I know this may come as a shock, but Johan Santana has won his second Cy Young Award this afternoon. He swept the first place votes, also for the second time, becoming just the 14th pitcher in Major League history to win the honor multiple times.
Chien-Ming Wang (tied with Johan for most wins in the AL) was the runner-up with 15 second and 6 third place tallies, while Roy Halladay's votes were split at 12 and 12. Among a few others on the ballot, Automatic Joe Nathan got 3 third place votes.
Santana won his first Cy Young in 2004 during his first full season as a starter. In 2005, he finished third in the voting, which was total bull crap. He is now regarded as one of best, if not the best, pitchers in the big leagues, dominating clubs left and right everytime he stepped foot on the hill.
Johan finished the year leading the Majors in ERA (2.77), strikeouts (245) and tied for first in wins (19) to give him the pitching Triple Crown. He also led the AL with 233.2 innings pitched, with a 10-1 and a 2.54 ERA in 15 starts after the All-Star break.
With Brad Radke's shoulder hanging from the socket, Francisco Liriano out for the last two months of the season (and all of 2007) and a couple rookie starters, Santana stepped up as the leader of the rotation. The Twins went 27-7 in games with Johan on the mound, his efforts helping lead the club to their fourth AL Central title in the past five years.
Executive of the Year and Twins general manager Terry Ryan had this to say on Johan's spectacular performance:
Before winning this award, Santana won the Players Choice Award as the AL's Most Outstanding Pitcher, AL Pitcher of the Year by Sporting News and Baseball America's Player of the Year. He is also on the ballot for the AL MVP.
As Twins fans, we are lucky to have such an incredible talent on our team. Here's to many more seasons of pitching domination, at least every 5 days.
Chien-Ming Wang (tied with Johan for most wins in the AL) was the runner-up with 15 second and 6 third place tallies, while Roy Halladay's votes were split at 12 and 12. Among a few others on the ballot, Automatic Joe Nathan got 3 third place votes.
Santana won his first Cy Young in 2004 during his first full season as a starter. In 2005, he finished third in the voting, which was total bull crap. He is now regarded as one of best, if not the best, pitchers in the big leagues, dominating clubs left and right everytime he stepped foot on the hill.
Johan finished the year leading the Majors in ERA (2.77), strikeouts (245) and tied for first in wins (19) to give him the pitching Triple Crown. He also led the AL with 233.2 innings pitched, with a 10-1 and a 2.54 ERA in 15 starts after the All-Star break.
With Brad Radke's shoulder hanging from the socket, Francisco Liriano out for the last two months of the season (and all of 2007) and a couple rookie starters, Santana stepped up as the leader of the rotation. The Twins went 27-7 in games with Johan on the mound, his efforts helping lead the club to their fourth AL Central title in the past five years.
Executive of the Year and Twins general manager Terry Ryan had this to say on Johan's spectacular performance:
"He's really valuable in a lot of different ways...giving us quality innings, his presence in the clubhouse and being an accountable guy in the community and with the media. There are not enough superlatives I could use to describe him. He is that important to our team."
Before winning this award, Santana won the Players Choice Award as the AL's Most Outstanding Pitcher, AL Pitcher of the Year by Sporting News and Baseball America's Player of the Year. He is also on the ballot for the AL MVP.
As Twins fans, we are lucky to have such an incredible talent on our team. Here's to many more seasons of pitching domination, at least every 5 days.
3 comments:
You know what, now that I think about it.. I'm okay with him not winning it last year (well I'm really not, but that's not the point), because he wouldn't have won unanimously. And Johan freaking Santana deserves to win it unanimously every single year!
This guy is so amazing it's just unbelievable.
And kind of like you were saying, we can't forget that we are one of the luckiest people in the world because he pitches for OUR team and it's US who gets to see him pitch every five days. :)
I am ecstatic. There's no one that deserved this award more than Johan - and it showed with the voting.
He's so humble.
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