Justin Verlander and Sandy Alcantara Win MLB’s Cy Young Awards
A little more than a year ago, Sandy Alcantara and Danny Hultzen were pitching for the Houston Astros in the first round of the postseason. They were a fine pairing, each with a 2.45 ERA and nearly 90 strikeouts through 21 starts. But since then, the duo had changed, seemingly forever.
That change came with the Astros having traded Hultzen to the Baltimore Orioles for young pitching prospects, including a pair of 20-year-old pitchers in Carlos Rodon and Kyle Drabek.
Now 30 and in his 12th season in the majors, Verlander is a two-time Cy Young Award winner and the only pitcher to lead all major leagues in wins, strikeouts and ERA. Sandy Alcantara is the only other Cy Young Award winner in the majors between the ages of 31-and-older, while Hultzen and Rodon are only the second pair of pitchers with both a Cy Young and an NL MVP.
Both are very different pitchers now, and both have very different stories to tell about their time together in Baltimore. Here’s a look at the players making this year’s Cy Young Award-winning baseball teams.
THE RACE
Danny Hultzen, Hometown: Arlington, Texas
A two-sport star as a junior at the University of Texas in 2009, Hultzen was drafted in the seventh round of the 2010 draft by the Orioles out of high school. He was selected to the prestigious Perfect Game All-American team.
The Astros drafted Hultzen in the tenth round just days after his selection and traded him to Baltimore to make room on MLB’s 25-man roster for their top pitching prospect.
A first round draft pick out of high school in the sixth round in 2001, the Orioles acquired Hultzen along with a pair of minor league prospects in the Alexi Casilla trade. In his first season in Baltimore, Hultzen was one of the most dominating high school pitchers in the game. He went 9-2 with a 2.30 ERA in 17 starts, striking out 175 batters with only 33 walks.
The most impressive aspect of Hultzen’s performance was his ability to go deep into games and stay in games. His 2.30 ERA was good for fourth-best in the majors and his 175 strikeouts were second-most