Was Lincecum The Right Choice? Stats Say Yes

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.