Lincecum Back To Back

Tim Lincecum won his second consecutive NL Cy Young award. This year's voting was very close and a bit controversial. Only three pitchers contended, and only five got any votes. Lincecum won despite Adam Wainwright gaining more first place votes. But Wainwright finished third. Chris Carpenter finished second, yet had fewer first place votes than the others. Carpenter's downfall was that two writers didn't even vote for him, which explains the single votes for both Vazquez and Haren.

But this wasn't an inside job, either, as I heard on the radio that neither of the two Bay Area writers gave Lincecum a first place vote.

When voting is this close, and it is obvious that all the contending candidates deserve to be considered for the top spot, then there shouldn't be any sour grapes upon losing. I would be content with any of these three winning, so no injustice was done. Of course, I wanted Lincecum to win because I'm a Giants fan. I'm used to awards and records, just not parades down Market Street or pitching awards.

In conclusion, congratulations Tim Lincecum!

No No-No, No-No, What Next?

Johnathan Sanchez throws a no-hitter! Well, it wasn't supposed to be tonight. It was supposed to be last night when Tim Lincecum pitched. Actually, I'm glad Lincecum didn't throw one last night, because I had a ticket but couldn't go. When I saw the no-hitter into the seventh, I was bummed. And, we have tickets for tomorrow when Matt Cain pitches.

Congratulations to Johnathan Sanchez and for his dad who saw his first game his kid started. Now, maybe Matt Cain can pitch one tomorrow night! The Giants really good pitching this year from a good rotation aside, the Padres look pretty anemic right now. Maybe their bats will stay quiet for one more day.

Tim LinCYcum

Congratulations to Tim Lincecum for winning the NL Cy Young award! I wasn't totally surprised that he won the award, but I was surprised by the margin of victory. Going into the stretch run I was convinced that Webb was the media frontrunner but that Lincecum had put up enough of a fight to make it close. Personally, I believed Lincecum should win it outright based on three factors. His ERA was clearly better. He led the universe in strikeouts. Webb led in wins, but only because he played for a contender. Lincecum had six leads torched by the hapless bullpen.

I'm glad to see that, unlike the national TV media, the sportswriters saw the same things I did. He gained 23 of 32 first place votes. Webb had 4, Santana 4 and Sabathia one. Some schmuck sportswriter from Chicago didn't even have Lincecum on his ballot. Wonder what he was smoking.

That this was only the SF Giants' second Cy Young award ever, compared to nine position player MVP's, shows that the team has concentrated on hitting and not pitching in its history. Hitting without pitching has resulted in zero rings. Maybe they'll learn from this. Hopefully, the Giants can put a team together before Cain and Lincecum are able to file for free agency so they aren't wasted on exclusively non-World Series winning teams. Way to go Timmy.

Possible 20 Wins For Lincecum

A few posts ago, I said that Tim Lincecum would no longer be able to win 20 games. Well, there has been an interesting twist to this. Starting every fifth game, he would run out of starts to finish the season on a winning run at 20 victories. His 20th would be on the day after the season is over. But the Giants have hinted that they will clip their off day next week out of the rotation and move Lincecum up a game. He'll still pitch on four days rest, but not on four games rest. The last game of the year is against the Dodgers, and they are in a pennant race (uh, yeah) with the D-Backs. How sweet it would be for Lincecum to win his 20th on the last game of the year, knock the Dodgers out of the pennant race, and win the Cy Young award, all in the same day.

No 20 For Lincecum

No, the title to this post is NOT No. 20 for Lincecum, as in number 20. It is "no twenty" as in 20 wins for Lincecum. Today he got a no decision vs. Colorado. He has 15 wins, and now a sweep of the season will result in only 19. Unless there is a rainout that needs to be made up from out of nowhere and he gets one more start. As of today, he has four starts left this year. A run will put him at 19-3, easily within the Cy Young criteria, seriously.

All-Star Performance

The Giants two All-Star selections, Tim Lincecum and Brian Wilson, on the last day before the All-Star break teamed up to defeat the team with the best record in baseball, the Cubs. Lincecum threw eight strong innings and Wilson saved it in the ninth. They showed why they're going to Yankee Stadium on Tuesday.