Jayson Stark Looks At Lincecum's Cy Young Chances

Today, Jayson Stark makes the case for Tim Lincecum, Brando Webb and C.C. Sabathia as viable Cy Young candidates. He says of Lincecum:

Tim Lincecum has been getting way too little play in this debate for way too long, anyway. But Webb's mini-funk has helped bring Lincecum back into the conversation. And it's about time.

True, Lincecum has four fewer wins (19 to 15). But how much of that is his fault? He's 15-3, with five blown saves and six CUS (Criminally Unsupported Starts - games in which he pitched at least six innings and his team scored one run or none while he was in the game). Webb has one blown save and only two CUS. So that accounts for your gap in wins, gang.

Toss wins out of the discussion, and Lincecum looks as if he has clearly outpitched Webb by most standards. Lincecum leads in ERA by more than three-quarters of a run (2.43 to 3.19), leads in strikeouts by 50 (210 to 160) and tops the league in both categories. Lincecum also leads the NL in OPS allowed (.609), quality-start percentage (22 of 27, 81 percent) and strikeout ratio (10.2 per 9 IP). And unlike Sabathia, you may have noticed that he has been in the same league, on the same team, all season.