Projo Sox Blog

What were those Cy Young voters smoking?

Tim Lincecum, the Giants' lean righty who recently was found in possession of several grams of marijuana when stopped for speeding in his home state of Washington, has won his second straight N.L. Cy Young Award, despite winning only 15 games -- the lowest, full-season total in the history of the award.

Of course, that was only one less than the A.L. Cy Young Award winner, Zack Greinke of the Royals, who won 16.

Then again, winning 16 games for the Royals is tantamount to winning 26, so there's no gripe with Greinke.

But the Cardinals had not just one, but two, pitchers who arguably had better seasons than Lincecum, who led the league in strikeouts with 261.

Adam Wainwright led the league in wins, going 19-8 for St. Louis, with an ERA of 2.63. He also struck out 212 in 233 innings.

The Cards' Chris Carpenter was 17-4, with an ERA of 2.24. Lincecum's ERA, by the way, was 2.48 while going 15-7.

The combined total of 31 wins for Lincecum and Greinke equals that of Denny McLain, when he won the award in 1968 with the Detroit Tigers. McLain was 31-6 that season, with an ERA of 1.96 and 28 complete games.

That's right -- 28.

Those really were the good old days, when men were men, and so were pitchers.

. Sandy Koufax won back-to-back Cy Youngs in 1964 and '65. He was 26-8 in '64, with an ERA of 2.04 and 382 -- 382! -- strikeouts in 335 -- 335! -- innings. He completed 27 starts that season. The following year, the Dodger's fireballing (his curve wasn't bad, either) lefty was 27-9, with a 1.73 ERA, 317 strikeouts in 323 innings, and 27 complete games.

Lincecum becomes the first pitcher to win successive Cy's since Randy Johnson won four in a row from 1992 through '95.

The Big Unit, like Koufax, had considerably more impressive stats than Lincecum. In those four award-winning seasons, Johnson went 17-9, with a 2.48 ERA, 19-7 (2.64), 21-6 (2.49) and 24-5 (2.32). His strikeout totals were 364 in 271.2 innings, 347 in 248.2, 372 in 249.2, and 334 in 260.

Greg Maddux also won the Cy Young four years in a row, from 1992 through '95, with win totals of 20, 20, 16, and 19. What dazzled were his ERA numbers -- 2.18 in '92, 2.36 in '93, 1.56 in '94 and 1.63 in '95.

As for the man for whom the award is named, Denton True "Cyclone" Young won at least 25 games 12 times in a stretch of 14 seasons between 1891 and 1904. Five times in that span he won 32 or more, including 33 for the Red Sox in 1901 and 32 for Boston in 1902.,

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