Here's Tim Lincecum on winning the Cy Young Award: "I was definitely surprised. I thought it was going to be a lot closer."
So did I.
Lincecum picked up 23 of 32 possible first-place votes and was listed first or second on 30 of 32 ballots.
I may have predicted, in a chat or somewhere, that Lincecum would win, but now of course I wish I'd been bolder about it. I think if you were able to somehow measure buzz, you'd find that there was a great deal of buzz about Lincecum in the second half of the season, particularly in August when he went 4-0 with a 1.27 ERA in six starts. But Lincecum got roughed up a couple of times in September, while Johan Santana was being brilliant (4-0, 1.83) in a pennant race and Brad Lidge was closing out his perfect season in the same pennant race.
Brandon Webb's Diamondbacks were in a pennant race, too, and in his last seven starts he went 3-3 with a 5.70 ERA. All three of those losses came in late August and early September -- the D-backs won each of his last four starts -- but those three starts were enough, in the end, to knock his ERA to 3.30, just 10th best in the league. If Webb were one of the four National Leaguers with sub-3.00 ERAs, I think he probably would have won his second Cy Young Award.
It's really pretty amazing that Lincecum is only the second Giant to win the award, and maybe even more amazing that the first was Mike McCormick. Five Giants -- Toothpick Sam Jones, Jack Sanford, Gaylord Perry, Bill Swift and Jason Schmidt -- have finished second, but at least one of those second-place finishes comes with a huge asterisk.
When Sam Jones finished second in 1959, there was just one award for both leagues, and White Sox right-hander (and future Hall of Famer) Early Wynn won it. Obviously, Jones was the top vote-getter in his league. What's more, by most objective measures Jones actually had the better year. His record was 21-15 compared to Wynn's 22-10, but Jones' ERA was lower; he struck out more batters; and he was probably pitching in the better league. Oh, and he even pitched out of the bullpen in 15 games and saved four of them.
In 1962, Sanford clearly deserved to finish behind winner Don Drysdale. In 1970, Perry clearly deserved to finish behind winner Bob Gibson (meanwhile, Gaylord's brother Jim did win in the American League). In 1993, Swift didn't have a chance against Greg Maddux. And in 2003, Schmidt finished behind Eric Gagne and his 55-for-55 saves season. That year there were four voters who apparently didn't think a closer should win; two of them voted for Schmidt and two of them voted for Mark Prior, who might well have been the second-best pitcher in the league.
Lest you feel sorry for the Giants, I'll note that when McCormick won in 1967, he probably wasn't the best pitcher in the National League. That was probably Jim Bunning, who went 17-15 with a 2.29 ERA and 253 strikeouts while McCormick went 22-10 with a 2.85 ERA and 150 strikeouts.
Something else that's sort of amazing: Not only did Hall of Famer Juan Marichal never win a Cy Young Award, he never came remotely close, picking up just one third-place vote in his whole brilliant career. Marichal won 25 games twice and 26 games once, but he didn't appear on a single Cy Young ballot in any of those years. There's a good explanation, though. During Marichal's prime, each voter was asked to name just one pitcher on his ballot. When Marichal went 25-8 in 1963, Sandy Koufax went 25-5 and was the unanimous winner. When Marichal won 25 games in 1966, Koufax won 26 games and was the unanimous winner. When Marichal won 26 games in 1968, Bob Gibson posted a 1.12 ERA and was the unanimous winner.
There wasn't more than one space on a Cy Young voter's ballot until 1970, and by then Marichal was past his prime.
Rob Neyer
