The Case for Roy Halladay to win the Cy Young

On Friday, left-hander Cliff Lee of the Cleveland Indians won the American League Cy Young Award, the annual award handed out to each league's best pitcher. While I don't doubt his 22 wins and only 3 losses were impressive, I think the Cy Young Electors made a mistake. They should have given it to Roy Halladay of the Toronto Blue Jays.

In 2008 Halladay and Lee were actually quite similar statistically:

Cliff Lee went 22-3 with a 2.54 ERA, a 1.11 whip and had 170 strikeouts.
Roy Halladay went 20-11 with a 2.78 ERA, a 1.05 WHIP and had 206 strikeouts.

Where Lee had a better won-loss record and ERA, Halladay is a strikeout artist and put fewer men on base.

But the Cy Young isn't just about wins and losses - - after all, closers like Eric Gagne have won it - - and there is more to baseball then just statistics.

Halladay led the league in complete games, with nine. That kind of consistency is crucial for a long season because it gives your bullpen an unscheduled day off. It also gives the entire team a sense of confidence, that they can rely on him to carry them through the game. Cliff Lee, who struggled mightily the previous season (5-8 record, 6.29 ERA) always had a sense of doom about him, even as he had a career season. Halladay's ability to finish a game is actually quite an accomplishment. In fact, Halladay had more complete games then the entire pitching staffs of any other team in the American League East. He had more complete games then the combined staffs of the Yankees and Red Sox.

Halladay did not have run support from his team. He had four games where he lost by a run, and two no-decisions where the Jays lost by a run. One heartbreaking day in late April Halladay lost 1-0 to the Boston Red Sox after pitching 8.2 innings. The key play was when Gold Glove-winning centre-fielder Vernon Wells' made a fielding error in the ninth inning. With the slow David Ortiz on second, Kevin Youkilis hit a single to centre that Wells picked up and then dropped, giving the lumbering Ortiz enough time to round third and head for home. If you make half of these one-run games go Halladay's way, he has a 23-9 record and an even stronger case for the Cy Young.

I know Woulda-Shoulda-Coulda is a dangerous game to play, but Halladay put in a career season that was only marred by Lee's impressive turnaround from the 2007 season. Granted, some sports writers did acknowledge Halladay's contributions to the Blue Jays, and he finished in second in the Cy Young balloting. However, if you put a premium on consistency and ability to raise a team up, Roy Halladay is your man for the 2008 American League Cy Young Award.