinke Wins AL Cy Young Award Over Hernandez, Verlander, Sabathia
