November 11, 2003

AL Cy Young: Roy Halladay.
Player          1st  2nd  3rd  Total

Halladay Tor 26 2 136
Loaiza Chi 2 16 5 63
Martinez Bos 3 11 20
Hudson Oak 4 3 15
Moyer Sea 2 6 12
Pettitte NYY 1 1 4
Foulke Oak 1 1
Santana Min 1 1
Halladay is not an outrageous choice (unlike Fat Billy in 2001), but when he was on the mound, he was not the AL's top pitcher. That title belonged to Martinez, but Pedro's lighter work load (due partially to a DL stint) and low win total worked against him.

How much better was Pedro? Martinez would have had to pitch an additional 79.1 innings and allow 50 earned runs (5.67 ERA) to bring himself down to Halladay's level. Granted, Pedro did not pitch those innings - other Red Sox pitcher(s) had to - but it's graphic evidence how far ahead of the pack Martinez was, even in what many sportswriters deemed a "down year." Wins (a team-dependent stat), complete games and innings pitched carried more weight than allowing the fewest runs. (Why else would some clown call Andy Pettitte (and his 4.02 ERA) the #2 pitcher in the AL?) If Pedro had received even average bullpen support and his win total had been 18-19 (with his other stats being exactly the same), he probably comes out on top.
          GS   P/GS  IP     H   BB   K   HR  ERA   WHIP   AVG  OBP  SLG

Halladay 36 100.8 266 253 32 104 26 3.25 1.07 .247 .275 .389
Martinez 29 97.9 186.2 147 47 206 7 2.22 1.04 .215 .271 .314
Looking at their game logs, here are the number of games in which each pitcher allowed 4 or more runs:
Runs Allowed  4   5   6   7   8   9  10

Halladay 5 5 1 2 0 0 0 - 13
Martinez 2 3 0 0 0 0 1 - 6
Halladay allowed 3 or fewer runs in 23 of his 36 starts (67%), Pedro in 23 of 29 (79%). Halladay received a win in one of the two games in which he allowed 7 runs, an 11-8 victory over the Red Sox on June 1. Joe Morgan would say he "pitched well enough to win."

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