Twins pitching coach Rick Anderson was asked about Cy Young candidates. He first mentioned Toronto’s Roy Halladay who won the award in 2003. Within a minute the Twins’ Johan Santana, the 2004 winner, was a topic of conversation.
“You gotta throw Jo in the middle of it,” Anderson said recently. “When he has the ball you know you’re going to have a chance to win a game. He gets you deep into every game like Halladay and has all the pitches.
“What’s neat about Jo is he is a finisher. You get into August and September and it’s almost like he steps it up a notch, and that’s great because when you are making a pitch for the playoffs you need something like that.”
Santana and Halladay are in a statistical battle with little separating them in wins and ERA, but Santana, as the American League leader, is far superior in strikeouts. Both could win 20 games and finish with ERA’s around 3.00.
A Cy Young candidate gets packaged in different ways including whether he plays for a playoff team and wins 20 games. The Twins will have a run at post-season glory but Toronto will need a miracle to do the same. Santana’s Cy Young competition may well come from the pitching leaders on playoff contenders Detroit, Chicago, New York and Boston.
“He (Santana) ends up winning 20 games and we get in the playoffs and he’s got a great chance,” Anderson said. “We don’t make the playoffs and he wins 17 games it’s going to be a long shot.”
Anderson said Santana probably was as good a pitcher last year as the season before when he won the American League Cy Young award but he didn’t have as many wins (20-6 in 2004, 16-7 in 2005). This year Anderson thinks Santana may be pitching his most consistent season long baseball.
For pitching awesome baseball over a shorter period, 2004 will long be remembered. The 27-year-old left hander was the American League Pitcher of the Month for July with a 1.17 ERA. Then he proceeded to win the award over the next two months with highlights that included a 6-0 record in August and 5-0 in September with a 0.45 ERA. On September 24 he set a Twins record with 13 consecutive wins.
“I think two years ago what he did the second half (of the season) you may not see for a long time in major league baseball,” Anderson said. “It was absolutely amazing to me to see that. He had command of all three pitches (fast ball, slider and change up), and just absolutely dominated teams.”