Sighing over the Cy...

I am sure that you know by now that Tim Lincecum won the Cy Young award over two very deserving Cardinals (Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright). Needless to say (as a Cards fan), I wasn't really happy.

This was one of those years that it seemed like Lincecum was given the award before the season started (kinda like happens with the Heisman trophy). I'll admit he looked awfully good against the Cardinals when I saw him pitch this summer. He did fade down the stretch while the Cardinals pitchers got better. He led the league in strikeouts and tied for shutouts (with Joel Pinero of the Cardinals). That's it. He was 2nd in ERA but tied for FOURTH in wins. Wainwright won 19 games (most in the league). He should have gotten his 20th. I personally witnessed that debacle when he left with a 6-0 lead only for the bullpen to give up 12 runs and lose it. He also lead the league in innings pitched. Carpenter led the league in ERA (by almost a quarter of a run). He was 2nd in the league in wins behind his teammate despite missing over a month of the season. He led the league in winning percentage.

There were two bizarre votes cast. Keith Law who is with ESPN and out of Boston actually got to cast the Atlanta vote (the Atlanta Consitution doesn't allow their writers to participate). He left Carpenter completely off and voted for Javier Vazquez very conveniently of Atlanta as 2nd. An Arizona writer (very conveniently again) put Dan Haren of Arizona in as his third choice. BTW, Wainwright was voted the Outstanding pticher in the NL by the players (the Player's Choice awards).

I guess it didn't really occur to me you only get to vote for 3 pitchers. I know for MVP, you vote for 10. I don't know why that doesn't happen with the Cy Young. I've heard all sorts of stats quoted as to why Lincecum should have gotten the award. I love math and stats, but I think this is very overanalyzed.

But then, I think of the old Peanuts cartoon where Lucy is giving Charlie Brown all these stats about why their team is terrible. Charlie Brown finally tells her "Lucy, tell your statistics to shut up".