Baseball Factory’s Rick Porcello Wins AL Cy Young, Kris Bryant Runs Away With NL MVP Award
Two more Baseball Factory Alumni added major awards to their glowing resumes this week, with Boston’s Rick Porcello winning the Cy Young award as the best pitcher in the American League and Kris Bryant capping off his banner year with the National League Most Valuable Player award.
Porcello set a career high in wins en route to a 22-4 record and leading the Boston Red Sox to the AL East pennant. He set a career high in WHIP with just 1.009 walks and hits allowed per inning and struck out 189 hitters, while only allowing 32 walks. His 223 innings also were a career best, as was his stellar 3.15 ERA. Porcello was the key to the Red Sox resurgence and will look to help the Red Sox get back to the playoffs next year.
Bryant, meanwhile, received 29 of the 30 votes for the NL MVP.
The Las Vegas native did something that nobody else has done, winning the 2013 Golden Spikes Award as the best player in college baseball, the 2014 award as the best player in Minor League Baseball, the 2015 NL Rookie of the Year award and finally he 2016 NL MVP. Bryant led the National League in WAR with 7.7 and slashed .292/.385.554 with 39 home runs and 102 RBIs, to go along with his lead leading 121 runs scored.
On the strength of Bryant and fellow BF alum Anthony Rizzo, the Chicago Cubs broke a 108-year title drought. Only recently 24 years old, Bryant figures to be one of the preeminent superstars for years to come.