Predicting Roy Halladay's Cy Young Was As Easy As 1-2-3

Last winter when I found out Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Roy Halladay was dealt to the two-time defending NL champion Philadelphia Phillies, I said to myself  “wow, Halladay just clinched his second Cy Young award.”

I figured going from an average Blue Jays squad to the best team in the NL while getting to face those weak-hitting NL lineups just didn’t seem fair.

A perfect game, a league-leading 21 victories, nine complete-games and another soon-to-be Cy Young award later, it turns out it definitely wasn’t fair for the other 15 NL teams that had to face him all year.

I laughed when I heard so many so-called experts predicting this years Cy Young would be Tim Lincecum, Ubaldo Jiminez, Adam Wainwright or Josh Johnson. All had fabulous years but anyone with any smarts should have seen another Cy Young for Halladay coming a mile away.

Why? Not only does he have great stuff, but has great movement on all of his pitches and is a workhorse who throws strikes whenever he wants to. Being the fiercest pitcher to step on a mound since Roger Clemens doesn’t hurt either.

Halladay has issued just 30 walks all season. He is second in the league in strikeouts. And as usual, leads the league in wins, innings pitched, complete games and shutouts.

He has been a treat to watch all season and now for the first time in his career, will be pitching in October with a chance to show the world just how good he is. Although, if you're a baseball fan you should know he's been as good as anyone for the past decade.