Orange County Register

Here’s another guy who takes his BBWAA award voting seriously. In fact, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch sounded almost as anguished about the Cy Young vote as Henry Schulman did. Maybe these guys should take a week off.

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Those of us who were presented with cut-and-dried ballots, like N.L. MVP (duh) are not envious of the Cy Young panel. But Goold, like me, thinks Adam Wainwright of the Cardinals was a sliver-thin choice over both teammate Chris Carpenter and the Giants’ Tim Lincecum, who eventually won.

Goold meticulously spells out his case. I would add this:

– As Schulman pointed out, strikeouts should not be a major factor in the voting. The Cardinals’ strategy is to pitch to contact, keep the pitch count down and go as many innings as you can. Since the Cardinals also have a very good defense, that’s a feasible strategy and Carpenter, for one, should not have been penalized for it.

– What didn’t make sense was the fact that Wainwright had more

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first-place votes than anyone but had only five second-place votes, which is basically why he finished third. Only once before has the leading vote-getter failed to win the Cy Young. That was when Tom Glavine edged Trevor Hoffman in 1998. That shouldn’t have happened either. Read the rest of this entry »

Henry Schulman covers the Giants for the San Francisco Chronicle and does it as professionally as just about anybody. The pro came out in Hammerin’ Hank on Thursday when he explained why he did not vote for the Giants’ Tim Lincecum to win his second consecutive Cy Young Award.

Lincecum won the award anyway, his second consecutive. He made $650,000 last season, by the way.

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Schulman was under no obligation to even divulge that he had a Cy Young ballot, let alone explain why he didn’t vote for the guy he covers daily. Instead he voted for the Cardinals’ Chris Carpenter and put Lincecum second.

No doubt he’ll get slammed heavily for this, but it’s a great (and rare, these days) example of accountability. Way to go, Henry (even though you should have voted for Adam Wainwright).

Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks is trying to reinforce his bid to hang onto his baseball team, and that could have an impact on what happens in the free agent market, particularly as it relates to Angels righthander and Texas native John Lackey.

There’s little question that John Lackey will be the richest pitcher in this free-agent derby and there’s not much hope he’ll stay with the Angels.

With Andy Pettitte contemplating retirement, it appears the Yankees are the logical front-runners for Lackey, who pitched like a No. 1 starter for much of the postseason. But if Texas could get its finances together, it could lure Lackey back to his Lone Star home.

What do you think?

Normally you’re a little reluctant to accept the Manager of the Year award because it doesn’t guarantee you anything, including employment.

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Since Mike Scioscia won his first such award in 2002, three award-winners in the American League have been fired — Kansas City’s Tony Pena, Texas’ Buck Showalter and, most recently, Cleveland’s Eric Wedge.

The 2007 and 2006 National League managers of the year were Bob Melvin of Arizona and Joe Girardi of Florida. Both were fired soon afterward.

Amazing that Seattle’s Don Wakamatsu was a fourth-place finisher with only seven writers voting for him. That’s just a case of people not paying attention. The guy did a phenomenal job, posting a winning record with a club that scored the fewest runs in the American League and lost 102 games the year before.

Minnesota’s Ron Gardenhire also set a record by finishing second for the sixth time.

And who were the two who didn’t rank Scioscia first, second OR third? On second thought I don’t want to know.

They don’t have much to cheer about in Kansas City these days.  But every fifth day this summer, Zack Greinke gave them something.

Greinke’s outstanding season culminated with his announcement as the 2009 A.L. Cy Young Award winner today.

Greinke received 25 of the 28 first-place votes after going 16-8 with a 2.16 ERA for a team that was truly dreadful around him. Greinke is the first American League starter to win the award with fewer than 18 victories. His 16 victories are the fewest for a Cy Young winner since Arizona’s Brandon Webb won the National League award after winning 16 games in 2006.

Greinke, 26, who held opponents to one run or fewer in more than half of his starts (18 of 33) and posted the lowest ERA in the AL since 2000 Cy Young Award winner Pedro Martinez (1.74).

The complete voting:

                                                  1st          2nd          3rd       Points
Zack Greinke, Royals           25              3                             134
Felix Hernandez, Mariners   2           23                1             80
Justin Verlander, Tigers          1                               9              14
CC Sabathia, Yankees                                2              7              13
Roy Halladay, Blue Jays                                             11             11

The AL and NL Manager of the Year Awards will be announced Wednesday with Angels manager Mike Scioscia the frontrunner in the AL.

Scott Boras tells the Boston Globe that the baseball owners are crying wolf (no relation to Randy Wolf  yet again. Also, some other tasty nuggets in this notes column.

Angels outfielder Torii Hunter has added some sliver to his gold.

Earlier this week, Hunter won his ninth consecutive Gold Glove Award for fielding excellence. Thursday, Hunter won his first Silver Slugger Award as the top offensive player at his position in the American League.

Hunter, 34, had career-highs in batting average (.299) and on-base percentage (.366) this season and his highest slugging percentage (.506) since the 2001 season. He was also on pace for career-highs in home runs and RBI before a groin injury sidelined him for five weeks in mid-season. He still finished with 22 home runs and 90 RBI in 119 games.

Hunter led the Angels with 15 game-winning hits while batting .312 with runners in scoring position. He had hits in all but eight games in which he had an at-bat this season.

Like the Gold Glove award, the Silver Slugger is determined by a vote of managers and coaches in each league.

The rest of the American League Silver Sluggers went to Twins catcher Joe Mauer, Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira, Blue Jays second baseman Aaron Hill,  Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, Rays third baseman Evan Longoria, Red Sox left fielder Jason Bay, Mariners right fielder Ichiro Suzuki and Jays DH Adam Lind.

The National League winners were Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols, Phillies second baseman Chase Utley, Marlins shortstop Hanley Ramirez, Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun, Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp, Dodgers right fielder Andre Ethier, Braves catcher Brian McCann and Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano.

The Angels have had 10 Silver Slugger winners this decade — Vladimir Guerrero (four), Troy Glaus (two), Garret Anderson (two), Darin Erstad (one) and Hunter.

Couple of interesting aspects to Texas hiring Clint Hurdle, the former Colorado manager, as its hitting coach:

– Hurdle will be filling two of the biggest coaching shoes in the business. Rudy Jaramillo was worshipped by the Rangers hitters, but turned down a one-year contract offer to sign a 3-year deal with the Cubs.

– But Hurdle has managed in a World Series and becomes a fairly obvious figure in the dugout if the heat descends on manager Ron Washington next season. Washington has done a nice job getting the Rangers into contending status, but you wonder how patient everyone will be if they don’t win next year.