Lincecum, Greinke win Cy Young awards

Zack Greinke justly won the American League Cy Young award earlier this week. I'm not so sure Tim Lincecum of San Francisco deserved his second straight win in the NL, which he received today.

Chris Carpenter, who was my pick for the award, was probably hurt by the spectacular season his St. Louis teammate, Adam Wainwright, also produced. Wainwright actually led all NL pitchers in first-place votes received, while Carpenter finished second overall in the voting, with Wainwright third. I'm not normally too upset to see bad things happen to the Cardinals, but I do believe that Carpenter was more deserving than Lincecum of the award.

Carpenter made four fewer starts than Lincecum, but still won more games, going 17-4 to Lincecum's 15-7. In ERA, Carpenter also had an edge, as his league-low 2.24 was better than Lincecum's 2.48. Carpenter allowed just 38 walks in 192.2 innings pitched to the 68 Lincecum surrendered in 225.1 innings of work, though Lincecum had a lower opponents' batting average (.206 to .226). Lincecum's one very substantial advantage was in strikeouts, of which he compiled 261 to Carpenter's 144.

At least the voters got it right in the AL, where Greinke won easily. I thought his low total of 16 wins might hurt his chances, but the voters didn't penalize him for pitching for a terrible Royals team. His 2.16 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and 242 strikeouts in 229.1 innings made him the best pitcher in the league, and the voters designated him as such.