Can Anyone Keep Roy Halladay from Repeating as NL Cy Young?
August 15, 2011 by John Botelho
Filed under Fan News
Roy Halladay was last year’s National League Cy Young winner, and the argument could be made that the eight-time All-Star has been even better this time around.
His ERA last season was 2.44, just slightly ahead of his 2.51 this season. He’s already won 15 games, and barring injury, should get to 20 for the fourth time in his career and the third time in the last four seasons.
He’s been just as effective at keeping runners off the basepaths as in years past, posting the same WHIP of 1.04 and league-leading walks per nine innings rate of 1.1.
Knowing that Halladay’s own stats compare to his Cy Young season a year ago would be enough to make him the frontrunner for the award again, but he’s been better in a couple of important areas to voters.
He’s currently 15-4, and the winning percentage is the best of his career. He has hit double figures in losses the last three seasons because he pitches deep into games, but won’t approach that mark this year.
Additionally, he’s improved his strikeouts per nine innings to a career best 8.4. Impressive considering he hasn’t needed to sacrifice control for that improvement.