Eleven months ago to the day, the Phillies completed their trade for Roy Halladay. While it cost them Cliff Lee and Kyle Drabek, the mood around Philadelphia was that Halladay would get the Phillies back to the World Series and coast to the Cy Young Award in his first year in the National League. While the first prediction unfortunately didn't come to pass, the second one did. Today, Halladay was named the winner of the National League Cy Young Award, and he was named so in a unanimous vote, making him the first pitcher since 2007 to win the award with such an honor.
While Halladay started the season 10-7, after the All Star break, he took off, going 11-3 the rest of the way. Roy ended up leading the National League in wins, innings pitched and complete games, and he finished in the top three in the league in strikeouts, ERA, WHIP and winning percentage. He also pitched a pefect game against the Marlins back in May, and his first ever playoff start against the Cincinnati Reds turned out to be just the second no-hitter in playoff history. Sure, the votes for the Cy Young Award are recorded before the playoffs start, but I had to throw that in there.
Roy Halladay was the best pitcher in the National League this year, and now it's official. Yes, Adam Wainright, Ubaldo Jimenez, Jason Johnson and Tim Hudson had great seasons, but no one had the season that Halladay did. Halladay pitched a perfect game, suffered through the offensive drought that the Phillies had during the regular season, then kicked it into overdrive when most pitchers are thinking about golf. Despite the Phillies not making it back to the World Series for the third straight year, Halladay showed more heart than any pitcher that I've ever seen when he beat the Giants on a pulled groin in his last start of the year. Even if the votes were taken before the playoffs, that would have given him the Cy Young in my opinion.
This was the best pitching performance by a Phillies pitcher in years, and it was justly awarded as such. Halladay became the fifth pitcher to win the Cy Young Award in two different leagues, and was the first Phillie to win the award since 1987, when Steve Bedrosian won it as a relief pitcher. The only thing that bothers me about the voting is that Cole Hamels didn't finish in the top 12 of the votes, while Brett Myers and Bronson Arroyo did. Hamels had a better season than either of those two, and would have been in the top ten easily if it hadn't been for the lack of run production. Oh, and Roy Oswalt, the third pitcher in the Phillies' rotation? Yeah, he ended up finishing sixth in the voting. That's after a 6-12 start with the Astros. I think the Phillies are in good shape for next season on the mound.
Congrats to Roy Halladay. You deserved this more than anything else. The only thing that's missing now is a ring and another parade, but that can wait until next season. Besides, it wasn't your fault anyway. It took you just one season to become one of the most beloved Phillies of the last 20 years.
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