BBA Awards - Pitcher of the Year

Continuing our awards bent here, today we look at the best pitchers in the National League.  The Baseball Bloggers Alliance will award the Walter Johnson Award to whichever pitcher is voted the best in both leagues by the membership.  Our rankings can go 5-deep.

I’m going to select from the starting pitching ranks only, because the BBA has a separate award for relievers.  I determined the following pitchers were the best in the NL during the 2010 regular season:  Roy Halladay, Ubaldo Jimenez, Tim Lincecum, Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, Mat Latos, and Josh Johnson.

Ranked by WAR:

1. Halladay (6.6)
2. Johnson (6.3)
3. Ubaldo (6.3)
4. Wainwright (6.1)
5. Lincecum (5.1)
6. Latos (4.0)
7. Carpenter (3.7)

Originally I was supposed to vote on the Manager of the Year, but I asked to switch over to this group because I wanted to push the candidacy of Mat Latos, the best pitcher you’ve not heard of yet.  Unfortunately, Latos had a bad September which torpedoed his chances.  He simply wasn’t good enough after that month to compete with the elite guys on this list.

Based on WAR no one would argue with the rankings as they sit.  The top 4 guys are virtually even, with Lincecum just a tick behind.  I want to give some subjective credit to a couple of guys for durability (Halladay led the league with 250 IP, Wainwright was second at 230) and early success (Jimenez started the year 15-1).  So, I’m going to re-rank the candidates slightly.

1. Roy Halladay
2. Ubaldo Jimenez
3. Adam Wainwright
4. Tim Lincecum
5. Josh Johnson

Brief explanation.  I think Halladay had the best overall season of those on the list.  Jimenez set his franchise record for wins, and would have had an even better shot at the award if he’d gotten any run support after mid-July.  I watched him strike out 14 Padres in April, the best pitching performance I witnessed in person.  Wainwright was his usual awesome self, but from 11 August to the end of the year he faltered, and the team swooned with him.  Lincecum had a down year for him but was still very good.  Johnson threw the fewest innings of these 4, and I think to be considered an elite starter you have to be durable.  Otherwise you’re Rich Harden.

As always, these rankings are subjective.  Your thought are welcome.

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