Tampa
Bay Rays left handed pitcher David Price has won the 2012 American
League Cy Young Award. Price, now 27 years old, was the No. 1 pick
in the 2007 draft out of Vanderbilt.
Price
edged out Justin Verlander, who won the award in 2011, by only four
points in the voting by going 20-5 with a 2.56 ERA this season. In
31 starts he tossed 211 innings with a 205-to-59 strikeout-to-walk
ratio. He led the AL in both wins and ERA, finishing sixth in
strikeouts.
He
began his Major League career in 2008, playing a key role out of the
bullpen for the American League Champion Rays. In five seasons he
has been named to three All-Star teams and has posted 61 wins with a
career ERA of 3.16.
In
July of 2003, Price played in the WWBA Junior Division National Championship (now known as the 17u National Championship) with the Chattanooga Colonels. Coming out of high school, he was ranked No.
51 in the class of 2004 by Perfect Game when he was throwing in the
upper-80s to low-90s with obvious room for more in his projectable
6-foot-4, 195-pound frame.
At
Vanderbilt that velocity spiked to 93-95 with the ability to
routinely touch 97 while also honing his slider and changeup. In
three years for the Commodores he went 17-7 with a 2.55 ERA.
Price
finished second to Felix Hernandez in the AL Cy Young voting in 2010
when he went 19-6, 2.72.