This year Tim Lincecum has not only met all the expectations buzzing around him for years, but he has far succeeded it. Lincecum has brought new energy to the SF Giants and has already reached superstar status. He is now a serious contender for the National League Cy Young Award after only his 2nd year. Among the people considered as possible Cy Young contenders are Sabathia, Santana, and Webb. While an argument could be said for all 4, Tim Lincecum has the best all around arguments with no holes. This year Tim Lincecum has 18 wins 5 losses, leads the entire majors in strikeouts 265, has the 2nd best win loss percentage in the majors among the top pitchers (best ratio in NL), has the 2nd lowest ERA in the (national league) at 2.53. He also pitched the most pitches among all pitchers in one game this year, two different times this year(132 and 138) and now holds the SF Giants record for most strikeouts in a season.

Sabathia has done very good in the National league, but hasn’t been in long enough to really deserve it. He also has a lower ERA and win loss record. Santana has a lower ERA than Lincecum by a little, but he didn’t win games he should have on a team that had the capability to win more than the Giants and now the Mets are out of the race. Santana also has far less strikeouts and has been in the league for many years, so should be given less slack. Brandon Webb has done great getting 22 wins, but his win loss is not as good as Lincecum, his ERA is much higher than Lincecum, strikouts are much less, and Arizona has a much better winning record to give Webb more opportunity for wins.

There are some other factors to consider why Lincecum should be Cy Young. First off he has got the 2nd best win loss ratio among the top pitchers in the major, yet he is on a LOSING team. It’s much easier to win a game when you have a team backing you up offensively. I’ve witnessed 2 different games where the Giants defense did some very careless mistakes costing runs. Lincecum lost the game not because he should have, but because of bad mistakes. In another game a balk was called on him costing a run directly and a win. The call was obviously a bad call. Out of the over 20 games Lincecum has started, probably only one was a game where it wasn’t a very low scoring game that any team could have kept close and had the opportunity to win. We must also consider that this is only Lincecums second year and his first actual full year of pitching. The odds are against him naturally, he is shorter than average pitcher at 5′11, less experienced than most pitchers and yet the guy overcomes this by being the best in the majors. And he knew how to end the season perfectly. In his final game, Lincecum struck out 9 in a row (not done since 86) and got a win, allowing only 1 run after 7 innings.