Well, it’s official, after weeks of speculation. Cliff Lee is your 2008 American League Cy Young winner, beating Toronto’s Roy Halladay who finished second. Lee earned 24 of 28 first-place votes and 132 total points in voting done by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Halladay garnered the other four first-place votes and finished with 71 points.
Lee led the AL in wins (22) and ERA (2.54), and his winning percentage (22-3, .880) was the fifth-best since 1900 for pitchers with at least 20 decisions in a season. Lee also finished second in three other major categories (IP, 223.1 – WHIP, 1.11 – CG, 4) and was ninth in the league in strikeouts with 170. He became the first Indians pitcher to win 20+ games since Gaylord Perry all the way back in 1974.
The Cy Young trophy will go nicely on Cliff’s “2008 Shelf” next to the AL Comeback Player of the Year Award, his Players’ Choice Awards for both AL Comeback Player of the Year and Outstanding AL Pitcher of the Year, and his Sporting News Awards for both AL Comeback Player of the Year and Outstanding AL Pitcher of the Year.
Most deserved congrats to Cliff on this huge accomplishment!
Author: DP
DP is a native north-eastern Ohioan who has been living in Columbus since 1999. DP's main area of concentration here at WFNY is the Columbus Blue Jackets hockey team, and you can catch his weekly 5-Hole columns each Tuesday. During the summers, you can also catch up on all the Columbus Clippers news that's fit to print in his Clip Show columns. In his spare time, he works in publishing, plays the drums, and wastes hundreds of dollars on Browns season tickets.DP has written 252 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
wow. i came here to break the news. looks like i done got beat.
i think DP had this article pre-written and saved.
wait for it… wait for it… PUBLISH!
Congrats to Cliff! Who would have ever imagined he would someday win a Cy Young? I know I never did. But this is most deserved and I couldn’t be happier or more proud of Cliff.
I don’t understand how 1/7 of the voters could select Roy Halladay.
#1 km: how did you know?
Yeah, I assumed he was going to win, so I pre-wrote everything except the link to the MLB article and the final vote totals.
Totally deserved for Cliff. He earned it.
He really turned it around this year. I kept waiting for him regress, but he just seemed to come out strong game after game. Two straight Cy Young’s in Cleveland. I never thought I’d see that. Now, if only we could parley that into some championships.
Has three in a row for the same team ever been done?
Come on DP, never give away your secrets!
DC, I looked that up. It’s never been done by three different players, but the Braves had several in a row with Maddux and Smoltz (had Maddux not won his first in Chicago, they would have had six in a row). Randy Johnson won four in a row for the D-backs. Clemens and Hentgen had three in a row in Toronto,
But, as for a team having three straight that were three different pitchers (ahem, Fausto) that has never been done.
For me, the point of the season at which I knew Cliff wasn’t going to fade was the All Star Game. I had nightmares of the NL lineup lighting him up and pulling back the curtain on his hot start, thereby ruining his momentum and confidence. But, he was pretty dominant there, too, and the rest was pretty much history, as they say.
I would love to have seen him pitch against the Phillies.
I’m happy for C-Lee, but I’m not at all surprised that Halladay got some votes. I’m a bit surprised it wasn’t closer actually. Over at B&C we had a breakdown of the numbers and some arguments, and as I was writing for Cliff, I was surprised to see how great a season Halladay really had. (Of course, I didn’t tip my cap to him in my argument)
http://www.bugsandcranks.com/the-clubhouse/landon-evanson/who-you-got-for-the-al-cy-a-bc-argument/
Whoa! Jon’s alive!
I wanna know who are the 4 schmucks who didn’t vote for him!
Anyways, without a doubt Cliff Lee was the best pitcher this year–for both Leagues! Congrats!
“Cliff Lee wins the Cy Young.” Those are words I never thought I’d write. And yet, this award is richly deserved – Lee was the most dominant pitcher in the game this year. It’s too bad his teammates wasted his incredible year.
Congrats Cliff!
Halladay was really good this year, and I can see how he could get some votes. But Lee deserved it, hands down.
/Felt like an ESPN comment of the day after I typed it
Yep. Jon’s alive, and has been a loyal reader, Scott. Got a little busy there for a while, but i’ll be around.
Great to hear, Jon.
[...] Cabrera and Ryan Garko started hitting like major league baseball players, and obviously Cliff Lee was simply amazing. But at the end, the team that we have going into 2009 is largely the same one that we had at the [...]