Post by Fish Troll on Nov 12, 2008 15:38:49 GMT -5
SAN FRANCISCO -- Isolating a peak performance among Tim Lincecum's 34 appearances in 2008 was impossible.
"You can pick out gem after gem after gem," Giants right fielder Randy Winn said.
Lincecum's crown jewel arrived Tuesday. The Giants right-hander received the National League's Cy Young Award, emblematic of the league's best pitcher, in voting conducted by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
Lincecum received 23 of 32 first-place votes, seven second-place votes and one third-place vote for 137 points, which were assigned on a 5-3-1 basis. He outdistanced Arizona's Brandon Webb (73 points), the New York Mets' Johan Santana (55), Philadelphia's Brad Lidge (10), Milwaukee's CC Sabathia (9) and the Chicago Cubs' Ryan Dempster (4).
"In Obama-like fashion, it wasn't close," Giants general manager Brian Sabean said.
The comfortable margin surprised Lincecum.
"I thought it would be a lot closer. I was thinking more along the lines of Sabathia or Johan or Webb," he said, noting that those three are previous Cy Young winners.
Giants left-hander Jack Taschner suggested that Lincecum's efforts spoke loudly: "We're a West Coast team, and East Coast reporters are probably in bed by the time we get into the third or fourth inning. But that's really all you need to see [of Lincecum]."
"You can pick out gem after gem after gem," Giants right fielder Randy Winn said.
Lincecum's crown jewel arrived Tuesday. The Giants right-hander received the National League's Cy Young Award, emblematic of the league's best pitcher, in voting conducted by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
Lincecum received 23 of 32 first-place votes, seven second-place votes and one third-place vote for 137 points, which were assigned on a 5-3-1 basis. He outdistanced Arizona's Brandon Webb (73 points), the New York Mets' Johan Santana (55), Philadelphia's Brad Lidge (10), Milwaukee's CC Sabathia (9) and the Chicago Cubs' Ryan Dempster (4).
"In Obama-like fashion, it wasn't close," Giants general manager Brian Sabean said.
The comfortable margin surprised Lincecum.
"I thought it would be a lot closer. I was thinking more along the lines of Sabathia or Johan or Webb," he said, noting that those three are previous Cy Young winners.
Giants left-hander Jack Taschner suggested that Lincecum's efforts spoke loudly: "We're a West Coast team, and East Coast reporters are probably in bed by the time we get into the third or fourth inning. But that's really all you need to see [of Lincecum]."
mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081111&content_id=3674375&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
2008 NL Cy Young Award Voting
Pitcher, Club 1st 2nd 3rd Points
Tim Lincecum, SF 23 7 1 137
Brandon Webb, ARI 4 15 8 73
Johan Santana, NYM 4 8 11 55
Brad Lidge, PHI 1 7 10
CC Sabathia, MIL 1 1 1 9
Ryan Dempster, CHC 4 4
