NL Cy Young Candidate: Tim Lincecum
A Profile on the San Francisco Giants Ace Right-hander
Nov 2, 2008
Arizona’s Brandon Webb, Milwaukee’s CC Sabathia, New York’s Johan Santana, and San Francisco’s Tim Lincecum have emerged to be the leading candidates for the 2008 NL Cy Young Award. In part four of this series, Tim Lincecum’s 2008 campaign will be reviewed.
In just his second season in the Majors, San Francisco Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum has already established himself as one of the best young pitchers around. The young right-hander started the season as the number three starter but quickly assumed the role of staff ace. Lincecum’s success on the field led to an appearance on the cover of Sports Illustrated and a spot on the National League All-Star roster.
Lincecum is the also the face of a Giants team looking for an identity in the post-Barry Bonds era. Tim Lincecum has been dubbed “The Franchise” by teammates and fans. That’s a lot of pressure to put on the thin shoulders of a 24-year old kid. Lincecum responded to the pressure by posting an 18-5 record with a 2.62 ERA in 34 appearances (33 starts).
Why Lincecum Will Win
When asked about Tim Lincecum, several National League West managers all said the same thing: dominant. Lincecum dominated opposing batters limiting them a .221 batting average. Remarkably, Lincecum dominated right handed hitters and left handed hitters equally, holding both to a .221 average. The 182 hits Lincecum allowed are the fewest hits allowed by any of the four candidates. And perhaps the number that best displays Lincecum’s dominance is 265. That is the number of batters Lincecum struck out this season, which was 14 more than the next highest total in baseball. Lincecum ranked in the top five in MLB in wins, innings pitched, strikeouts, ERA, opponents’ batting average, and winning percentage. Additionally, Lincecum accomplished all of this on a team that was not very good this season. Lincecum posted these numbers despite a somewhat shaky bullpen, and an anemic offense that hit the fewest home runs in the Majors.
Why Lincecum Will Not Win
Lincecum’s greatest obstacle to overcome will be his team’s disappointing season. The fact that the Giants were so bad compared to the Diamondbacks, Mets, and Brewers may hurt Lincecum’s chances because some voters would argue that Lincecum was not as valuable to his team. Additionally, the other four candidates are established veterans. Webb, Santana, and Sabathia have all been extremely successful for many years at the big league level. Some voters may question Lincecum’s ability to sustain this sort of success, and could subsequently not vote for him.
Chances Lincecum Will Win
Many of the experts believe that Lincecum’s chances are quite high. Across the board, Lincecum’s numbers are extremely good and merit heavy consideration. Brandon Webb of the Diamondbacks was dubbed as the “frontrunner” by many analysts, and if that is the case Lincecum is right on Webb’s heels. Lincecum certainly has the numbers to merit winning the award, but the competition is fierce.
Up Next
In the fifth and final part of this series, a statistical recap of all four major candidates will be examined in depth.
