Around the Bases: Cy Youngs and Big Contracts

Charlie Klein

Now that the Yankees have celebrated all that there is to celebrate after winning another World Championship with another overly-inflated, impossible to compete with payroll, we may now focus our collective attentions on end of the season awards and free agency.

Cy Young

Zack Greinke fully deserved to win in the American League. As much as I did campaign for Felix Hernandez, Greinke's ERA of 2.16 in the DH era is unfathomable. Combine that ERA with a WHIP of 1.07 and one has the most dominant pitcher in the American League. And for a team like the Kansas City Royals, who never receive much media attention, they finally have a pitcher who is worthy of all the buzz.

In the National League there was much more controversy. Tim Lincecum won his second consecutive Cy Young Award in his first two seasons in the Major Leagues. And yet no one is talking about the emergence of one of the most dominant pitchers of a generation. In two seasons Lincecum has cemented his name in the MLB record books with names like Maddux, Johnson, and Koufax. Instead all of the talk is about Keith Law who put Javier Vazquez second to Lincecum on his ballot. That decision just makes me lose quite a bit of respect for Law. Comparing Vazquez's numbers with Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter's, there is no doubt in my mind that the pair of Cardinals aces deserve the award over Vazquez. This year's NL Cy Young was the tightest that it has been for a few years, when at least three players deserved to win the award. In the end, these awards almost become more of a popularity contest than anything else. But Lincecum definitely deserved the award and should feel no misgivings in accepting it.

"We're goin' fishin'"

It is now officially time for MLB Free Agency, and with it, the speculation over which big name is going where and for how much. The two biggest names in the market are Matt Holliday and John Lackey. Holliday, who hit .324 for 24 HRs and 109 RBIs playing for Oakland and St. Louis, is expected to sign a mammoth deal with any of the big market clubs. The New York Mets, the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Angels, or the Los Angeles Dodgers all appear to be popular destinations for Holliday. John Lackey, 11-8 with a 3.83 ERA and a WHIP of 1.27 in an injury shortened '09 figures to be the best pitcher on the market. And it figures that all of the usual suspects are involved in the Lackey sweepstakes.

Some of the other less marquee names on the market have been catching my interest. Chone Figgins of the Los Angeles Angels is one such player. The pocket rocket, sorry Maurice Richard, can play almost any position on the field and is incredibly quick. Given my disdain for him, it would not surprise me at all if the Phillies were to sign him to at least platoon with if not start over Pedro Feliz at 3B. Mark DeRosa is another player who can play multiple positions that can also swing a decent bat, in whom many teams ought to be interested this winter. Neither Figgins nor DeRosa will land A-Rod money, but ought to do their new clubs a whole lot of good in the 2010 MLB season.