SB Nation N.L. Cy Young: Tim Lincecum

by Charlie on Nov 11, 2009 5:38 PM EST Comment 9 comments

San Francisco Giants' Tim Lincecum pitches to the Oakland Athletics in the first inning of a game in San Francisco, Friday, June 12, 2009. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

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Tim Lincecum wins SB Nation's NL Cy Young award. Here are the results:

Rk	Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Tim Lincecum	San Francisco Giants	18	13	-	129
2	Chris Carpenter	St. Louis Cardinals	9	4	7	64
3	Adam Wainwright	St. Louis Cardinals	4	4	10	42
4	Javier Vazquez	Atlanta Braves	-	5	7	22
5	Dan Haren	Arizona Diamondbacks	-	3	4	13
6	Ubaldo Jimenez	Colorado Rockies	-	1	1	4
7	Cliff Lee	Philadephia Phillies	-	-	1	1
8	Jair Jurrjens	Atlanta Braves	-	-	1	1

I'm pretty sure my ballot was Lincecum, Carpenter, Vazquez. It's hard to believe how quickly Lincecum has emerged as a perennial powerhouse. He could've been a Pirate, of course--the Pirates could have taken him but picked Brad Lincoln instead. But hindsight is always 20/20, and Lincecum was seen as a tremendously risky pitcher when he was drafted because of his size and high-effort delivery. Here's an article I wrote about Lincecum and Lincoln in 2007. Of all the things you can blame Dave Littlefield for, I don't think the fact that Lincecum isn't a Pirate is a particularly good one.

Anyway, here are the AL results:

Rk	Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Zack Greinke	Kansas City Royals	28	1	-	143
2	Felix Hernandez	Seattle Mariners	-	17	6	57
3	Justin Verlander	Detroit Tigers	-	8	9	33
4	Roy Halladay	Toronto Blue Jays	1	2	11	22
5	C.C. Sabathia	New York Yankees	-	1	2	5
6	Jon Lester	Boston Red Sox	-	-	1	1

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Comments

Really hard to argue with the results in this one, considering the insane years that Lincecum and Greinke had. Good to see Haren and Jurrjens get a little love, too.

Hey, an out is an out - unless you're Mario, in which case it's probably two outs. -UtesFan89

by wg1of5 on Nov 11, 2009 5:52 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Shame on whoever voted for Halladay

Even if it was a Jays blogger.

by biggyv on Nov 11, 2009 8:13 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

One could make a strength of schedule argument for Halladay, since he faced the Yankees, Red Sox, and Rays for nearly half of his games, plus had a better K/BB level than Greinke anyway.

by Adam Reynolds on Nov 11, 2009 10:10 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Jeebus, biggyv

It’s not like Halladay sucks. Greinke had a better year, though not by a WHOLE lot, but there’s this parallel to ponder: Greinke just had 229 innings loaded on his arm at age 25. Halladay had 239 innings loaded on his arm when he was 25. The next year he shouldered 266 and his ERA went from 2.93 to 3.25. The next year he was apparently hurt (big surprise) and managed just 133 innings with a 4.20. Took him another year to get back up to speed but in the past four years he’s put up 220, 225, 246 and 239 innings of generally excellent pitching.

He’s shown himself to be an extraordinary pitcher over nearly a decade. I’m not saying he deserves a Cy Young as a lifetime achievement award, I’m just saying if you offered me both of them right now for the same package, the one I would take would depend on what I was trying to do with my team, rather than the quality of the pitcher. If I were building for 2-3 years from now I’d take the risk of Greinke, because I’d be wary that KC blew his arm out. If I were trying to win right NOW I’d take Halladay in a heartbeat, because I know exactly what I’m getting, because he’s had pretty much the same season for four straight years and that season is very very damn good.

So depending on the circumstances, I might make an argument that Halladay is the best pitcher in the league.

by bucdaddy on Nov 11, 2009 10:02 PM EST reply actions 0 recs