Sportsbooks betting had San Francisco pitcher Tim Lincecum winning his second straight National League Cy Young award on Thursday. Lincecum always receives a great deal of respect in sportsbooks odds and he received a lot of respect on Thursday in the Cy Young voting.
Sportsbooks betting had Lincecum winning in one of the tightest votes in NL Cy Young history. Lincecum becomes the first pitcher to win the award in consecutive sportsbooks betting seasons since Randy Johnson did it. Lincecum received 100 total votes while St. Louis pitcher Chris Carpenter was second with 94 votes with Adam Wainwright of the Cardinals getting 90 votes. Others receiving votes as sportsbooks number show were Atlanta’s Javier Vazquez and Arizona’s Dan Haren.
Lincecum did not receive the most first place votes. That honor went to Wainwright who finished third. Lincecum did lead the league in strikeouts with 261 and was tied for the lead with four complete games this sportsbooks betting season and two shutouts. His overall numbers had him at 15-7 with a 2.48 ERA. Lincecum got 11 first-place votes, 12 seconds and nine thirds. Sportsbooks betting had Carpenter getting nine first place votes; 14 seconds place votes and seven third place votes. Wainwright had 12 first place votes, five seconds and 15 third place votes. Wainwright led the league with 19 wins while pitching 233 innings. Only once in history has a pitcher had the most first place votes and not won the award. That happened in 1998 when Trevor Hoffman got the most first place votes but lost the Cy Young to Tom Glavine.
Inexplicably, two voters didn’t even put Carpenter on their ballots. Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus and Keith Law of ESPN.com, did not include Carpenter on their ballots. For some unknown reason Carroll put Haren on his ballot while Law had Vazquez on his. Those were the only votes those two players got at all as sportsbooks stats indicated.
There is no doubt that Lincecum is a great pitcher and one who impacts sportsbooks betting but he did not deserve to win this year’s award. Either Carpenter or Wainwright should have won as sportsbooks info has it. Sportsbooks betting stats show that Lincecum won four fewer games than Wainwright and had a higher ERA than Carpenter and he didn’t even pitch for a playoff team. Unfortunately there are voters like Law and Carroll who don’t know how to vote. Carpenter had more wins, fewer losses and a lower ERA than Lincecum yet didn’t win the award.