Voter Who Left Verlander Off His Cy Young Ballot 'Agonized' Over His Choice
By: Evan Jankens
@kingofthekc
Controversy erupted Wednesday night when Rick Porcello won the AL Cy Young award.
This was one of the issues about which Verlander supporters complained the most: Bill Chastain, covers the Tampa Bay Rays for MLB.com, and Fred Goodall, who covers baseball in Tampa for the Associated Press, left Justin Verlander completely off their ballot.
These are the two ballots....J.A. Happ and Masahiro Tanaka both had great years. But better than Verlander? Let the debating begin. pic.twitter.com/feeDdmAsBc
— Jeff Riger (@riger1984) November 17, 2016
All hell broke loose after the announcement. Verlander's fiancee Kate Upton was so worked up she decided to drop some NSFW language into an uncharacteristically lewd tweet.
The New York Daily News caught up with Chastein, who said he did the "best he could."
"I feel bad that people are upset about this; I did the best I could," Chastain told the Daily News. "I went around the clubhouse, I asked guys. I agonized over this. The biggest thing for me was between (Baltimore closer Zach) Britton and Porcello."
Chastain sent in his ballot before the season was over. In fact, it was a week before, according to The Daily News.
At the time, I thought I picked the best five guys," said Chastain, who voted for Porcello, Britton, Kluber, Chris Sale and Masahiro Tanaka in that order. "Maybe I should have waited until the end. When I voted, it looked pretty clear to me."
Chastain added: "I wasn't out to get Verlander, it was nothing personal."
Even if Chastain and Goodall had voted Verlander on their ballots it doesn't guarantee he would have won the award. Porcello got 137 points, beating Verlander by 5 points and making him the third pitcher to win the Cy Young without getting the most first-place votes.