"Mitch Kramer" Edges Out Two Cards for N.L. Cy

That's Dazed and Confused look-a-like Tim Lincecum of the Giants edging out Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright.

Lincecum won his second straight N.L. Cy Young Award today, beating the pair of St. Louis starters by the slimmest of margins. Only 10 total points separated Lincecum from Carpenter and Wainwright in the voting. Lincecum actually had fewer first place votes than Carpenter or Wainwright, becoming just the second winner to not finish with the most first place votes. He also became the first pitcher ever to win the award in each of his first two seasons in the Majors.

Lincecum only won 15 games for the third place Giants, but he had a solid 2.48 ERA and struck out a league-high 261 hitters. His 15 wins is the lowest win total ever for starter by a Cy Young Award winner. Kansas City's Zack Greinke won the A.L. award just two days ago for the last place Royals with just 16 wins.

In comparing the stats of the top three finalists, Wainwright led the league in wins with 19, and Carpenter led the league with a 2.24 ERA. But it was Lincecum's dominance in strikeouts and in some of the other statistical categories such as K/9 IP and K/BB ratios that won over the voters.

Lincecum was actually better this year than he was last year as far as the numbers are concerned. He posted a lower ERA, a higher ERA+, a much lower WHIP, a much lower BAA, and a much higher K/BB ratio in 2009 than he did in 2008, all in just about the same number of innings pitched. His strikeout totals were just about the same from 2008 to 2009, and he posted an almost identical K/9 IP ratio both seasons. The only real difference that favored 2008 to 2009 were the wins (18 to 15).

And while I personally didn't say it here because I was pretty sure that the voters would see the lack of wins as a reason to give the honor to either Carpenter or Wainwright, I do think the voters got it right. And if they were going to vote for Greinke even though he only won 16 games but dominated the league in just about every other major statistical category, it would have almost been hypocritical of them if they also didn't vote for Lincecum.

But they did. And they got it right.