The Cy Young award in the American League had some surprises this season.
Mark Mulder looked in July as if he would run away with it when he started off 16-4. He fell off of the chart completely and it was narrowed to three players. Johan Santana, Curt Schilling and Mariano Rivera are my finalists.
Johan Santana emerged as the most dominant pitcher in baseball in the second half of the season to take the Minnesota Twins into the playoffs. Santana went 20-6 overall, but lost only one decision after the All-Star break.
He had a 2.61 ERA and opponents batted only .192 against the lefty. He struck out 265 batters which gave him 10.46 strikeouts per nine innings pitched. He showed dominance as he went at least six innings in every start in his last 20.
Curt Schilling won a major league leading 21 games this year as he became the ace of the Red Sox. He carried a 3.26 ERA as he became the “go to” guy in bean town. He also struck out 203 batters with opponents hitting .235 against him. This is even more impressive as he pitched half of his game in hitter-friendly Fenway Park where fly outs became doubles because of the Green Monster.
Mariano Rivera is the MVP in the American League according to ESPN’s baseball guru Peter Gammons. He saved 53 games with only bowing four. He was 4-2 with a 1.94 ERA in the spotlight of the Big Apple. With the Yankees pitching staff decimated, Rivera held the fort and closed anything in sight. For that, he must be finalists. He added 66 strikeouts in 78 innings pitched.
The winner of this year’s Cy Young has to be Johan Santana. Experts and scouts throughout the league all agree that he has the best “stuff” in baseball. He dominated everybody after the first month of the season. He went six straight games striking out at least 10 batters in each. He has emerged as the premier lefty and the heir to Randy Johnson’s throne.
The National League Cy Young award is still undecided and should be a close race this season. Roger Clemens, Roy Oswalt and Jason Schmidt will all contend. Here is a analysis of the top three candidates.
Roger Clemens retired for two months, came back and then had a great year pitching for his hometown Houston Astros. He was 18-4 with the best winning percentage in the majors.
His ERA was 2.98 and opponents only batted .217 against him as he showed that the “old guy” still has it. The 41-year-old struck out 217 batters and helped Houston make an unpredicted run into the playoffs. If he won the Cy Young, it would be his seventh award with 18 years separating his first and last.
Teammate Roy Oswalt started slow but ended as the only pitcher in the National League to win 20 games (20-10). He struck out 206 batters and had a solid 3.49 ERA. His biggest flaw is that Clemens is his teammate. These two did pick up and carry this team as other starters, Wade Miller and Andy Pettitte, were lost to injury.
Jason Schmidt had this award locked up in August but a late injury led to a horrid finish that left the Giants out of the playoffs. He lost three of his last six decisions in that stretch. He still had dominating numbers going 18-7 with a 3.20 ERA. Opponents batted only .202 against him and he struck out 251 batters to lead the National League.
In the end it comes down to what have you done for me lately and this would throw out Schmidt. That would make Roger Clemens picking up the award and making it his record-setting seventh Cy Young, first in the National League. He also passed 4,000 career strikeouts this season behind only Nolan Ryan.

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