Halladay And The Cy Young Award

It was unanimous. That seems a little surprising. No doubt among the voters. Here are the NL leaders in WAR for pitchers according to Baseball Reference:

1. Jimenez (COL) 7.1
2. Halladay (PHI) 6.9
3. Johnson (FLA) 6.4

Seems like these other two guys could have gotten some first place votes.

Halladay is the one of only 4 pitchers since 1980 to have 3 or more straight seasons with a strikeout-to-walk ratio greater than 5 while qualifying for the ERA title. The others are Maddux (4), Schilling (4) and Wells (3). Data from the Lee Sinins Complete Baseball Encyclopedia.

Halladay is one of only 6 pitchers since 1980 to have 3 or more straight seasons with an ERA less than 2.80 while qualifying for the ERA title. The others are Maddux (7), Rijo (4), Johnson (4), Clemens (3) and Brown (3).

Halladay has the most WAR over the last three years, 20.2. The last pitcher to have 20+ WAR over three years was Santana, 2004-6. Here is the top ten from 2008-10:

Roy Halladay 20.2
CC Sabathia 16.8
Tim Lincecum 16.7
Cliff Lee 16.6
Felix Hernandez 16.3
Jon Lester 16.2
John Danks 16.1
Zack Greinke 15.6
Ubaldo Jimenez 15.3
Johan Santana 14.4

Halladay now ranks 10th in Cy Young Award Voting Shares. Besides his two wins, he has four other top 5 finishes. He joins Gaylord Perry, Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson as the only pitchers to win the award in both leagues. Here is the top 10 in award shares:

Randy Johnson (5 wins) 6.5
Greg Maddux (4 wins) 4.92
Steve Carlton* (4 wins) 4.29
Pedro Martinez (3 wins) 4.26
Tom Seaver* (3 wins) 3.85
Jim Palmer* (3 wins) 3.57
Tom Glavine (2 wins) 3.15
Sandy Koufax* (3 wins) 3.05
Roy Halladay (2 wins) 2.91

*Hall of Famer

Halladay has finished first in WAR 2 times and has 5 second place finishes. His career WAR is no 54.3. That is 62nd best ever. In a year or two he will be in the top 40. Maybe he will end his career in the top 25.