Also see: American League Cy Young Race
Top Contenders
These are the pitchers who are the front-runners for the award right now.
Tim Lincecum, San Francisco Giants — The reigning Cy Young winner is making an extremely compelling case for winning a second time. He currently leads the league in ERA, innings, and strikeouts and ranks third in WHIP and fourth in wins. Lincecum currently owns a 2.19 ERA and is on pace to win 17 games and strike out 289 batters. He is currently considered by many to be the front-runner and barring injury or major meltdown, is the odds-on favorite to bring the award home for a second time in two years.
Adam Wainwright, St. Louis Cardinals — The Cardinals' right-hander has been arguably the best pitcher in the league over the last six weeks, going 6-2 with a 1.21 ERA since the end of June. He currently leads the league with 14 wins, is second in innings, and fifth in ERA and strikeouts. He is on pace to throw 238 innings and strike-out 205 batters this season. Wainwright is typically strong down the stretch and could post 20 wins this season.
Matt Cain, San Francisco Giants — The other half of the Giants' version of Spahn and Sain is having a breakout season posting a 12-4 record with a 2.49 ERA this far this season. Cain is on pace to win 17 games and is going to lose votes to Lincecum.
Dan Haren, Arizona Diamondbacks — Haren was running neck-and-neck with Lincecum at the break, but has seen his stock slide posting a 3-2 record with a 4.15 ERA since then. He has seen his ERA rise from 1.96 to 2.50 over his past five starts. Despite his struggles, he is still fourth in the league in ERA, wins, and strikeouts, is third in innings, and leads in WHIP. As the D-Backs slide further out of postseason contention, Haren becomes more of a long-shot to win.
Chris Carpenter, St. Louis Cardinals — The biggest argument against Carpenter is he missed about a month earlier in the season and is going to end up with about five or six fewer starts than the other contenders. However, there is no arguing against how well he has pitched ascending to second in the league in ERA and WHIP and has won six straight decisions to get to 12-3. Carpenter will have to pitch near perfect baseball the rest of the way to win the award.
Dark Horses
These are pitchers who have an outside shot at getting in contention, but will need to pitch lights-out baseball to stand a chance.
Josh Johnson, Florida Marlins — Johnson currently owns a 12-2 record with a 2.85 ERA and has pitched well all season long, but he does not rank in the top five in innings, strikeouts, or ERA.
Javier Vasquez, Atlanta Braves — Vasquez is second in the league in strikeouts and owns a 2.90 ERA, but is going to be lucky if he wins more than 15 games this season.
Johan Santana, New York Mets — Santana is second in the league in wins and is in the top 10 in innings and strikeouts and is always a threat to run off six or seven straight wins. However, Santana has been let down on numerous occasions by his teammates this season and is unlikely to have a low enough ERA to warrant serious consideration.
In the end, look for this race to come down to Lincecum and Wainwright. Lincecum is clearly the most dominant pitcher going right now and should win it unless he has a meltdown and comes back to the pack. Wainwright is going to get serious consideration if he wins 20 games, but is unlikely to have a comparable ERA or number of strikeouts.
This story was re-published with permission from PopPickle.
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