Halladay-Cy Young?

Now that we are officially nearing the quarter pole per say of the 162 marathon baseball season, I think its time to look at some of the front runners for the league's best awards, with focusing on the AL Cy young race in particular.

Recently I have seen projections, debates and other blogs debating the early season race for the coveted award for pitchers and began to realize that the choice so far is obvious in the AL.

If I were to vote right now, it'd have to be given to Roy Halladay of the Toronto Blue Jays. One might say, " aah, hes only 6-5 on a team that plays in the shadow of the Yankees and Redsox", but you have to take a deeper look to see how extraordinary his season has been so far.

In the age of the use of the bullpen for essentially every major league team, often when Halladay takes the hill, the 'pen can rest assured they wont be needed much that particular night or day. Halladay leads not only the AL, but the major leagues with 5 CG, an astounding stat, since last year he only finished with 7 CG for the entire season.

The next closest pitcher(s) have only 2 CG, and mostly play in the arguably weaker NL.

Halladay has been knocked over the past few years for his declining strikeout ratios, but I believe he was just evolving into a better pitcher to become more efficient. He only stuck out 139 batters in 225 IP, well under a K per inning and so his dominance went unnoticed throughout much of the media around the U.S. Granted hes no Johan Santana in terms of striking batters out, but he was always respectable in the category.  However, this season, hes sneaking his way up the leader board in this category. After last night's gem against the Oakland A's, going 8 IP with 9 K's, Halladay now leads the AL in K's with 71 in 89 IP(which he also leads the entire majors in). Its almost as if Halladay's stuff has even gotten better since last season. The hitter knows whats coming, yet still cant make solid contact.

Halladay's ERA now stands at 2.93 only 8th in the AL, but as we all know early season ERA's dont usually hold up for an entire season. Halladay is third in WHIP with an eye sparkling 0.99 and has walked only 11 batters in 89 IP. Halladay has even come out of the bullpen a couple weekends ago when facing the Phillies in a situation where he was desperately needed.

What other starter would sacrifice his next start to ensure his own team's success in a very important game? In this day in age, not too many. Hes a workhorse, pitch counts hardly matter with Halladay.

One could argue, hes fragile, but look at the past 2 years when he was injured mid season. A freak line drive off his ankle ended one season, and last year he was affected with fatigue and an appendectomy, which put Halladay behind the eight ball for the entire season.

Halladay is a true "old time pitcher" and defintely deserves consideration among the game's elite. If Halladay was pitching in NY or Boston, hed be considered a hero in those cities with likes of Rivera and Beckett. Instead, Halladay quitely moves along north of the border, putting together an unbelieveable season.

Now one could argue for many other pitchers as well, this is no shot at Cliff Lee, Joe Saunders, or any other starter in the AL, but I just want to shed light on how dominant Halladay has been.