NL Cy Young

I've reached the point in the summer, actually I reached it about 4 weeks ago, where I find myself

losing my mind. It seems like half of the things I do at this point are mindless and I'm not even paying attention. I flip channels, I workout, I do whatever...and find myself with half an hour less of my life and not really sure what happened during that time. Hell, this morning the TV was on and next thing I realized I see Ellen DeGeneres two-stepping across my screen. What??! But then I realized things don't need to be quite this boring. That's why it's time for some good old-fashioned Cy Young debate. We'll leave the MVP argument alone for now and might for the whole season since it SHOULD be locked up already in both leagues (Pujols, Mauer). But for the Cy Young race, nothing is nearly as clear cut.

Let's look at the National League. At one point, we could've just said it's a two-on-two battle, Giants vs. Cardinals and we'll just give it to the two guys on that team. Matt Cain has faded slightly so that Giants/Cardinals 2 v 2 matchup won't occur, but it's safe to say that three out of those four are still battling. Unfortunately for Wainwright, it's highly unlikely he could convince voters that he's even the best pitcher on his own team let alone the best in the league. It's too bad for him but probably the truth. He's one of a handful of guys that I'd like to put out there in October but in that handful includes Chris Carpenter.

It seems like right now Lincecum is the front runner for the Cy Young because of pitching's equivalent to that sexy home run number--strikeouts. With his 222 total strikeouts and 10.3 K's/9 innings, it's hard to argue with just how dominant he can be. He was electric last year but then he went and got better, developing a changeup simply to ruin hitters' lives. But just because he might be improved from last year when he did win it doesn't make him a shoo-in for this year. It's not just about him, it's about the rest of the league, namely Chris Carpenter.

Carpenter is ahead of Lincecum in an overrated, but still important (and in Cy Young voters' minds seemingly far too important) category--wins. But it's not just wins that he leads him, it's ERA and WHIP, giving Carpenter an edge on Lincecum in 3 of the bigger pitching stats people pay attention to. And you know what? I think the guy deserves some credit for battling through injuries and coming back like they don't even matter. It's actually starting to seem like Carpenter is MLB's Jack Bauer. And this season is kind of like season 6. He got hurt, kind of like Bauer being released to the terrorists, but then when you're expecting the worst he comes out of nowhere, guns a' blazin', to lead the Cardinals to the playoffs. (By the way season 6 of 24 is an awful waste of anyone's time...Jack escapes terrorists, Jack yells at people, Jack kills terrorists, Jack saves country, country hates Jack, to be continued...seriously, save yourself the time).

Anyways, look to the guy that keeps guys off base better than any starting pitcher in the league (0.96 WHIP) and wins games at a better rate than anyone (.824 winning %) for your NL Cy Young. Lincecum does have some sexy looking numbers, but come October, I'll take Carp. (And by the way I'll go ahead and take his Cardinal team to represent the NL in the World Series. And who would've thought...I could've maybe even brought JOEL PINEIRO into this discussion! Don't laugh. I'm only kind of a Cardinals' rube)