Clayton Kershaw officially broke out in 2011.  With a 21-5 record, 2.28 ERA and 248 strikeouts, the southpaw became the 38th pitcher in MLB history to win the pitching triple crown of wins, ERA and strikeouts, the 13th since 1945.  He won a Gold Glove, led the National League in hits per nine innings (6.7) and WHIP (0.977) and ranked second  in the league strikeout rate and innings pitched.

That reads comparably to Justin Verlander's accomplishments yesterday, but where Verlander won in a landslide and garnered MVP buzz, Kershaw is far from a lock to win the Cy Young Award in spite of his rankings.  Why?  Simply, those right behind him in the stats above weren't behind by far.

Roy Halladay posted exceptional numbers as well with a 19-6 record, 2.35 ERA and 220 strikeouts.  Most importantly, he pitched at Citizens Bank Park, one of the league's best hitting parks, while Kershaw pitched at Dodgers Stadium, one of the best pitching parks.  That resulted in a miniscule park-adjusted ERA+ victory for Halladay of 164 to 163 for Kershaw.

Sabermetrically, Halladay led the National League in both rWAR (7.4) and fWAR (8.2), with Kershaw ranking second in both categories.  Doc's talent for limiting free passes game him a comfortable buffer in the FIP-based fWAR.

So what we have here is different ideas of measuring true dominant performance, and in this case, SBNation writers were pretty well split in half.  Kershaw earned one more first place vote than Halladay, but an outlier of a 5th place vote for Kershaw allowed Doc to close the gap to tie Kershaw.

So your National League Cy Young winner is.....Clary Kershaday!

If you aren't satisfied with a dual winner, take the jump to see who the Purple Row staff voted for.

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The various writers around SBNation have spoken, and Justin Verlander will be the American League Cy Young Award this season. You can put it in the bank. With 22 of 24 first place votes, Verlander trounced his competition this season, even resurrecting the endless "Pitcher for MVP?" debate.

Verlander led the league in wins (24), win percentage (.828), innings pitches (251), strikeouts (250), WHIP (0.920), ERA (2.40), ERA+ (170), rWAR (8.6), hits per 9 IP (6.239), games started (34) and Baseball Reference RE24, REW and WPA/LI.  He ranked second to CC Sabathia in fWAR and won the American League pitching triple crown, becoming the 37th pitcher ever (12th since 1945) to accomplish the feat.  Oh, and he will be on the cover of MLB 2k12 next season as well.

Needless to say, Verlander is the landslide winner and will be next Tuesday when BBWAA announces their selection.

There was a pretty clear delineation between 2nd place (Sabathia) and 3rd place (Jered Weaver).  Nearly all agreed with James Shields, CJ Wilson and Dan Haren being the next three best pitchers this season, followed by eight others with a few supporters.

Purple Row's staff vote after the jump.

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The NL and AL Rookie of the Year awards are going to be handed out by the BBWAA next week (11/14), so to make sure we beat them at their own game, SBNation and Purple Row have each done their own voting on the Rookie of the Year awards.

It was a tough year for voting, as there were many fine candidates, such as Daniel Descalso, Trevor Plouffe, and Aneury Rodriguez, but between all of our mixed expertise, we pulled together to make some coherent voting.

SBNation Awards

National League

American League

Purple Row voting after the jump

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Today is the coronation day for Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners. Dubbed King Felix since his arrival in MLB as a ridiculously talented 19 year old in 2005, Hernandez wowed BBWAA voters and fans alike with his MLB best 2.27 ERA over a league leading 249.2 IP, striking out 232 men in the process (2nd in MLB). Ten years ago, Hernandez's mediocre 13-12 record would have meant that his Cy candidacy would have been on life support, but the fact that his other numbers were so good and that his run support was so poor (in his 12 losses the Mariners scored 7 runs total).

Hernandez got 21 out of 28 possible first place votes to get 167 points while David Price and CC Sabathia split the remaining first place ballots to get second (111 points) and third (102 points) respectively.

As Rob Neyer pointed out today, this isn't so much a win for sabermetrics as it is an admission by the BBWAA that they simply don't value W-L record very much these days. Otherwise, pitchers like Cliff Lee, Francisco Liriano, and Jered Weaver would have received more consideration. After all, Hernandez placed only seventh in the AL in FIP, seventh in K/BB ratio, third in xFIP, and third in WAR. It was the more traditional categories of ERA, IP, and Ks that he excelled in.

