Combination AL Cy Young and MVP Justin Verlander.

There are very few constants in sports.  In Major League Baseball this season, there was pretty much one constant.  Every 5 days, Justin Verlander was going to take the mound for the Detroit Tigers, strike guys out, and take home an almost-guaranteed victory.  Indeed, Justin Verlander was voted the American League’s MVP this year by the Baseball Writers Association of America, and it showed in his numbers.  Verlander’s season was stunning.  He went 24-5 with a 2.40 ERA and struck out 250 batters in 251 innings while leading the AL in wins, winning percentage, starts, innings pitched, strikeouts, WHIP, ERA-plus, and hits per nine innings.  He also snuck in a no-hitter this season.

“I think that a starting pitcher has to do something special to be as valuable or more so than a position player,” said Verlander.  “Obviously, having the chance to play in 160-some games in the case of Miguel, they can obviously have a huge impact every day.  That’s why, I’ve talked about on my day, on a pitcher’s day, the impact we have is tremendous on that game.  So you have to have a great impact almost every time out to supersede (position players) and it happens on rare occasions, and I guess this year was one of those years.”

Here’s a factoid for you.  Justin Verlander is not the first Detroit Tigers pitcher to take home an MVP.  Willie Hernandez was MVP in 1984 and Hal Newhouser took home back-to-back MVP awards in 1944 and 1945; then-Boston ace Roger Clemens became the last starting pitcher to take home the MVP in 1986, with Dennis Eckersley being the last pitcher to take home the award in 1992 as the closer for the Oakland Athletics.  Verlander’s MVP/Cy Young double is the 10th time in history a pitcher has snagged both awards in the same season.

Tags: Verlander, Justin Verlander, Detroit Tigers, MVP, AL MVP, Justin Verlander wins AL MVP, Most Valuable Player, baseball, baseball awards, MLB, Major League Baseball, Roger Clemens, Dennis Eckersley, Justin Verlander first pitcher to win MVP since 1992, BWAA, Baseball Writers Association of America, Hal Newhouser

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