Roy Halladay: Is Philadelphia’s Ace the National League’s Best Pitcher?

The remaining regular season schedule was set up to allow Phillies right-hander Roy Halladay at least two more starts before the Phils  focus on their post season run; however, its more than likely that last nights start against Washington will be Roy’s last before the play-offs. 

There is no question that Harry Leroy Halladay has been a work horse for Philadelphia Skipper Charlie Manuel this season, as he currently leads the National League with 250.2 innings pitched to go along with a league leading 9 complete games, so resting that arm  probably would help do a body good.

Not only did Halladay win his 21st game of the season last night, but in doing so helped the Phils wrap up their fourth straight NL East Pennant, a dream night for a 12 year veteran who is about to pitch in his first post season ever.

Halladay’s 8-0 win over the Nationals more than likely helped solidify what should be the Phillies seventh Cy Young Award in team history; Steve Carlton, 1972, 1977, 1980 & 1982, John Denny 1983 and Steve Bedrosian 1987.

Yes, I said it Cy Young, the award given annually to Major League Baseball’s (MLB) best pitchers, one each in the National League (NL) and American League (AL).  

Each league’s award is voted on by members of the Baseball Writers Association of America, with two representatives from each team, which means 28 ballots are cast for the American League winner, and 32 ballots cast for the National League. Each voter places a vote for first, second, and third place among the pitchers of each league. The formula used to calculate the final scores is a weighted sum of the votes.  The pitcher with the highest score in each league wins the award.  If two pitchers receive the same number of votes, the award is shared. 

You would think that Halladay’s numbers would speak for themselves. A league leading 21 wins, one more than Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright who by the way will also have another chance this week to win his twenty-first.

Wainwright’s  2.42 earned run average (ERA) is a scant better than Halladay’s  2.44, and as I write this blog Roy has the edge in strikeouts over Wainwright, 219 to 213. 

Yes it’s that close.

So why should Roy win the Cy?  For Starters nine complete games verses five for Wainwright, four shutouts verses two and to date Halladay has walked only 30 batters verses Wainwrights 56.

(Insert drum roll here please) Oh yes and did I fail to mention that on a mild Miami night back on May 29, the six-foot-six, 230 pound Halladay struck out 11 Florida Marlins while on his way to recording just the 20^th perfect game in MLB history.

Think about it, 135 years of baseball and only 20 perfect games. The Phillies by the way are just the fifth team to boast two perfect game pitchers in team history. Jim Bunning threw Philadelphia’s other one on June 21, 1964 vs. the Mets.

So there you have it, I have stated my case for Roy Halladay as the 2010 National League Cy Young award winner, besides that trophy would look really nice next to Halladays 2003 AL Cy Young award.

By the way if Halladay does win this year’s  award, he would join Roger Clemens, Gaylord Perry, Randy Johnson and Pedro Martínez   as the only pitchers to win the award in both leagues.

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