Still, today's vote is a refreshing change in Cy Young voting -- a Brave New World in which Bartolo Colon and his 21 wins wouldn't win the Cy Young today over a more deserving Johan Santana (as he did in 2005). And really, it's about time, because pitching wins are virtually meaningless when determining the value of a pitcher.

Here's how the Purple Row staff voted a month ago (with lots of analysis).

Full Results after the jump.

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Troy Tulowitzki has been announced today as the Silver Slugger winner at SS in the NL. This is the first time that Tulowitzki has won the Silver Slugger, and it goes right along with his first career Gold Glove award.

This season, Tulowitzki batted .315/.381/.568, good for a .949 OPS, .408 wOBA, and a 150 wRC+, while belting 27 homers and driving in 95 baserunners.

It should be also noted that Tulowitzki missed over a month of time due to a broken wrist suffered in the middle of the season. With a full season, there's no doubt that Tulowitzki would've sent over 30 long balls.

This is a season for more Rockies accolades, as Carlos Gonzalez not only won himself the NL Batting Title, batting .336 on the season, but also brought home his first Gold Glove award as well yesterday. He'll be one of the 3 OF winning a Silver Slugger today, along with Ryan Braun and Matt Holliday.

Gonzalez batted .336/.376/.598, .974 OPS, .416 wOBA, 155 wRC+, hitting 34 homers and 117 RBI. Gonzalez built on his September momentum from 2009 and picked it right back up in 2010 in a true breakout season.

Interestingly enough, Ryan Braun was one of the major award winners in 2007, when Matt Holliday was arguably robbed of the MVP award. Carlos Gonzalez was acquired from Oakland in the Matt Hollday trade. Weeeeeird.

Full Results past the jump

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The AL Gold Glove awards have been announced today. Some of the awards are surprises, others aren't.

For example, Ichiro Suzuki, Carl Crawford, and Franklin Gutierrez all won an award for their OF play. I can't argue much with this, as the 3 of them are probably the best defensive OF in the AL. Brett Gardner of the Yankees was a good choice as well, but again, it's hard to argue with the 3 who did win. This is Ichiro's 10th award, tying an AL record. Only Roberto Clemente and Willy Mays have won more

Derek Jeter is the big surprise - sort of. 2009 was a surprisingly strong season for Jeter in the field, but 2010 was maybe a "makeup" for the previous season's better fielding. This is Jeter's 5th Gold Glove, 4 more than he should have, if Rob Neyer has anything to say about it. It makes you wonder what managers are looking at, and it makes me quiver in fear for Troy Tulowitzki's chances tomorrow.

Full results past the jump

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As voted on by his peers, Carlos Gonzalez has been voted the most outstanding player in the National League over such contemporaries as Troy Tulowitzki, Albert Pujols, Joey Votto, and other excellent players in the NL.

Over the course of the season, Gonzalez batted .336/.376/.598, with 34 homers, 117 RBI, the NL batting crown, and a serious threat to the Triple Crown during August and September.

Gonzalez could also be up for the Players' Choice award, along with World Series attendee Josh Hamilton and potential MVP winner Joey Votto.

Gonzalez led the NL in Hits (197), 3rd in runs scored (111), 4th in HR (34), tied for 6th in 3B (9), 2nd in RBI (117), tied for 10th in SB (26), 3rd in wOBA (.416), 3rd in wRAA (48.4), 9th in WAR (6.0).

An overall exciting breakout year for Carlos Gonzalez, and definitely a player to keep everyone's eyes on Colorado in the next few seasons.

To conclude the Purple Row Awards, today we're going to unveil our balloting for the NL MVP Award.

As Andrew Martin wrote yesterday, the criteria for selecting the Most Valuable Player is pretty complicated and varies wildly. Personally, I lean pretty heavily on value stats when making my selections, giving less weight to contextual greatness than most.

Like the PR staff AL MVP voting, there were 10 players mentioned for the award. Also like the AL MVP voting, the PR staff were unanimous in their selection as MVP.

First Place -- Joey Votto, Cincinatti Reds 

Joey Votto

#19 / First Base / Cincinnati Reds

Height: 6-3

Weight: 235

Bats: L

Throws: R

Born: Sep 10, 1983

	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG
2010 - Joey Votto	150	547	106	177	36	2	37	113	91	125	16	5	.324	.424	.600

Votto didn't win the Triple Crown this year (2nd in BA, 3rd in HR and RBI), or even the Triple Slash Crown (BA/OBP/SLG), but he did get two out of three of the latter, leading the NL in OBP and SLG (and wOBA with an incredible .439, 177 wRC+, 7.4 WAR). The Canadian slugger, who just turned 27, will be a force for years to come. 

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