CC deserves Cy

Major League Baseball will announce the NL Cy Young Award winner this afternoon. The pitcher who deserves it will not win it.

Brad Lidge is considered a good candidate to win the award since he was perfect in save opportunities and helped Philadelphia win their first World Series since 1980. But, closers very rarely win the award, so Lidge probably won't get it.

San Francisco's Tim Lincecum will probably take home the hardware, and the numbers he posted this past season certainly are Cy stuff. Lincecum went 18-5 on an awful Giants team with an ERA of 2.62. He also struck out 265 in 227 innings.

It'll be nice for Lincecum to get the award, to make something of an awful season by the Bay. You can't pooh-pooh Lidge's credentials either, considering what he did this past season and where he was a year ago at this time.

But, neither pitcher would be who I would have voted for. And the guy I would have voted for would have been CC Sabathia.

In fact, you could make the case that Sabathia would have been a lock for the Cy had the Brewers been able to get out of the first round of the playoffs. But they didn't, and enough time has passed that voters probably don't remember what Sabathia meant to his organization and his city.

Sabathia was a combined 17-10 with an ERA of 2.70. He also struck out 251 batters. These numbers are worthy of NL Cy consideration, even more so when you look and see that Sabathia was 11-2 with a 1.65 ERA and 128 K's for the Brewers.

The you look and see that Sabathia made his last four starts on just three days rest. Wins over the Pirates and Cubs in the final week of the season propelled the Brewers to their first playoff spot in twenty-six years. Sure, he didn't look great in the start against Philly in the Division Series, but he needs to be given credit for what he did in helping the Brewers get there.

Then there's Lincecum, whose team was out of the race before the season began. The Giants wound up 72-90. They finished in fourth with Lincecum. They would have finished in fourth without Lincecum (yes, the Padres were that bad).

That's the difference between Sabathia and Lincecum. The Brewers don't get to the playoffs without Sabathia. The Giants would've finished exactly where they finished without Lincecum. To me, it's an easy choice.

There will be some that will say Sabathia only spent a half a season with the Brewers, so he shouldn't get the award. Well, Ryan Howard was having a bad season until September, when he hit .352 with 11 HR's and 32 RBI. Howard hit .251 for the season, but his 48 Homers and 146 RBI led all of Major League Baseball. No one will be surprised if (actually when) Howard is named NL MVP for the second time in his career.

If Howard can win an MVP based on a month's work, then surely CC's four months of work for the Brewers are deserving of the NL Cy Young Award, right?