Tim Lincecum won a tight race against Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright, but some stats show that maybe it shouldn’t have been that close. Oh, and forget about wins. Forget ’em!:

Two other stats support Lincecum’s case. He led the majors in OPS against — holding opponents to an amazing .561. Carpenter was second at .581 and Wainwright 10th at .646.

Additionally, Lincecum led the NL with a 2.34 FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) according to FanGraphs.com. That’s the stat AL Cy Young winner Zack Greinke cited as the key to his outstanding season.

Despite the old-school Baseball Writers Association of America doing the balloting, statheads may have actually made some major headway by having the voters agree with one of the things fantasy geeks have been saying for some time now: Wins are not the best judge of a pitcher’s effectiveness.

Lincecum also led the big leagues with 26 quality starts, one better than Wainwright.

Tim Lincecum is young, has some of the best "stuff" in baseball and just picked up his second consecutive Cy Young award. As you might imagine, San Francisco Giants fans are rather pleased. A quick look at SB Nation's McCovey Chronicles and you'll see some of that pure, unabashed, spiteful enjoyment that all sports fans love.

Two full seasons, two Cy Youngs. That's two more than Juan Marichal. One more than Orel Hershisher, Eric Gagne, Fernando Valenzuela, and Mike Scott, all of whom can eat hot death.

Tim Lincecum: Cy Young Award winner. Again. You'd think that we'd be jaded because he won it last year. Nope. Still pretty danged exciting. Congrats, Tim.

Spend a few minutes within the comments of that post, though, and you'll find yourself knee-deep in some of the most enthusiastic (and creative) Giants fans out there. Where else can you find a gif of Lincecum driving around in a "Zoolander" scene, people so excited they can only manage to type "TOO MUCH JOY TO POST COHERENTLY!", some more dancing gifs, and even a friendly taunt directed at SB Nation's St. Louis Cardinals blog.

Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants was named the 2009 National League Cy Young winner Thursday afternoon, his second straight season taking home the award (they'll make lovely bookends on his mantle). The Freak narrowly edged out St. Louis Cardinals starters Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright. He joins Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson and Sandy Koufax as the only NL pitchers to win the award in two consecutive years.

The Giants ace led the NL in strikeouts with 261 in 225 innings pitched. He also finished second to Carpenter in ERA with a 2.48. Lincecum went 15-7 this past season, including a 10-2 record in the first half of the season.

In his career, the 25-year-old Lincecum is 40-17 with a 2.90 ERA. He's widely considered -- even by peers -- as having some of the best stuff in the game.

The vote was expected to be a close one between the three favorites, all of whom got into the act of endorsing a winner.

Lincecum totaled 100 points, including 11 first-place votes. Carpenter was right behind him with 94 points, tying it for the third-smallest margin of victory since 1970. Wainwright finished third with 90, but actually had the most first-place votes (15).

Lincecum (15-7, 2.48) had the fewest victories of any starter to win the Cy Young in a nonstrike season, and he also became only the second pitcher to win the Cy Young without getting the most first-place votes.

Lincecum received 11 first-place votes among the 32 ballots cast, from two writers in each National League City. Wainwright got 12 first-place votes, but he finished third because he had only five second-place votes. Carpenter, the only one of the three who was not named on all 32 ballots, got nine first-place votes and finished second.

Lincecum, who is just 25 years old (and five months), also became the youngest back-to-back Cy Young award winner since Roger Clemens accomplished the feat in 1987, when he was 25 years and three months.

Check with McCovey Chronicles and Viva El Birdos for more reaction and analysis.