Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim pitcher Bartolo Colon was named earlier today the 2005 American League Cy Young winner. Whoop-dee-doo. Colon's one redeeming quality to even be worthy of the award was that he won 21 games this year. Of course, it's easy to win 21 games when your offense is giving you 6.02 runs per game. Johan Santana - by far the better pitcher - got only 4.7 runs per game out of his offense this year, yet still won 16 games. He also led the majors in strikeouts and WHIP and was second in the AL in ERA. My grandma could win 21 games with 6.02 runs per game in support, and I don't know that she could throw the ball all the way from the pitcher's mound to the plate. Unfortunately, voters apparently failed to take note of this little issue, so they voted Colon the winner, while Santana came in third. Mariano Rivera, a closer (a really good one, but still only a closer), came in second ahead of Santana. Cliff Lee, who got 6.48 runs per game in support (versus a less-than-stellar 3.79 ERA) came in fourth in voting, while World Champion White Sox pitchers Mark Buehrle and Jon Garland came in fifth and sixth, respectively, and Lee's teammate Kevin Millwood - the AL leader in ERA - came in seventh. Only Colon was named on all 28 ballots - 17 first place votes and 11 second place votes. Rivera was named on 22 ballots - 8 first place, 7 second place, and 7 third place, while Santana was named on 23 ballots - 3 first place, 8 second place, and 12 third place. There was a considerable drop-off in votes for the other four candidates. Oh well.

» Colon named AL Cy Young winner [mlb.com]

UPDATE: Obviously I'm not the only person who feels this way - if nothing else, three writers gave Santana first-place votes - but here's an equally well-reasoned for Santana to have won by ESPN's Jayson Stark....

» Santana, not Colon, deserved to win AL Cy Young [espn.com]

05:54 PM | (0)
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