Lincecum repeats as Cy Young winner

[slaterbug]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4671110

Giants ace Tim Lincecum won the NL Cy Young Award on Thursday for the second consecutive season to become the first repeat winner since Randy Johnson, emerging from one of the tightest votes in the history of the honor.

Lincecum led the NL with 261 strikeouts and tied for the league lead with four complete games and two shutouts. The wiry right-hander, nicknamed "The Freak" for his giant stride, went 15-7 with a 2.48 ERA.

Only 10 points separated the top three vote-getters. Chris Carpenter was second and St. Louis teammate Adam Wainwright was third, despite getting the most first-place votes.

Lincecum received 11 first-place votes, 12 seconds and nine thirds for 100 points in balloting released by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Carpenter had nine firsts, 14 seconds and seven thirds to finish second with 94.

Wainwright, who led the NL with 19 wins and 233 innings, had 12 first-place votes, five seconds and 15 thirds for 90 points. Closer Trevor Hoffman, who finished behind Braves starter Tom Glavine in 1998, is the only other player to finish with the most firsts and not win the award.

[High 5]

Most first place votes and 3rd place? Interesting.

[bigboy1234]

Kind of surprised they got it right. Lincecum still didn't manage to get the most 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place votes though and barely won.

[trwi7]

Lincecum smoked the competition.

[a-rod]

Adam Wainwright
Starts: 34
Innings Pitched: 233
Wins: 19
ERA: 2.63
WHIP: 1.21
Strikeouts: 212
Run Support: 7.07

Chris Carpenter
Starts: 28
Innings Pitched: 192.2
Wins: 17
ERA: 2.24
WHIP: 1.01
Strikeouts: 144
Run Support: 5.84

Tim Lincecum
Starts: 32
Innings Pitched: 225.1
Wins: 15
ERA: 2.48
WHIP: 1.05
Strikeouts: 261
Run Support: 5.83

Lincecum he got the least run support of any other Cy Young candidate and the most strikeout and that's why he won. on the other hand carpenter is one heck of a pitcher, another prove that contact pitchers are very underrated....

Lincecum is such class act too, he said some nice things about carpenter....

[mizzoupacers]

I wouldn't call Carpenter a contact pitcher, he can throw in the mid-nineties and get strikeouts when he needs to. But with a good defense behind him, he didn't always need to. I've never understood why pitchers sometimes get penalized in these sorts of award votes for having a good defense behind them--it's a team game, and if your defense is good, it's just smart to use it to your advantage. Why penalize a pitcher for being smart?

No arguments with Lincecum winning the award though, he's a good choice.

[HCYanks]

The point isn't to punish Carpenter for having a better defense, it's to factor in how much of Carpenter's season is controlled by his defense as opposed to what he can control. The big argument here is that Carpenter and Wainwright benefited from having a better defense behind them, and had you put Lincecum on the Cardinals, he would have seen his hit and ERA totals go down. Having said that, Carpenter has always maintained a high groundball percentage, which is key to maintaining a high level of play without an elite strikeout rate (pre-08 Chien Ming Wang and to a lesser extent Cy Young-level Brandon Webb worked on the same principle). For that reason, Carpenter is certainly in the conversation regardless of luck and defense.

Personally, I think the biggest knock against Carpenter is his lower innings total compared to the others. Lincecum was the right choice, even if he was voted the winner in a sort of bizarre fashion.

[bigboy1234]

The Giants defense was better than the Cardinals...

[HCYanks]

It was? Well, ****. I didn't pay much attention there and Keith Law lied to me on some radio show.

[slaterbug]

I think all 3 would have been deserving.

[TruE SExy]

i think sf giants defense is better in general than the cardinal's D

but specifically, tim had a considerably better fip than carpenter, which means that if u control for defense, tim not only takes the era lead from carpenter but also manages to create some distance

[TruE SExy]

im a giants fan, and i was elated to hear timmy won, but i'll give props where its due and admit that i feel carpenter was the rightful winner

the 30 innings deficit is a big gap, so that cancel's out his .3 higher era than timmy (which is also a big gap, and the most underrated statline that favors carpenter)

timmy's dominance was his key to winning, and that dominance could be used against wainwright who was also a power pitcher...thus wainwright got demolished in every stat for dominance (in my opinion this guy had no businesses receiving any 1st places votes...hes the clear 3rd place, even though he did have a very great season...he just wasnt in timmy and chris's league until too late in the season)...but carpenter was a contact pitcher, and thus u cant penalize him for not having the K's and higher baa...afterall, even though tim was much more unhittable, carpenter still managed the better WHIP which includes baa

most importantly is carpenter's dominance down the stretch...tim still pitched well, but faded by his own standards, while carpenter just turned into an absolute monster with one or two flukes here and there...if dan haren should be penalized for getting worse as the season went on, then chris carpenter by that logic should get rewarded for improving so significantly

fip is a stat that could be used to overturn my arguement...but im not sure of its accuracy, and i havent seen it used that much, so if anyone wants to explain to me the pros/cons/consistency of this stat, be my guess

either ways im so happy for tim...im at peace admitting my support for chris since i know timmy already has the award...lol

[TruE SExy]

also, if it had been any other pitcher that had timmy's identical stats, carpenter would have won...i truly believe a big part of tim's victory was his reputation and fan appeal, as well as the chance to become a history making 2x cy young winner

[SaveGoldenState]

there you have it, smoking weed gets you cy youngs

[trwi7]

there you have it, smoking weed gets you cy youngs

Brewers' fans wish. If smoking weed did get you Cy Youngs, Lincecum wouldn't have a chance.

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/ ... ress.shtml