Not only did Lincecum win the Players Choice Award as I noted last night, he was named The Sporting News NL Pitcher of the Year (also chosen by the players). If the baseball writers choose someone else for the Cy Young, we’ll just ignore them.
It’s entirely possible. In the last 25 years, the Sporting News has made 50 pitcher of the year choices. Eight times their N.L. award did not match the Cy Young, and three times the A.L. awards differed. That’s more than 20%.
Here’s an odd thing: When Greg Maddux won four straight Cy Youngs from ‘92 to ‘95, the Sporting News award followed suit. But when Randy Johnson won four consecutive Cys from ‘99 to ‘02, he didn’t win the SN award once. Instead the players voted for Mike Hampton, Tom Glavine, and Curt Schilling twice. Maybe it’s hard to vote for ugly once you’ve seen it standing 60 feet away.
