Cy Young Clusterf*ck

The way St. Louis Cardinals fans reacted after Tim Lincecum was named the NL Cy Young award winner*, you would have thought the state of Florida had just screwed him out of the United States presidency.
Yeah, the reactions were that bad.

Adam Wainwright has a legit beef with voters.  Only in America (and America's Past Time) can you get the most first place votes and not be a winner.  Mr. Wainwright, Al Gore is holding on line one prepared with a condolences speech.  Chris Carpenter, you already have a Cy Young award in your back pocket.  Go pretend as if it were a new one and rest up for 2010.

And for everyone saying that Carpenter and Wainwright were robbed.  Or that Lincecum was not deserving of the award.  You're stupid.  I know that will offend a lot of my friends who happen to be charter members of the Redbird Cheering Association, but I don't care.

It is not as if Lincecum was shit-tastic in San Francisco.  Seriously, look at his numbers.

Lincecum led the National League with 261 strikeouts and had a league-best K/9 ratio of 10.4, higher than Carpenter's 144 punchouts and 6.7 K/9 ratio.  He allowed fewer base hits per nine innings andhome runs per nine innings than Wainwright, all while having a lower WHIP.

He won 15 games -- four fewer than Wainwright and two fewer than Carpenter.

Of Lincecum's 10 no decisions, he received two runs or fewer of run support in four of those starts.  If Lincecum is backed with an offense that can some how wave less than a pageant queen, 15 wins becomes 19 wins rather quickly.

I refuse to waste my valuable time running down stats that prove Lincecum was a worthy Cy Young award winner.  If you want to blame the voters, be my guest.  Do so in the comments section and I'll agree with you 100 percent.  If you want to blame any combination of the Cardinals bats or bullpen for not getting Wainwright his 20th win down the stretch, go right ahead.  Again, do so in the comments section.

But remember this.  There is no doubt in the mind of any one with a baseball IQ that Lincecum, Wainwright and Carpenter were the three best pitchers in the National League.  Each player could make a case for winning the coveted award.  Lincecum won, Wainwright and Carpenter finished behind him.

In the end, the Giants, Cardinals and Cubs each won the same amount of playoff games in 2009.

Zero.

Life goes on.

(At what point is it OK to ask how Lincecum will celebrate?)*

Wanted: Someone That Can Provide The Big 'O'

No, this isn't the tagline of a craigslist ad. Instead, it's something that the San Francisco Giants pitching staff would put in a personal ad as the G-Men search for some runs to support their staff with overwhelming stuff and underwhelming stats.

Lucky for the Cubs they get to face both Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum in this weekend's three-game set at Wrigley Field. And the fact that I'm even writing this post ensures that San Fran is bound to score 20 runs per game in support of this dynamic duo.

But let's break it down, shall we?

Tim Lincecum should be starting the All-Star Game for the National League. He's 10-2 with a 2.66 ERA. That's 10 frickin' wins on a team that has 39 wins. More than 25 percent of the Giants' wins have come thanks to the golden arm of Tim Lincecum.

He's got 126 strikeouts in 121.2 innings pitched. He's limiting opponents to a .243 batting average. He's posting a 1.27 WHIP. He's allowed 36 earned runs. Teammate Barry Zito has given up 61 earned runs and is making $17,595,000 more than Lincecum.

Lincecum would be a deity if he was on the Cubs, Mets, Yankees or Red Sox. Instead, he's the real San Francisco treat.

Also deserving of some love is Matt Cain. Despite h is 5-7 record and 4.30 ERA, Cain is able to devastate hitters with a mean high-90s fastball and a buckling breaking ball. His problem is that he gets little to no run support, meaning he's pitching with no margin for error.

His 112 strikeouts ranks third behind Licecum and lefty Jonathan Sanchez who has 115 punch outs. By the way, Sanchez is 8-5 with a 3.97 ERA which isn't bad for a guy making $395,000 in 2008.

If Lincecum, Cain and Sanchez had an offense that wasn't -57 in the run differential category, they'd all be All-Stars.

Instead, it's up to Aaron Rowand, Bengie Molina and Randy Winn to put some crooked numbers on the board.

Good luck with that, boys.