Tonight's pitching award and more from Aubrey Huff

The Cy Young Award winners will be revealed tonight on MLB Network, and my only interest is checking how many votes were given to Orioles closer Zach Britton.

The Baseball Writers' Association of America requires each ballot to contain five pitchers and I'm wondering how many didn't include Britton.

The finalists are the Red Sox's Rick Porcello, the Indians' Corey Kluber and the Tigers' Justin Verlander. I had a vote and will reveal it after a winner is declared.

Some members of the media again will express outrage or shock that Britton didn't crack the final three. Others will mock the ones who dared to put him on the ballot.

I wrote yesterday about Aubrey Huff's new book "Baseball Junkie: The Rise, Fall and Redemption of a World Series Champion" that's currently available through the Kickstarter campaign and details his struggles with depression, anxiety and addiction. I had plenty of leftovers during our lengthy phone conversation and wanted to share more of his thoughts on his 2 1/2 years with the Orioles.

Huff views his first season in 2007 as "horrible," which led me to check his stats. He batted .280/.337/.442 with 34 doubles, five triples, 15 home runs and 72 RBIs. He became the third Oriole to hit for the cycle, with Felix Pie joining the group two years later.

Horrible is too harsh, but it's a decline compared to previous seasons. However, he won his only Silver Slugger Award and finished 16th in Most Valuable Player voting in the American League the following year after batting .304/.360/.552 with 48 doubles, 32 home runs and 108 RBIs.

"The biggest thing that jumps out to me with my time in Baltimore was the first day I took Adderall. That was the biggest thing," Huff said.

"The guys were great. I knew every year we came into spring training that we were going to suck. There was no doubt. I knew that we weren't going to be good. But I loved the guys on the team - (Brian) Roberts, (Jay) Gibbons, (Kevin) Millar, Paul Bako. It was a blast. It was just a good group of guys. Steve Trachsel. We just had a blast. We just weren't good."

Neither was Huff's idea to make a "joke" about the city in November 2007 on a Tampa-based nationally syndicated morning radio show. While appearing in studio with Bubba The Love Sponge, Huff referred to Baltimore as "a horse(crap) town" and further angered ownership and club officials by discussing other racy and sensitive subjects. The Orioles were paying him $20 million on a three-year contract.

"That's in the book a little bit," Huff said. "It was when I was going through a really (messed) up time in my life. I was a complete train wreck. I wasn't at the time doing Adderall yet, but I was drinking my face off darn near every night. I was just living invincibly, like nothing could go wrong. Just really full of myself, arrogant, cocky. I brushed fans off, I was a jerk to the media. I was probably even a jerk to you. I don't remember. That's part of the Baltimore horse(crap) thing.

"I look back at that night. That was a shock jock show and it was all meant to be fun. I wasn't serious. People took it personally and I was like, 'Oh, no.' Of course, when you're inebriated like I was, you make bad decisions and I did there. So, unfortunately my biggest memory there was calling Baltimore a 'horse(crap) city.' That's not a very good memory to have."

Huff began to mend fences by wearing an "I Heart Baltimore" shirt at FanFest, which was held at Camden Yards.

"Fortunately for me, I said that in the offseason in 2007 after I had a horrible first season with the Orioles and I think 2008 I had the best year of my career, so I kind of hit my way back into forgiveness," Huff said. "But unfortunately for Baltimore, that was the only good year they saw out of me and then 2009 I was gone."

In an interesting twist, the Orioles acquired minor league pitcher Brett Jacobson from the Tigers in exchange for Huff and later packaged him with pitcher Jim Hoey to obtain shortstop J.J. Hardy from the Twins. Huff left his mark by leaving.

"Oh, great, because I had no idea who I was traded for. I couldn't have told you," Huff said. "I know when I was traded from Tampa to Houston, I was traded for Ben Zobrist, so that's a pretty big deal."

Huff is enjoying the Orioles' rise to prominence after 14 straight losing seasons. They've registered five straight non-losing seasons and made the playoffs in 2012, 2014 and 2016.

"It's been fun to watch these guys," he said. "I've been rooting for them more than any other team in baseball besides the Giants. I want to see them get there. I think the city deserves it. Obviously, you've still got (athletic trainers) Richie Bancells and Brian Ebel there that I still love to death. Adam Jones is still there. I'd love to see those guys get a ring.

"What people don't understand is I lived through it with the Giants. The best team doesn't always win the World Series. They just don't. It's hard enough to get to the playoffs. The first nine years of my career were dead last basically with Tampa and Baltimore. Then, I get to the playoffs my first year with San Francisco and we win the World Series. The only two times I've been in the playoffs I've won the World Series in 2010 and 2012, so I'm very spoiled in that way. But in both of those years we weren't the best team. You just don't know when you get to the playoffs."

Included in the post-Huff changes is the switch from Fort Lauderdale to Sarasota for spring training.

"You're soaking in the jet fuel from those jets. Oh, God, it was miserable," Huff said.

"I tell people all the time I'm glad I did it the way I did. I had six years of losing in Tampa and three years of losing in Baltimore, and then winning at the end with San Francisco and winning in that organization. That's a first-class, A-plus organization. I couldn't imagine going to San Francisco my first three years and then going to Tampa and Baltimore."

Huff actually considered a comeback last winter at 39, but it didn't materialize. He has no regrets. It never was really about re-engaging in the competition.

"The only reason I wanted to make a comeback was to inspire people about this story," he said. "I wanted to be able to get it in front of people and use that platform to talk about anxiety-depression. Even if I was a bench player, even if I never played, just to be able to say I came back and use that to inspire people.

"I didn't get a shot in Mexico and nobody wanted to take a look at me, and I thought, 'You know what, maybe this isn't the calling. What if I wrote a book?' That would save so much time and effort on my part. So I think writing the book is going to be able to get to a lot more people."

You can learn more about KickStarter here.

KickStarter is how fans can receive an advance copy of the book in time for the holidays and some extra perks.

Some of the rewards from campaign include a chance to attend the launch party at Huff's house in San Diego, a chance to attend a Giants game in San Diego or San Francisco, team autographed 2010 World Series baseball, replica Rally Thong and the book.

Huff also is releasing a series of short video vignettes called "Behind the Book" that gives fans an inside look into baseball memorabilia collection and more.