11-2, 1.65 ERA, .92 WHIP, 128K, 25BB, in 17 Starts, 141.2IP, 7CG, 3 SHO

Here’s Lincecum:

18-5, 2.62ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 265K, 84BB in 33 starts, with 227IP, 2CG and 1 SHO

Basically, in half a season Sabathia tripled Lincecum’s CG and SHO numbers, crushed him in WHIP, ERA and K:BB (5.12 to 3.15), beat him in winning %, and was a key cog for a playoff team under intense pressure, pitching extremely well on 3 days rest his final 3 turns through the rotation – 21.2IP, 2ER, 20K, 4BB, 15H (.88 WHIP).

I think there’s a legitimate case to be made that, half season or no, Sabathia deserves the NL Cy Young

It is a myth that Tim Lincecum didn’t receive offensive support this season. The last time I checked, the Giants’ offense had scored about a run and a half per nine innings more for Tim than for its other pitchers, including Matt Cain with the second-worst support in the game.

Where Tim was let down was primarily by his bullpen, which blew five wins for him. Intriguingly, the Mets blew seven of Johan Santana’s wins, while the Diamondbacks’ relievers blew only one win for Brandon Webb. If none of the three bullpens had blown a single win for these top three guys, each would have won 23 games.

Tim was let down by a questionable balk call, which cost him his first win of the season. He was let down by his defense in two of his final three games, with a horrible misplay by Eugenio Velez — an infielder making only his fourth start in the outfield — and an error on Rich Aurilia that was changed to a hit after the game costing Tim four earned runs and the ERA title.

But Tim wasn’t let down by the Giants’ offense, who uncharacteristically supported him well.

Tim finished first in the NL in strikeouts, SLG against, OPS against, batting average against, batting average against with runners in scoring position (.164 entering his final start), strikeouts per nine innings, homers against, homers per nine, and winning percentage.

He was second in ERA and wins.

Sadly, I think Johan Santana — based in New York — will win the award. Clearly I think Tim deserves to become only the second NL pitcher to win the award in his first full season (with the other being Fernando Valenzuela).

It’s like people saw Santana not put up an ERA in the 1’s for the first month he was in the NL and wrote him off for the year. I would have no problem penciling him in right behind Lincecum.

I thank AAP212’s analysis is right on. And I think Brandon Webb’s 22 wins will, sadly, make it a three-way race, with CC Sabathia finishing fourth, then Ryan Dempster and Edinson Volquez.

There is no question Tim Lincecum didn’t pitch in games as meaningful as the other top Cy Young Award candidates. But no pitcher was as great a stopper as Tim, who went an amazing 14-1 after Giants losses.

Oh, and Tim went 13-1 in games in which he received three or more runs of support.

When Tim pitched at AT&T, it wasn’t merely a ball game; it was a rock concert. Tim yielded very few important runs, pitching with incredible consistency.

It’s extremely close. I think Lincecum will win because the talk has been mostly about him the last two months but Santana has been amazing. Both pitchers, with proper offensive/bullpen support would have won 20+ games this year. Both are high on the strike out list with low ERA’s. Honestly, I think it’s going to come down to two things:

a) Lincecum’s much higher strikeout total makes him look for “dominant”
b) Johan’s ERA is only slightly lower and he’s (currently) one win behind Lincecum.

Not Braun or Pujols or Howard? They’ve all been better, except maybe for Howard. But Howard’s been better in HR’s and RBI’s. And Braun had a huge impact with the Brewers. He was a huge part of the reason they just made the playoffs.

CC Sabathia was the best pitcher in all of baseball after being traded to the Brewers. But he threw less than half his games in the NL and didn’t pitch his very best ball down the stretch.

If CC had done what he did for the Brewers all season long, we wouldn’t have much of a discussion going on here. But aside from CC in the second half, Tim Lincecum was the NL dominator all season long.

Santana could get it wrongly.
Hes got more starts and innings than Lincecum, a better ERA and an equal (actually ever so slightly better) ERA+ and there isn’t a big difference in the W-L (if thats looked at)

I meant to say that Harden is as good.