Baseball Notes

Brad Lidge threw a scoreless inning in Class A Clearwater. He did not allow a hit and walked one batter. Of the twelve pitches he threw, seven were strikes.

MLB Notebook provides an article on how Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto has been struggling with stress issues.

Joel Pineiro pitches a shutout against the New York Mets. He also chipped in with two hits of his own. The Mets have struggled with injuries, and last night Jose Reyes and an athletic trainer were an an automobile accident. Reyes and the trainer were okay after being rear-ended by a firetruck.

The last place Arizona Diamondbacks are unsure whether ace and former Cy Young winner Brandon Webb will return to pitch this season. Webb has missed time due to a right shoulder injury.

In other news on the injury front, Josh Hamilton will likely miss the All Star game. Hamilton is second among outfielders. For the Cleveland Indians, Grady Sizemore was activated from the disabled list. The Toronto Blue Jays expect Roy Halladay to return on Monday.

LSU and Texas are tied 1-1 in the College World Series. The tournament is best out of three.

The Cy

Now that the NL MVP has been discussed, who deserves the National League Cy Young Award?

Brandon Webb leads the league in wins with 21. Does that make him the NL Cy Young? Absolutely not.

Wins are a bad stat to use. A pitcher could win every game, but allow ten runs in 5 innings. On the other hand, a pitcher could pitch a complete game, allow only one run, and still earn the loss. It's a team stat. It's all about the run support.

However, Webb also has some pretty good numbers.

At 21-7, Webb has an ERA of 3.26. He struck out 170 and has a WHIP of 1.19. Opponents are batting .241 against Webb.

But do his numbers match Tim Lincecum? Tim Lincecum is my pick for the Cy.

Linecum's 10.14 K/9 beat out Webb's 7.19 K/9.

The sophomore is 17-4, with the San Francisco Giants, a weak team. His ERA is 2.46, the league leading among NL starting pitchers.

To go along with that, Lincecum currently leads all of baseball in strikeouts with 243.

He is 5th in the league in innings pitched with 215.2. His WHIP is 1.15 and opponents are hitting just .220 against the righty.

Johan Santana, Ryan Dempster and Cole Hamels, should all finish behind Lincecum in the voting, but ahead of Webb.

CC Sabathia could also be in the top voting, due to his dominance after the trade from Cleveland.

In 217.1 IP, Santana's ERA is 2.65. He struck out 187, and his WHIP is 1.17.

Hamels has an ERA of 3.10. He struck out 189 and his WHIP is 1.08

Dempster, who moved from the bullpen to the rotation for the Cubs, pitched 196.2 innings. He has an ERA of 3.02 and a WHIP of 1.22. He struck out 182.

What about Brad Lidge? Well I will tell you about Brad Lidge.

Lidge has only pitched 65.1 innings. His ERA is a minuscule 1.93 and a WHIP of 1.19. He struck out 84 batters. He has struck out an amazing 11.57 batters per 9 innings.

However, relief pitchers do not pitch enough innings, in my opinion, to qualify for Cy Young contention. Rolaids Relief Man of the Year? Yes. He'd be my pick.

There are some other pitchers I didn't mention who may be in the voting, but nobody comes close to "The Franchise."