Lincecum, Lee; Cy Young Award Winners
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24 year old 2nd year ace of the San Francisco Giants Tim Lincecum and 30 year old Cleveland Indians 7 year veteran lefthander Cliff Lee garnered their respective league’s Cy Young Awards in MLB announcements made on Tuesday and Thursday.
Both Lincecum and Lee had phenominal seasons; Lincecum going 18-5 while racking up an incredible league-leading winning .783 percentage and league-leading 265 strikeouts in 227 innings with a 2.62 ERA for a Giants team which finished 4th in the NL West with a 72-90 mark and one of baseball’s least productive offenses. Lee finished with the best mark in all of MLB at 22-3 with a 2.54 ERA in 223 1/3 innings pitched. Between them, they gave up an incredibly low total of 23 homers (11 off of Lincecum, 12 off of Lee) in 450 1/3 innings.
In the NL, Arizona’s ace Brandon Webb finished a distant 2nd in the voting despite his 22-7 mark and 3.30 ERA in 226 2/3 innings. Webb gave up but 13 dingers. Johan Santana and CC Sabathia came in 3rd and 4th in the voting while Phillies closer Brad Lidge who recorded a perfect 41 saves in 41 chances in the regular season, 48 for 48 including the playoffs and the World Series, finished in the 5th spot in balloting.
Lincecum is only the 2nd Giant ever to win the Cy Young award with joining Mike McCormick who won in 1967. Records show that only Steve Carlton, in 1972, won the Cy Young for a club with a worse record than the 2008 Giants. Lefty went 27-10 with a 1.97 ERA for the morbund 1972 Phillies team who sported baseball’s worst record that year of 59-97.
Toronto Blue Jays starter Ray Halladay, with a 20-11 mark and a 2.78 ERA in 246 innings finished a distant 2nd in AL balloting and L.A. Angels closer
Francisco Rodriguez who set an MLB record with 62 saves and had a 2.24 ERA finished an even further distant 3rd.
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