2009 SB Nation Baseball Awards: Cy Young

by Eric Simon on Nov 11, 2009 2:00 PM EST

(Note: the following preamble is 99% unchanged from the previously announced awards, so feel free to skip it if you've already read it.)

One of the nice things about having a whole network of baseball sites is that occasionally we get to pretend we're real writers and collaborate on projects with one another. Now that the baseball season is over, and before everyone's focus turns to the free agent and trade markets, we look to award the heroes of the this past year. And by "heroes" I mean "multi-millionaire baseball players". The BBWAA awards won't be announced until next week -- and at this point most of their opinions brush dangerously close to utter irrelevancy -- so SB Nation gets the jump on them by announcing the winners of our awards voting this week. As much as anything, it's an effort to see if our cadre of basement-dwellers can do a better job than the professionals at getting the awards correct.

We have already revealed the Manager of the Year and Rookie of the Year awards. Today we present the results for Cy Young, an award which no Met has won since Dwight Gooden in 1985.

National League SBN bloggers could only vote for the NL awards; American League bloggers were similarly restricted to voting for their own league's awards. Here are the results of the National League Rookie of the Year voting. American League results can be found after the jump.

Rk	Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Tim Lincecum	San Francisco Giants	18	13	-	129
2	Chris Carpenter	St. Louis Cardinals	9	4	7	64
3	Adam Wainwright	St. Louis Cardinals	4	4	10	42
4	Javier Vazquez	Atlanta Braves	-	5	7	22
5	Dan Haren	Arizona Diamondbacks	-	3	4	13
6	Ubaldo Jimenez	Colorado Rockies	-	1	1	4
7	Cliff Lee	Philadelphia Phillies	-	-	1	1
8	Jair Jurrjens	Atlanta Braves	-	-	1	1

American League voting results.

Rk	Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Zack Greinke	Kansas City Royals	28	1	-	143
2	Felix Hernandez	Seattle Mariners	-	17	6	57
3	Justin Verlander	Detroit Tigers	-	8	9	33
4	Roy Halladay	Toronto Blue Jays	1	2	11	22
5	CC Sabathia	New York Yankees	-	1	2	5
6	Jon Lester	Boston Red Sox	-	-	1	1

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Comments

Personally

I would have given it to Carpenter over Lincecum, but that’s really picking nits. I’m surprised Matt Cain didn’t get a single vote – his bad September really killed him, I guess.

"[The Giants] beat us down. We were beat by a grown-man team, a team we want to be like one day. They came in here and took it to us. Out-manned us, out-gunned us. ... It wasn't even close." - Raheem Morris, 9/27/09

by cjmulrain on Nov 11, 2009 2:09 PM EST reply actions

Yeah, I'd also have to go with Carpenter

"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!"

by Brooklyn Dodgers Mets Fan on Nov 11, 2009 2:10 PM EST reply actions

In the AL, Greinke deserves it, but so does King Felix.

"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!"

by Brooklyn Dodgers Mets Fan on Nov 11, 2009 2:11 PM EST up reply actions

On what grounds?

by Eric Simon on Nov 11, 2009 2:36 PM EST up reply actions

AL or NL?

"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!"

by Brooklyn Dodgers Mets Fan on Nov 11, 2009 3:20 PM EST up reply actions

either

by Sam Page on Nov 11, 2009 3:28 PM EST up reply actions

NL

Please elucidate for me how Chris Carpenter was the best pitcher in the National League.

by Eric Simon on Nov 11, 2009 3:42 PM EST up reply actions

lower ERA

lower WHIP
lower BB/9
better K/BB
lower HR Rate
more wins (::ducks for cover::)

Lincecum has a better FIP, but Carpenters is pretty darn good too. Lincecum does kick his ass in K Rate and had more innings pitched. You’re right that Lincecum was probably the better pitcher – but I don’t think it’s absurd that Carpenter could have won. And I’ll admit I’m a bit biased – I like Carpenter a lot, and the fact that he was this good coming off basically a two-year layaway is damn impressive. Also, for some reason I thought Carpenter got robbed by Dontrelle back in 2005, but I guess I remembered wrong b/c Carpenter did win that one.

by cjmulrain on Nov 11, 2009 3:57 PM EST up reply actions

The disparity between their WARs is nearly equal to Johan's total WAR

also Lincecum had a better K/BB, not Carpenter. Not to mention K%, SS%, FIP, and tRA. woo cherrypicking

by Sam Page on Nov 11, 2009 4:08 PM EST up reply actions

fair enough

I’ll admit that when I made my first comment I hadn’t done anything more than a cursory glance at the stats, and like I said I’m a big Carpenter fan. That definitely colors my opinion.

I will say that I think it’s more impressive for Carpenter to do what he did than Lincecum. Carpenter was coming off basically a two-year injury layaway. Lincecum is just a phenom. Although pitching that good while being high is pretty damn impressive too…

by cjmulrain on Nov 12, 2009 12:17 PM EST up reply actions

In Carpenter’s favor is the fact that he started late in the season, giving him the “what could have been” mystique- Lincecum pitched 225.1 innings, and made 32 starts, as opposed to Carpenter’s 192.2 innings and 28 starts. Lincecum has the edge in K/9, while Carpenter has the edge in BB/9. Carpenter has the edge in HRs allowed. Carpenter has a slightly lower WHIP, ERA, HRs allowed, and of course, the hallowed “more wins”. Lincecum did have a higher BABIP, but that’s because of the defense behind him, which is arguably worse than Carpenters, but his Average Against was better. I prefer Carpenter over Lincecum. I don’t like Lincecum.

"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!"

by Brooklyn Dodgers Mets Fan on Nov 11, 2009 4:01 PM EST up reply actions

Explain to me again

how the “what could have been” mystique > 30+ extra innings. I must be missing something about how potential awesomeness is somehow more valuable than actual awesomeness.

by Eric Simon on Nov 11, 2009 4:20 PM EST up reply actions

Hmm

I don’t like Lincecum.

I think that sentence could have summed up your stance more concisely than the rest of your comment.

by James Kannengieser on Nov 11, 2009 7:29 PM EST up reply actions

Yeah

that’s not particularly convincing. Lincecum is the clear Cy Young, I don’t think Carpenter is even close.

"We must win and we must know how to win rather than win because we have statistical people."

by Evan_S on Nov 11, 2009 10:39 PM EST up reply actions

Wow, who voted for someone other than Greinke for Cy Young?

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw

by squid92 on Nov 11, 2009 2:15 PM EST reply actions

Prolly some Jays fan or just being argumentative

by Jsz on Nov 11, 2009 2:45 PM EST up reply actions

Lincecum deserves it

I originally thought that Carpenter was close, but really, Lincecum’s a surprisingly easy call. He has Carpenter beat in both the traditional stats and the advanced stats. Sadly, neither guy is probably going to get it – instead voters will look at Wainwright’s wins and give it to him.

by dcmetsfan on Nov 11, 2009 2:32 PM EST reply actions