During the 2004 season, we saw both a lot more and a lot less of Bartolo Colon. We saw a lot more of Colon himself, who appeared to carry a spare tire around his waist when he trudged out to the mound. We also saw a lot more runs score, as his ERA ballooned to 5.01. We saw a lot less of his dominating 99 MPH fastball that a few years earlier had established him as one of the most impressive young power pitchers in the game.
        In 2005, the spare tire was still there, and his strikeout rate continued to fall. But Colon tried out a different kind of diet: his walk rate fell dramatically, and his ERA followed suit, falling to 3.48. Colon won 21 games, a career-high, and took home his first Cy Young Award.

        The Cy Young race became interesting on July 8, when a line drive shattered Roy Halladay's leg and ended his season. To that point, the 2003 Cy Young winner had been the best pitcher in the league, and it wasn't really a contest. His ERA was almost half a run better than the eventual league leader, and his five complete games incredibly ended up leading the league.
        Colon was the only 20-game winner, and his team won the division, so it was no surprise that he won the award. The runner-up was Johan Santana of the Twins, who "only" won 16 games and didn't match his superlative performance from the year before. That said... Johan Santana is one of those rare pitchers who, even when not at his best, is a heck of a lot better than almost everyone else.
        Santana led American League starters in all sorts of interesting categories, including strikeouts, strikeouts/9 innings, WHIP, Quality Starts, Opponent's batting average, on-base average and slugging percentage, Component ERA, DIPS ERA and most other stats that you can think of, both conventional and non-conventional. Wins were an exception - and that cost him the Cy Young Award.
        Another stat that, curiously, Santana did not lead the league in was ERA. The leader was Kevin Millwood, owner of a brilliant sinker and a chronically sore elbow. After an injury-plagued 2004 season, Millwood's bad elbow was treated like bird flu; teams stayed far away, and he ended up signing a one-year deal with the Indians. He made the most of that one year, and signed a five-year, $60 million contract with the Rangers after the season.
        Fans in the south side of Chicago have seen some pretty good pitchers over the years. In the dead-ball era, they had two of the greatest spitballers - Red Faber and Big Ed Walsh, both of whom are in the Hall of Fame, as well as the great shineballer Eddie Cicotte, banned for his role in the 1919 World Series. For two decades they had another Hall-of-Famer, Ted Lyons, who was joined by fine pitchers like Thornton Lee and Monty Stratton. Billy Pierce was a great pitcher for a decade, and on the Go-Go Sox was joined by 300-game winner Early Wynn. The Sox of the 60's had three outstanding pitchers in Joel Horlen, Gary Peters and Tommy John; in the 70's they had four straight 20-win seasons from Wilbur Wood. LaMarr Hoyt starred in the 80's, Black Jack McDowell in the 90's.
        And in 2005, they had the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Mark Buerhle, Jon Garland, Jose Contreras and Freddy Garcia. The Horsemen all made at least 32 starts, threw at least 200 innings, won at least 14 games and had a better-than-average ERA. In the ALCS against Anaheim, the Chicago bullpen recorded a grand total of two outs; the other 133 were recorded by the starters, including four straight complete games. Garland was superb in the first half (13-4, 3.38 ERA), Contreras in the second (11-2, 2.96 ERA). Buerhle was the best all season. None of them, individually, was Johan Santana, but together they were formidable.
        (They also had a fifth starter, Orlando Hernandez, who made 22 starts, which was about 22 more than I expected from him. And they received ten starts from impressive 21-year-old Brandon McCarthy; and who knows, that could be the answer to a trivia question one day).
        In his first two appearances of the season, Mariano Rivera blew a save opportunity against the Red Sox. He spent much of the next month sitting in the bullpen, waiting for his team to give him a lead. On May 6, he took the loss against Oakland; the Yankees' season hit its nadir, as they fell to 11-19.
        After that game, Rivera almost completely stopped giving up runs; he did not give up another one until July 8, and only a few more after that. After blowing his first two save opportunities, he blew just two others the rest of the season. It was another dominant season in the career of one of baseball's greatest relievers.