SBNation Awards: NL Cy Young

In one of the closest decisions in recent [SBNation] Cy Young voting, Roy Halladay pulled a 2000 George W. Bush and won the award despite having 1 less first-place vote than runner-up Clayton Kershaw. Many thought Kershaw to be the favorite to win the award (and still see him as the favorite to win the actual award), but someone--I'm looking at you McCovey Chronicles--gave the wispy 23-year-old a fifth place vote, which may have given the edge to the Philadelphia Ace 1A. That's not to say that Roy Halladay isn't a good choice--Doc turned in another stellar season, putting up a fat, juicy 8.2 fWAR in 233.2 IP, the most ever in a single season of his already long and illustrious career, but Kershaw struck out 28 more batters in essentially the same amount of innings (actually 1/3 of an inning less), and had a WHIP under 1 (though Doc's was a meager 1.04). There really is no wrong answer here. Congrats to Roy Halladay on another pristine season--even if he didn't throw a no-hitter against the Cardinals in the NLCS--and congratulations to Clayton Kershaw on an equally filthy season in which there is absolutely zero shame in losing any award to Roy Halladay, unless the award is given to the quality of your fishing buddies (he hangs out with Chris Carpenter).

It's worth noting that our very own Johnny Cueto received a fifth-place vote, which I believe was well-deserved, despite the comparatively small amount of innings pitched.