2008 MLB Awards : AL Cy Young

Let's start with an easy one: the AL Cy Young award should go to Cliff Lee, right?  Well... first let's quickly dismiss everyone lower than Mike Mussina on the ERA list, out of respect for Moose's first 20-win season.  And I would probably argue that Mussina was better than Jon Lester this year; their numbers are very similar, except for Mussina's considerable advantage in Walks.  What about Mussina's season vs. Matsuzaka's?  Well, Matsuzaka's winning percentage, strikeout rate, and ERA are relatively impressive, but his walk rate was terrible, he averaged well under 6 innings per start, and made 5 fewer starts than Mussina, so I'd be sorely tempted to rank Mussina's season as "better".

But Matsuzaka and Mussina just don't stack up against Cliff Lee this year.  Lee's winning percentage is just as impressive as Matsuzaka's (but with more wins) and his K/BB ratio is even better than Mussina's.  And he's got the lowest ERA in the league.

But... there's this other guy, Roy Halladay.  He's got 11 losses to go with his 20 wins, but Cliff Lee benefitted from 6.13 run support, compared to 4.72 for Halladay.  Give Roy another 1.4 runs per game, and his W-L record would look more like Lee's.   Halladay also had a superior K/BB ratio, better WHIP, and pitched 23 more innings (9 complete games to Lee's 4).

But Halladay already has a Cy Young award, so even though he was arguably better this year than in 2003, it'll probably go to Lee.