Roy Halladay has to make more room on his mantle as he’s going home with his third Cy Young award and second consecutive. Halladay finished with ****** votes. Many pundits thought Los Angeles Dodger Clayton Kershaw would walk home with the honor but, voters gave the nod to the Philadelphia Philly for whatever reason.. .stupid Phillies. Halladay lead the league in complete games and ERA+ while pitching in the hitters heaven that is Citizens Bank Park. Halladay finished second in the league with a 2.35 ERA and third in strikeouts. Halladay, teammate Cliff Lee, and Kershaw were separated by .12 ERA points or about 3 runs over the course of the entire season. Additionally, the threesome were seperated by just 20 strikeouts over the course of the season, or about .6 more strikeouts per start. So why did the Philadelphia right hander go home with the award?
Voters likely turned to Halladay’s strikeout per walk rate and other park factors. The vote continues the shift away from traditional stats and increases the sabermetrics hold in voters’ decision making. Halladay lead the league in WAR according to both B-R and fangraphs. Of Halladay’s 32 starts, he lasted at least 7 innings in 24 of them (75%). He gave up 2 earned runs or less in 22 starts. The model of consistency, Halladay again dominated the National League.
Halladay’s first place finish marks the 7th time in the past 9 years that he’s finished in the top 5 in Cy Young voting. I wonder if that’s a record. (O, nope. I looked up Greg Maddux on B-R.com and he finished in the top five 8 out of 9 years including 7 in a row from 1992-1998. I wonder if that’s a record.)
I hope Roy’s mantle has more room as I expect he may be getting more awards in the future like a Silver Slugger or some Hall of Fame plaque… but, who wants one of those anyway.
Stat of the Day: Nolan Ryan never won a Cy Young award.
Stat of the Day Part 2: The U.S. debt has now reached $15 trillion.
-Sean Morash
