Giants ace Tim Lincecum beat out the Cardinals' Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright in one of the closest ballots in the award’s history. Do you agree with the vote? After making your decision, back it up in the discussion below.
Who should have won the NL Cy Young Award?
Thu Nov 19, 2009 2:13 PM EST
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Who should have won the NL Cy Young Award?
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This is the poorest reason for the award given. Because of the hatred for LaRussa, the Cardinal players are stiffed.
Shely
Lincecum deserved the award as he consistently came up big for the Giants. His strikeouts, complete games and shutouts were tops and his win total would have been higher if the bullpen had not blown a few games for him.
The Cardinal players were not stiffed, they were just unfortunate to have similarly great seasons and split the vote. Granted Lincecum's stats were not as over the top gaudy as last year, but still great enough to win.
Congratulations to all of them for having great seasons.
Lincecum, like Zack Greinke, pitches very well for a relatively bad team. (Because of him, the Giants overachieved.) Anyone can win on a good team. Lincecum deserved to win.
Because of Wainwright and or Carpenter, the Cardinals overachieved, both of whom would have easily had 20+ wins had the Cardinals had decent relief pitching to hold their leads in the 8th and 9th innings. Again its tough luck for the greatest franchise in baseball that employs the finest of men on the field.
Lincecum had the worst part of his year when the Giants needed him most to stay in the playoff hunt, Carpenter missed the first month. Wainright was the best pitcher consistently the whole year. You can take that strike out stuff and stick it. It only counts for anything a small part of the time, when one is absolutely needed. Wainright had plenty of strikeouts too, and clearly should have gotten the award. Such is life. The guy can hit and won a Gold Glove on the mound. The complete pitcher and consistent this year with the most wins. Remember the pitcher does hit in the NL.
Warren Spahn was the winningest lefthander of the modern baseball era with a 363-245 record, he had an ERA of 3.,lifetime, and only 2,583 strikeouts in 23 seasons. The Warren Spahn Award is given out to the best Left-handed Pitcher each season.
Nolan Ryan struck out 5,174 hitters with a 3.19 life time ERA. His record was 324-292. That's why number of strike outs should have little bearing on who wins the CY Young Award.
The object is to win the game as Spahn always said. You have to be better than the other guys and as good as you need to be. Wins is still the most important aspect of a pitcher. Be as good as you need to be. The Cy Young Award is named after the major league pitcher who has won the most games. Does that tell you anything?
The tie breaker in such a close race should have consisted of number of wins, win %, games started and innings pitched. Wainright was best in all 4 catagories over Lincecum.
With reliever specialists today complete games mean little. Had St Louis not had a top closer who knows how many complete games Wrainright has? Same with shutouts. He left games early with shutouts pending as his team had a big enough lead. It's the Manager's style to let the closer finish in close games. That's his style.
Wainwright and Carpenter had a great team around them. The Giants weren't nearly as good defensively and offensively but Tim still won games. He would have had 20+ wins had he had St. Louis' offense. As a Giant fan, I never thought he had a chance against Wainwright and/or Carpenter this year and was totally surprised that he won. Congratulations Timmy! And Congratulations to both Carpenter and Wainwright as well! Great seasons!
Sorry, you are wrong on two counts. The Giants had a contending team until Lincecum faltered mid season. They did not have a terrible team. Many thought they would be the ones to catch the Dodgers, not Colorado. You can't win such an award with 15 victories considering the team he played on. If he played for the Pirates, then he may have deserved it. Remember who Cy Yound was. He wasn't famous for winning 15 games a year. I thought 17 was a little narrow for Carpenter, but he did miss a month of the season with injuries.
The Giants were picked before the season started to come in dead last in the NL West. On paper they are considered to be one of the worst teams in baseball. The won because of great pitching.
Now lets watch Barry Bonds win the MVP award in the National. Heck, he won it a couple of times when Pujols should have been the winner. Looks like the National League Cy winner has his own problems with the drug police, way-to-go writers, reward those great role models. He says he will do better, how many athletes have we heard that one from, they all will do better once caught I suppose. When are we as a society going to quit rewarding failure. Wrong picture here folks, great pitcher of course, poor discretion and guidance for our youth of course. Of course I feel half the sports writers are on drugs anyway so perhaps that explains a few things. Good luck Tim, I feel you have a bit of house cleaning to do before you can in all honesty compete with those you aced out. More to baseball than stats.
Yessss!!!!! Get'm Timmy!!
Using the reasoning some of the writers used to justify their votes and obvious stupidity of the game, Cy Young could not have won the award given in his honor. This award has obviously outlived its time and should be shelved and done away with. It has become meaningless, much like the MVP and Rookie of the year awards. Remember Kerry Woods being selected over Todd Helton for Rookie of the Year. Need I say more, where is Woods and what has he done? We know where Helton is and what he has done for a club that has never been much. Another great writer decision just because Woods struck out 20 or so Astros in his rookie season. Only one example of the writers abilities to be fair and genuine.