NL Cy Young

The NL Cy Young winner was announced yesterday in the form of Tim Lincecum. As usual there were the nay sayers who think the voters got it wrong, one of whom was Mike Wilbon, the popular personality on ESPN’s show PTI. Wilbon was literally disgusted with the fact that Lincecum beat out Johan Santana and Brandon Webb. He even claimed he would have given CC Sabbathia the award before giving it to Tim, and for that I must rant. Wilbon- you’re crazy. This was one of those rare occasions when the award winner was a big toss up and the voters got this thing right! For once the voters looked at more than just wins! (I’m still bitter about Zito beating Pedro for the Cy in 2002 despite Pedro being better in every statistical category accept for IP’s and W’s!! Take a look. http://www.1918redsox.com/pedro/2002/cyyoung.htm ) I just don’t get how anyone could argue that Lincecum didn’t deserve the award. First off let’s clear out the dead weight in this argument. Lidge had a great year, but it wasn’t magical enough to earn the award over a starter. It just wasn’t. Sorry Lidge. Now, if CC should have won the award than Manny should win MVP. Everyone claimed that Manny wasn’t even really a thought for NL MVP because he only played half a year in the NL. The same should apply for CC. Both players had the exact same impact on their teams in different ways. If Manny can’t win the MVP then CC can’t win the Cy. As for Brandon Webb, yes he won the most games (22) but he was worse in every other stat than Lincecum. He even had more losses. In fact he had 4 games where he really put up a stinker and gave up 6+ER’s. Lincecum only had a game like that once. Really the debate lies with Santana vs Lincecum. Santana was great. Had he won the award I would have felt he too deserved it. A close look at the numbers shows the following: Santana had a better ERA, Lincecum had more wins, Lincecum had more K’s, Santana had a better whip, Santana had one more complete game and Santana didn’t make it to the 5th inning only once compared to Lincecums 3 times. Lincecum had 2 less losses however. For the most part the numbers show either guy deserved it. But here is why you give the award to Tim- he played on a team that absolutely sucks. That truly is the tie breaker to me. Santana is pitching with a fantastic defense behind him with Wright at 3B, Reyes at SS, Delgado at 1st and Beltran in CF. He also got much more run support. Santana got better defense and better offense. Can you name a strong defensive player on the Giants? Omar Vizquel? He was great…..5 years ago. Dave Roberts? Please! Let’s face it Johan did what he did on a superior team. (Both teams had awful bullpens so let’s not even go there). Really, you have to credit Lincecum for doing what he did despite playing on one of the worst teams in the NL. The kid was great, and I just don’t get how anyone could argue he didn’t deserve it. Great job by the voters for seeing that Tim Lincecum deserved to be the NL Cy Young winner. Clap, clap, clap.