Sabathia Edges Beckett for AL Cy Young

Cleveland's C.C. Sabathia was honored with his first American League Cy Young Award on Tuesday, edging out Boston's Josh Beckett, who got the better of Sabathia twice in the ALCS, 119 points to Beckett's 86. But the Cy Young Award isn't about postseason achievements and that's why Sabathia was the right choice for the award.

A quick look at the stats shows what the baseball writers believed made C.C. the obvious choice. Sabathia was better than Beckett in ERA, although slightly, (3.21 to Beckett's 3.27) innings pitched (241 to 200.2) and strikeouts (209 to 194). He also threw four complete games to Beckett's one and walked fewer batters. Compare all of the numbers between the two and you'll find that Sabathia and Beckett's numbers were very close, with Sabathia having a slight edge in most major categories.

Much of that is due to the fact that Sabathia pitched in four more games than Beckett did this season. One could argue that if Beckett had made even just two more starts that many of his numbers would have surpassed Sabathia's, and that may be true, but we'll never know for sure.

One could not argue however, that the Indians needed each and every one of those 241 innings Sabathia pitched this season. Without Sabathia, Cleveland's starting rotation isn't scaring anybody after Fausto Carmona. Who knows where the Indians would have ended up without Sabathia but they likely would not have been tied with Boston for the best record in the majors and possibly would not have even made the playoffs. Boston on the other hand, could afford to rest Beckett when he needed it. For that reason, I wouldn't be surprised to see Sabathia get a few MVP votes to go along with his Cy Young.

Those extra innings may have caused Sabathia postseason success, however. The 241 innings were by far the most Sabathia has pitched in any season in his career. In fact, only one other time did he break the 200 innings pitched plateau and that was in 2002 when he threw 210 innings. Any Indians fan could tell you that the regular season and postseason C.C. Sabathias were not the same pitcher.