Who Will Get the NL Cy Young Award?
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by: Aaron Scott
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Word Count: 329
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 2009 Time: 9:59 PM
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The 2009 National League Cy Young race is an interesting situation. There are at least two pitchers who make definitive cases for the coveted award, and choosing the winner will be a difficult decision for those forced to vote.
While some great pitching was pretty commonplace throughout the entire National League, the race really boils down to two pitchers. Guys like Matt Cain, Adam Wainwright, Jair Jurrjens, Johan Santana, Wandy Rodriguez, and others were absolutely great this season, with many of them having career years.
At the end of the day though, the best pitching was hands down performed by Tim Lincecum, the young hurler with the San Francisco Giants, and Chris Carpenter, the veteran ace pitcher in St. Louis who came back from a two year hiatus that saw him sidelined with injury.
However, there's a lot more to what both of these aces accomplished than just some incredible stats. Sometimes, intangible factors like these may factor into determining who's more worthy of an award. That may very well have to be the case this year.
Tim Lincecum brought the San Francisco Giants back into contention. A steady presence at starting pitcher through the entire season, his numbers were incredible. His low ERA was 2.48 was amongst the best in baseball, and he led all pitchers with 261 strikeouts.
On the other hand, Chris Carpenter's story may be more interesting, and his numbers equally impressive. Carpenter sat out almost all of 2007 and 2008 due to injury. Now in his mid 30s, no one expected he'd be as dominant as he was in 2009. He had the best ERA in the National League at 2.24, and won 17 games while losing only four.
At the end of the day, this race could truly go either way. Carpenter had the better ERA and WHIP, but Lincecum's strikeouts were insane. Carpenter does have the better story to tell, so my prediction would be that he wins.
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