The Awards Season : Part 3 (Finally)

AL Cy Young

If there is one award that is totally sewn up and beyond refute it's this one. Johan Santananananaman is just the best pitcher in baseball today and leads the entire Majors in strikeouts, wins and ERA (the so called Triple Crown of pitching). The only thing that surprises me is that his WHIP is 1.000 which just seems high for him!

NL Cy Young

If there is one award that is totally up in the air it's this one. I reckon there are at least six starters in with a shout and one reliever.

You can't ignore that its been a great year for Hoffman. Despite his advancing years he has been the best closer in the NL and has finally usurped Lee Smith atop the all time saves list. I'm always reluctant to name relievers as Cy winners but it really would be a great way to top this season.

The thing that helps Hoffman's cause is that any one of Harang, Webb, Lowe, Zambrano, Carpenter or Oswalt could easily be considered the top starter in the NL as no one has really had a great season but all have had very good seasons.

Webb still gets the nod from me with his league leading ERA and I can't help but feel that his win total would be around the 20 mark this year if not for his team hitting the skids down the stretch. Ever since he started the year with his 8 game win streak, the rest of the league has always been playing catch up.

I would love to see Aaron Harang get a lot of votes. A lot of attention was thrust upon Bronson Arroyo in the Reds rotation this year but Harang has been an absolute workhorse for that team for the past two seasons. This year he's in the logjam atop the win column and presently leads the league in strikeouts and innings pitched and while his 3.76 ERA might not look as impressive as his rivals, we do need to bare in mind that he plays in one of the most hitter friendly parks in all of baseball.

Honary mention to Carlos Zambrano who is laboured with the truly awful Cubs team but has still won 16 games and has almost a K per IP. He really has done a great job at making people aware that he is the big guy on that rotation and not either of the injured pair people usually talk about.