Roy Halladay the 2010 NL Cy Young Winner

It was announced a few minutes ago that Roy Halladay had unanimously won the 2010 National League Cy Young Award with 224 points. Halladay is now the fifth player in the history of the major leagues to win the Cy Young Award in both leagues. Halladay (who won the AL Cy Young Award in 2003 while with the Toronto Blue Jays) now joins Gaylord Perry, Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens in that exclusive club. According to the BBWAA website:

Halladay was the 13th unanimous choice in NL voting as he received all 32 first-place votes from two writers in each league city to score a perfect 224 points, based on a tabulation system that rewards seven points for first place, four for second, three for third, two for fourth and one for fifth. The BBWAA expanded the Cy Young Award ballot from three to five pitchers this year.

The other finalists for the Cy Young Award were Adam Wainwright of the St. Louis Cardinals who finished in second-place with 122 points (0-28-3-0-1). Ubaldo Jimenez of the Colorado Rockies came in third with 90 points (0-4-19-8-1). Tim Hudson of the Atlanta Braves came in fourth with 39 points (0-0-3-13-4). Josh Johnson came in fifth with 34 points (0-0-5-5-9).

Though I predicted that Halladay would win the NL Cy Young Award with my post of October 6, 2010, I thought that Adam Wainwright would have gotten at the very least one first place vote. Both Halladay and Wainwright were evenly matched in wins (Halladay was 21-10/Wainwright was 20-10), ERA (Halladay 2.44/Wainwright 2.42) and strikeouts (Halladay 219/Wainwright 213). Both pitchers were workhorses for their staffs but Halladay had the advantage in innings pitched and complete games. Halladay had 250 Innings pitches and 9 complete games to Wainwright's 230 Innings pitched and 5 complete games. Not to mention that little perfect gem Halladay threw against the Florida Marlins on May 29, 2010.

Halladay became the fourth Philadelphia Phillies pitcher to win the award. Steve Carlton won four Cy Young Awards (1972, 1977, 1980, 1982) with John Denny (1983) and Steve Bedrosian (1987) round out the quartet.

The AL Cy Young voting will be very contentious with those who believe that Felix Hernandez and C.C. Sabathia will be at the head of the pack in terms of votes. That award will be announced on November 18th. Coming up next is the AL and NL Managers of the Year Award.

FH

For Further Reading:
- Click Here for the 2010 NL Cy Young Award vote list from the BBWAA.com website
- Click Here for the list of AL and NL Cy Young Award winners as of 1956 from MLB.com