NL Cy Young Award Voting
Joe Fiorello | October 11, 2009As a part of the New York Mets chapter of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance, I have been given the task of voting for post season awards.
Since there are four Mets writers in the alliance, and four post season awards to vote for, we’ve each decided to take one award and give our input.
I’ve been assigned the National League Cy Young Award.
I feel like this award has been a three horse race for some time between Aces Tim Lincecum, Adam Wainwright, and Chris Carpenter.
My order goes as follows
3. Tim Lincecum
The reigning Cy Young award winner from last season put in another impressive effort this season winning 15 games in 32 starts. He led the league in strike outs with 261, a full 23 strike outs more than his closest competitor. He threw four complete games and two shut outs in his 225.1 innings and his ERA was 2.48
Having a guy put a season together like Lincecum and come in third place is a good indicator of how impressive the top three pitchers in the NL performed this season.
2. Adam Wainwright
As a Mets fan, Wainwright has a special place in my heart as the man who ended the 2006 post-season run throwing one of the most ridiculous curve-balls I’ve ever seen to strike out Carlos Beltran with the bases loaded to win the NLCS.
Wainwright led the NL in wins with 19 in 34 starts. He sported an impressive 2.24 ERA and struck out 212. His numbers could easily be argued as the best in the league for this season, and putting him second on my list should again show how impressive I thought the winner’s season was.
1. Chris Carpenter
Carpenter who missed some time due to injury this season and was only able to start 28 games. He still managed to win 17. His ERA was a ridiculous 2.24. He threw three complete games, one shut out, only gave up seven home runs all year, only walked 38 all year.
Numbers like this make you wonder if Carpenter would have won 20+ wins with a six or seven more starts this season.
It’s my opinion that while all the pitchers I mentioned had Cy Young Award worthy seasons, Carpenter’s performance was the most impressive.
To see a lot more award voting visit the BBA’s Award Posts where you can read what bloggers all over the country are saying about this season.
Once all the awards are tallied, the BBA will be releasing a full set of awards. I’ll share that information here for all to see.
It’s too bad Lincecum didn’t win more games, I think he’s most deserving of the award.
But the BBWAA is going to pick Carpenter in part because of his comeback status and because of his WHIP. Not many K’s or IP, but was dominant. More dominant than Timmy though?