San Francisco Giants

I've pieced together a post elsewhere about Tim Lincecum's success as a high school pitcher at Liberty High, located south of Seattle, in 2002 and 2003 from Seattle Times reports. To celebrate Lincecum's repeat Cy Young award today, here's an excerpt from the Times of May 30, 2003. It describes the story of Lincecum proving himself to Liberty coach Glen Walker in spring 2002:

Coming into the 2009 season, many people wondered what exactly Tim Lincecum could do following a first full year in the bigs where he won the National League Cy Young Award.

It's not that we expect a drop off or anything like that, but you have to wonder what a guy can do after winning a Cy Young as a 24-year-old who is just two years out of college.

Well, we found out.

Tim Lincecum: 2009 NL Cy Young Award winner—in back-to-back fashion.

That's what you call getting it done.

We learned yesterday that the baseball writers of America voted for Royals stud Zack Greinke the American League Cy Young award winner over Mariners young phenom Felix Hernandez.

Today it's been announced and confirmed that the product of the University of Washington baseball program and bona fied San Francisco Giants ace Tim Lincecum has won his second consecutive Cy Young award in the National League beating out the two birds Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright for the award.

For the second consecutive year, San Francisco Giants ace Tim Lincecum has been named the National League Cy Young Award winner following one of the closest races ever.

Phew...

When I was asked in advance to write an affirmative reaction piece to the announcement, I knew it was going to be a tall order if someone other than the Freak took home the hardware.

Tim Lincecum has joined an elite group of hurlers by capturing his second consecutive Cy Young award on Thursday.

The Giants had only one Cy Young to their credit (Mike McCormick, 1967) until 2007, and Timmy has brought home the trophy for two consecutive seasons and put himself at the forefront of the pitching world on the senior circuit.

The last time a pitcher won multiple Cy Young awards in a row was when Randy Johnson earned four straight from 1999-2002 with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

ESPN has just announced that Tim Lincecum has become the first MLB repeat winner of the Cy Young Award since Randy Johnson won four in succession from 1999-2002.

Lincecum, in my opinion, won the award by default this season. I don't think the voters could choose between Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright, both of the St. Louis Cardinals, so they chose Lincecum by default.

Carpenter led the league in ERA with a dazzling 2.24 and the best ERA+ at 183. He also had the best W/L PCT with .810 and the best whip of the three at 1.007.

The National League Cy Young Award will be announced early Thursday afternoon, and there are a trio of pitchers with viable claims to the trophy.

Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright, and Tim Lincecum are the front runners to win, but one of the main things to keep in mind as the results are announced is that it is rare to see two pitchers from the same team vying for the Cy Young.

For this reason, I see Carpenter and Wainwright splitting votes and weakening the chances of either to take home the honor. 

Tim Lincecum has taken the baseball world by storm over the past two-and-a-half seasons. Depending on who you ask, he is at or near the top when asked to name the best pitchers in the game.

Lincecum won the Cy Young Award in 2008, and he put himself in a position to win another in 2009 with an even better year. Regardless of the outcome of this year's ballot, he will face a landscape in 2010 that he has never before dealt with in his life.

For those distracted by football and basketball, Major League Baseball is in the process of recognizing its outstanding players from the 2009 season. The biggies are still in the pipe, but those generally go to the right individual. At the very least, the final voting shows an appropriate depth of consideration and analysis even if the you don't agree with it.

Ultimately, a good faith effort is all anyone can reasonably demand during an entirely subjective exercise.