News
Cards close, but miss on Cy Young
Carpenter, Wainwright finish 2-3 behind Giants' Lincecum
By Matthew Leach / MLB.com
11/19/09 10:10 PM EST
ST. LOUIS -- A day that began with great promise ended with great disappointment for the Cardinals.
In a mild surprise, Giants right-hander Tim Lincecum beat out both Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright in balloting for the National League Cy Young Award on Thursday, with the two Cards finishing second and third, respectively. The vote was extremely close, with repeat winner Lincecum picking up 100 points on a 5-3-1 scale, Carpenter receiving 94 and Wainwright 90.
Wainwright actually garnered the most first-place votes of any candidate, with 12 of 32. But he was named in second place on only five ballots, with 15 voters ranking him third. Carpenter received nine firsts, 14 seconds and seven thirds. Carpenter was left off of two ballots, while Lincecum and Wainwright were on all 32.
It would have been the fourth Cy Young Award to go to a Cardinals pitcher. Bob Gibson won it twice and Carpenter was the 2005 winner. Instead, Carpenter gets his second close-but-not-quite finish. He was third in 2006. It's also the second runner-up finish for a Cardinal in this year's BBWAA awards. Tony La Russa was second to Jim Tracy for NL Manager of the Year.
Wainwright went 19-8 with a 2.63 ERA, 212 strikeouts and 66 walks in 233 innings pitched. He led the league in wins, innings and with 34 starts as well.
Carpenter, meanwhile, paced the NL with a 2.24 ERA and .810 winning percentage based on his 17-4 record. He was limited, however, to 192 2/3 innings and 28 starts, because he missed several weeks early in the season due to a strained oblique muscle. His season was all the more impressive in light of the fact that he missed most of 2007 and 2008 due to injury.
NL Cy Young Award Voting
| Player | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Pts. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tim Lincecum, SF | 11 | 12 | 9 | 100 |
| Chris Carpenter, STL | 9 | 14 | 7 | 94 |
| Adam Wainwright, STL | 12 | 5 | 15 | 90 |
| Javier Vazquez, ATL | 1 | 3 | ||
| Dan Haren, ARI | 1 | 1 |
"I'm just happy to be mentioned in the Cy Young voting with where I was the last two years," Carpenter wrote in an e-mail. "I felt that all of us had good cases to win and you couldn't go wrong with anyone. I felt that Adam was the winner only because of the quality of everything he did. His total body of work was the best."
Lincecum represented something of a compromise candidate, going 15-7 with a 2.48 ERA and a league-leading 261 strikeouts.
Lincecum fell short of Carpenter in rate stats such as ERA and baserunners per inning, but had a large edge on him in innings. He fell slightly short of Wainwright in innings, but did better in the rate categories. And, of course, he was the overwhelming league leader in strikeouts.
"Both the guys I was going up against had tremendous seasons," Lincecum said, while reiterating an earlier statement that Carpenter was the most deserving winner. "He just had a stellar year with amazing numbers. It says a lot for him to keep pushing and come back out with both guns firing."
So while the results were understandable, they were still disappointing in St. Louis. But even so, awards season is very likely to end on a high note by the banks of the Mississippi. Albert Pujols remains the prohibitive favorite to win the NL Most Valuable Player Award, which will be announced Tuesday.
Matthew Leach is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
