Colon claims Cy Young
Wednesday, November 9, 2005Bartolo Colon had the most wins in the American League this season, but it was his timing as much as anything that defined him as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim's true staff ace and, as of yesterday, the AL's Cy Young Award winner.
Colon's margin of victory was clear-cut. He received 17 of the 28 first-place votes and was second on the 11 remaining ballots cast by two Baseball Writers' Association of America members in each league city, giving him 118 points and making him the only pitcher named on every ballot.
Runner-up Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees had eight first-place votes and seven second-place and third-place votes for 68 points. Third-place finisher Johan Santana of the Minnesota Twins, the 2004 Cy Young winner, received three first-place votes and 51 points.
Colon, who received a $500,000 (U.S.) contract bonus for winning the award, became the second Angels pitcher to win the Cy Young (the other was Dean Chance in 1964).
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Colon's 21 wins led the major leagues and his 3.48 earned-run average was the eighth lowest in the AL. But it was the timing of Colon's wins that were so important to the Angels' run to the AL West Division title: 11 of them came after losses and he was 5-0 (1.72 earned-run average) in August.
It was Colon's second 20-win season. The other was split between the Cleveland Indians and Montreal Expos in 2002, after the Indians sent him to the Expos in a trade that brought Grady Sizemore, Cliff Lee and Brandon Phillips to the Indians. Lee finished fourth in this year's AL Cy Young balloting with eight points.
Colon's postseason was not as impressive, however. He suffered a shoulder injury in the final game of the Angels' AL Division Series win over the Yankees and was left off the roster for the AL Championship Series. But by then, the votes were already cast.
"This doesn't take away the pain that I felt and the sour taste in my mouth about the way the season ended," Colon said yesterday through an interpreter on a telephone conference call. "This is a great accomplishment, but we wanted to go a little further."
Santana was ahead of Colon in several significant statistical categories, but it was Rivera who turned into the trendy pick by the end of the season.
A sure-fire Hall of Fame selection, the Yankees' closer had his lowest career ERA (1.38), a 4.44 strikeout-walk ratio and gave up one extra-base hit in 120 at-bats with runners on base.
Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
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