C.C. Sabathia of the Cleveland Indians won the American League Cy Young award, beating the Boston Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim pitcher John Lackey. Sabathia received 19 of 28 first place votes to take the award and he is the first Indians' pitcher since 1972 to win the AL Cy Young Award. Beckett was Sabathia's closest competition, as Beckett was the only 20 game winner this year. Beckett also outplayed Sabathia in the playoffs. Beckett was phenomenal in the playoffs with 4-0 record and a 1.20 ERA. Sabathia, on the other hand, did not have a single good playoff outing, with a 1-2 record and a 8.80 ERA. Beckett's Red Sox defeated Sabathia's Indians in the ALCS and the Red Sox ended up winning the World Series for the second time in four years after going 86 years without one. But the Cy Young award goes to the best pitcher in each league in the regular season. Sabathia was clearly better than Beckett. He had a better ERA than Beckett and he pitched 41 more innings than Beckett. Sabathia also has faced a lot of good pitchers in his division in Johan Santana of the Minnesota Twins and Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers. Sabathia is also the first African-American pitcher to win a Cy Young award since Dwight Gooden won it with the New York Mets in his rookie year in 1985. Should Sabathia have won the award, considering his postseason performance? Should the award go to the person with only the best regular season performance?
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