The NL Pitch

So Chris Carpenter was announced as the National League Cy Young Award winner today. Just edging out Dontrelle Willis for the honors. The numbers were pretty similar between these two starters and there's no question they had Cy Young caliber performances this past year.

The D-train would have been my pick if it were up to me. Chris Carpenter had 21 wins on a club that won 100 games. For a starter who starts every 5th ball game that's about right. Dontrelle Willis had 22 wins on a club that only won 83. That's over a quarter of the total for a single pitcher of record. And that's one more win than Carpenter. Willis had the better ERA of 2.63 versus Carpenter's 2.83. Both pitched 7 complete games (outstanding in this day and age) while Willis had 5 shutouts versus Carpenter's 4. Extremely close number-wise. Chris Carpenter did have a lot more strikeouts with 213 compared to the D-train's 170 and he did play for a much better team. But Willis is a lot of fun to watch.

Two outstanding performances. Congratulations to both and I look forward to next year.