by Daniel Gettinger

Continuing our BBA end of season awards, today we deal with the Cy Young award.

The San diego chapter of the BBA voted in the following manner:

First Place: Tim Lincecum

Second Place: Chris Carpenter

Third Place: Javier Vazquez

Both The Sacrifice Bunt and I voted in the exact order as the chapter vote.

Lincecum was clearly the best pitcher in the National League and was worth 8.2 wins against replacement.

A group of pitchers that included Carpenter, Ubaldo Jimenez, Adam Wainwright, Dan Haren, and Javier Vazquez compiled WARs between 5.6 and 6.6.  I gave my second place vote to Carpenter on the strength of his 2.24 ERA and 2.78 WHIP.

Although Vazquez had a higher WAR (he trailed only Lincecum in that category), I knocked him down a notch because Vazquez has long history of  underperforming his FIP, and to be honest, I was swayed a bit by Carpenter’s league leading ERA.

Websoul Surfer’s votes:

First place: Chris Carpenter

Sometimes it’s not all about he numbers, even though Carpenter’s numbers (17-4 in 28 starts, 2.24 ERA) certainly warrant this award. This is a pitcher that time and again was the stopper for his team and stepped up when he was facing tough teams. He was undefeated against division foes with a 1.58 ERA in 15 starts.

Second Place: Tim Lincecum

15-7 with a 2.48 ERA and a league leading 261 SO in 225.1 IP. Certainly worthy numbers. The difference for me was the 2.83 ERA against the NL West vs the 2.26 ERA against the rest of baseball.

Third Place: Adam Wainwright

19-8 with a 2.68 ERA, but just not quite good enough for me. At times he just seemed more lucky than good.