The voters get it right: Cy Young Award

Don't let the look fool you, Lincecum can pitch. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Examiner.com has been giving out its postseason awards the past few weeks and we already did our Cy Young awards. We were thinking right along with what the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) was thinking: Zack Geinke and Tim Lincecum are the best pitchers in both leagues.

Greinke was announced as the winner of the Cy Young in the American League on Tuesday.

In the National League one of the pitchers it seems like the Rockies face 10 times a year won: Lincecum.

There are finally enough stat heads in the BBWAA or at least the ice age thinking morons are finally starting to understand that judging a starting pitcher by wins makes as much sense as a Sarah Palin interview.

In the AL Greinke finished tied for seventh in wins and in the NL Lincecum was tied for fourth with eight other pitchers, including Ubaldo Jimenez.

Greinke pitch’s for the Kansas City Royals who finished second to last in the AL in runs scored and they had the most errors defensively and had the worst team fielding percentage. Add in the fact that their defense was also widely viewed as one of the least athletic defenses (they don’t range well and therefore do not even get to as many balls as other teams) and it is amazing Greinke won any games.

Lincecum played on a team that struggled mightily at the plate, other than Pablo Sandoval no one else on the San Francisco Giants was a threat with the wood in their hands. The Giants only beat offensive power houses like the Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres and Houston Astros in runs scored in 2009.

Now if you look at the stat FIP (Fielder Independent Pitching) Grienke was first with a 2.33 FIP and Lincecum was second with a 2.34 FIP. Next closest was Javier Vazquez with a 2.77 FIP, quite a jump. (FIP is a stat that takes away “luck” from ERA, takes away the fielders. It is calculated using walks, strikeouts and home runs, the only result from an at-bat that a pitcher is 100% responsible for. It is adjusted each year based on the league average ERA).

About .45 seconds after this sight, batters swung and missed. A lot. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga)

My favorite stats to look at are the strikeout ratio stats. Greinke was third in the AL in K/9 with 9.5 strikeouts every nine innings and second in K/BB with 4.75 K’s for every walk issued. Lincecum was first in K/9 in the NL with 10.42 per nine and fourth in K/BB with 3.84 punch-out’s for every free pass. Both of these guys were filthy and both were on the plate all year.

The most recent winner of the Cy Young that was based solely off of wins was in 2005 when Bartolo Colon won the AL Cy Young award. That year he finished with five more wins than Johan Santana, but Santana’s ERA was a half a run better (2.87 to 3.44) he had nearly 100 more strikeouts (238 to 157) and only two more walks (45 to 43). Add in the most incriminating stat: Santana’s opposing OPS was over 100 points lower (.596 to .698) and it is one of the worst Cy Young votes in recent history.

The tide is turning. The last award that needs some serious work are the Gold Glove awards. I touched on the insanity here and some of those winners should be embarrassed and should return the award.

Last up are the MVP winners which are announced next week. I wouldn’t expect much drama there. The only way there is anything news worthy from those two announcements would be if something similar happened as what happened in 2007. In 2007 Alex Rodriquez was a runaway winner of the AL award except for two voters in Detroit who voted for home town player Magglio Ordonez. About as stupid as those who didn’t vote for Ricky Henderson for the Hall of Fame. Or about as stupid as giving Mangino a free buffet ticket.  Expect Albert Pujols and Joe Mauer to take home the hardware next week.
 

• Vote for the Rockies in: This Year in Baseball
• Examiner.com: Most Valuable Player
• Examiner.com: Cy Young
• Examiner.com: Rookie of the Year
• BBWAA: Rookie of the Year
• Examiner.com and BBWAA: Silver Slugger
• BBWAA: Manager of the Year. Jim Tracy wins!