A certified staff ace

When Bartolo Colon was in Cleveland, I was among the legions who felt Colon would forever lack that certain "something" that would vault him into the rarified air occupied by Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson.
Colon was the guy who would blow away the side on 10 pitches in the first inning, then inexplicably abandon his fastball for off-speed stuff in the second inning and give up five runs.
He had sublime talent but no idea how to pitch, I thought.
When Mark Shapiro dealt Colon to Montreal in June 2002, beginning in earnest the Indians' rebuilding project, I thought it was a good move for a team sinking toward the bottom of the standings. Use the one resource you have -- your veterans -- to replenish the talent in your farm system and come back swinging in three or four years.
After all, Colon wasn't a cornerstone-type player anyway.
Colon was a solid No. 2 starter, but he was never going to win a Cy Young Award or anything, I said.
Well, Colon has learned. He's a pitcher now, not just a thrower, and he used his newfound knowledge to prove me wrong this year, winning the first Cy Young Award by an Angels pitcher since Dean Chance in 1964.
Not only that, he won the award convincigly, garnering 17 first-place votes to Mariano Rivera's eight.
(And, lest you think this is ammunition to prove the Colon trade was a bad idea, Cliff Lee, acquired in that very trade, finished fourth in AL Cy Young Award voting with two first-place votes).
Colon won his first Cy Young Award not with the artistry of friend Martinez or well-honed control of Greg Maddux. He kind of cranked this award off the conveyor belt at the factory.
The pudgy Colon is a blue-collar pitcher. He doesn't possess the finest control or a knee-buckling breaking ball, but he is great at hammering the strike zone with mid-90s fastballs, then showing the hitter something off-speed away from their power.
His win-loss record (21-8), suggests a staff ace, but his ERA (3.48) suggests middle of the rotation, certainly on the contending Angels. His innings pitched (222.2) suggests a workhorse.
All those assessments are true. Colon is sometimes an ace, always a workhorse, and sometimes doesn't pitch to his potential. The one aspect of Colon's game that probably clinched the Cy Young Award, however, was his most unique.
From his earliest outings, Colon always showed a confounding ability to get stronger as the game and season moved along. He would sometimes throw harder in the eighth inning than in the first, and has always been a strong second-half pitcher.
This year was no different. Colon separated from the pack with a 5-0 August, during which he posted a 1.72 ERA.
His strained arm sustained in the division series against the Yankees probably killed the Angels in their five-game loss to Chicago in the ALCS.
When a team has learned to rely on a pitcher so much he swings the balance of power in a playoff series, that is the measure of a staff ace.
Colon might not play the part at all times, but he has arrived at the summit for baseball pitchers.
Welcome to acedom, Bart.