Random Thursday Thoughts / NL Cy Young

Watching the Phillies-Brewers game last night while semi-boycotting the NBA playoffs; Cole Hamels was absolutely dealing. I stand by my prediction that he ends up winning the Cy Young, but Jake Peavy is going to need to actually lose some games for that to happen--or stop K'ing 10 a game. He's been looking dominant as well. Hamels was perfect through six, but walked Rickie Weeks to lead off the seventh and then lobbed a grapefruit for J.J. Hardy who sent his TWELFTH home run--this one a scorching line drive to left field--of the season out to break up the no-no. Weeks had obviously ruined the perfect game. By the way, twelfth is one of those words that if you stare at it for long enough, it just becomes weird. **And even more awkward than that last sentence, it turns out it was Hardy's 13th homer. Couple of quick (maybe) thoughts (after the jump) before I run down the 1/3 season Cy Young contenders (NL today, AL later)...



1. LeBron James should have been the MVP. Think about where the Cavs would be without him. They scored six points against the Nets in the fourth quarter last night. SIX! I bet I could score six points against Jason Kidd in 12 minutes of gametime, just by lobbing up crazy threes and getting lucky on two. He and Big Z were the only two to score more than 10 points on the game, and the formerly resurgent Larry Hughes shot a disgustingly abysmal three of 17. I still don't think the Nets take this series to seven, but it will be interesting to see how LeBron responds (and more importantly, how he gets his teammates to respond) with a little more pressure on them. It was just assumed they'd win in Cleveland and one more win for the Nets makes it awkward.

2. Unbelievable game that I pretended not to watch last night between the Spurs and the Suns. Although I really wish we could do something about these damn things starting at 9pm. Sucks to be EST, I guess. Anyway, Nash and company gave it their all but as Manu said to Sager after the game, it was like the reverse of Game 4, where the Spurs won the first 42 minutes and somehow still lost the game--same thing happened to a technically overmatched Suns team last night, which is a shame. I swing both ways on the Amare and Diaw suspensions--yes they had to be suspended; that's what the rule says. But it sucks that the rule is there and that in a game of this magnitude...well, you've heard plenty of opinions on this. Like Barkley said last night too, be interested to see how Nash and Marion look in Game 6 (tomorrow night) after getting 45+ minutes each last night.

3. Is it just me or are there an obscene number of near no-hitters that have happened thus far in the MLB season? (I would say six plus innings counts as a near no-hitter right?) Bergmann for the Nats against the Braves three nights ago, Huddy at the Nats the next night, Hamels last night, Buehrle already threw one, Maddux had one going til I f'd it up with this post, King Felix did seven innings at Boston, Chuck James went six no hit innings against the Pirates last Saturday, and I'm sure there are more that I'm missing.

4. Do you think that Dr. Feelgood and Mr. Brownstone are friends? Assuming they even know each other? Did they compete for clients? Or just hang out and do H together?

Cy Young Contenders
NL
Jake Peavy - Leading MLB strikeouts with 71, tied for second in MLB ERA with 1.64, tied for third in NL with 5 wins (12 way tie, 2 others have 6 wins). Peavy has tied his own Padres record for strikeouts in a game with 16 at Arizona on April 25...Last night he actually lost a little ground to Hamels as he broke his streak of four straight games with 10 K's or more...Downside? His pitch counts have been pretty high, although I think with Greg Maddux and Bud Black around he should be fine.

Cole Hamels - Second in MLB/First in NL in victories with 6, second in MLB in K's with 70, 26th in ERA at 3.30. Hamels has looked absolutely electric lately, taking a perfect game into the seventh last night against the red hot Brewers, striking out 15 in a complete game win at Cincinnati on April 21st...Downside? Problems with the gopher ball (which leads to his ERA remaining high--rarely gives up no runs) and certainly injury prone, with a degenerative disk in his back.

Tim Hudson - 4th in MLB in ERA at 1.77, tied for 11th in the NL with K's with 43, tied with Peavy at third in wins with 5. Huddy has been completely resurgent this year, having gone less than seven innings only once this year, and having every single one of his starts be of the quality variety...He struck out 12 at Florida on April 25th, a season high...Sporting a very nice 2:1 GB/FB ratio on the season, he's had his splitter looking absolutely filthy to this point. Downside? We remember 2006, but other than that, not much. Hudson's a gamer, and while he's a good number of years removed from winning 20 games (7), he went sub-2 ERA in 2003.

It's a pretty tough call at this point; if the season ended today, Peavy has to get it (and just throw Hudson the COY bone), but I'm going to stick by my preseason prediction that Hamels would win the NL award. Peavy has the track record--won the ERA and K legs of the Triple Crown before--but Hamels was insane in the second half last year, and if he can come close to reproducing that after his big first half, then I think he takes it. Both Peavy and Hamels stink of injury risk with the number of pitches their tossing, and their semi-dependence on the K (Peavy moreso than Hamels), so Huddy could easily "backdoor" this thing. Huddy and Peavy also have the advantage of a much stronger bullpen than Hamels, which can affect the number of W's.

Next time I get some work I don't feel like doing I'll take a break and peer over the A.L. Contenders and talk about the "Blister Sisters".