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Sports - MLB: Pro Baseball - San Francisco Giants

Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009

SF's Lincecum ekes out second Cy Young

Giants ace's stats help him edge Carpenter, Wainwright

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Thanks to some spotty cell phone reception Thursday morning, Tim Lincecum received word of his second straight Cy Young Award while standing on the roof of his house.

"I didn't have real good service where I was at, so I (stepped out) the window onto the roof of my house, just to get better reception" to take the call, the Giants right-hander said.

Considering the lofty company he's joined, it was an appropriate location to get the news.

Lincecum emerged the winner in the third- closest National League Cy Young vote in history, nipping St. Louis Cardinals teammates Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright.

Lincecum joins Randy Johnson, Sandy Koufax, Greg Maddux, Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens, Denny McLain and Jim Palmer as the only other pitchers to win the award in back-to-back seasons.

He's also the first pitcher in history to win two Cy Young Awards in his first two full seasons.

"I don't say this tongue-in-cheek, but where do we go from here?" Giants general manager Brian Sabean said during an afternoon news conference at AT&T Park. "It's pretty awesome, and I think it speaks volumes about his dedication to the game, his love of the game, and his competitiveness."

Lincecum, who went 15-7, became the first starting pitcher to win the award with fewer than 16 wins in a 162-game season.

He garnered 11 first-place votes, 12 second-place votes and nine third-place for a total of 100 points. That edged by six points Carpenter, who led the NL with a 2.24 ERA. Wainwright, who notched an NL-high 19 wins, had the most first-place votes (12) but finished third with 90 points.

Lincecum spread credit for the award throughout the Giants organization. He thanked Johnson, a teammate in 2009, for helping reinforce the mentality to continue improving.

"I could have easily just sat on what I did last year and tried to (live) off it, but I didn't," Lincecum said. "I wanted to become better at it."

It was just two weeks ago that Lincecum, 25, made headlines of a different variety, when it came out that he was busted for marijuana possession during an Oct. 30 traffic stop in Washington state. Members of the Baseball Writers Association of America cast their Cy Young votes at the conclusion of the regular season — well before the incident.

Lincecum read a statement after the news conference, apologizing to the organization and fans for the marijuana bust, and said he continues to mature off the field as well.

Lincecum is eligible for arbitration for the first time and could see his salary jump from $650,000 to perhaps as much as $10 million for 2010. Despite that, Sabean said inking Lincecum to a long-term contract this winter is unlikely.

Giants pitching coach Dave Righetti described Lincecum as having Hall of Fame-caliber ability, adding that the next step in Lincecum's career is to pitch in meaningful games for a winning team.

"Timmy's set the bar for our organization to pitch well and to compete well, and to me it lends to the Giants winning," Righetti said. "... I think (awards) are icing on the cake. But I think he really just wants to be on a winning team."