National League Cy Young Hopefuls

With just two weeks of the 2007 Major League Baseball season remaining, Jake Peavy appears to be a lock to win the the National League Cy Young. The San Diego Padres right-hander has been consistently brilliant all season. He has made

1. Jake Peavy. Peavy has been magnificent. Just magnificent. He's 16-6 and leads the National League in strikeouts (210) and is second in earned run average (2.43). In the 31 games that Peavy has opened the game for the padres, he has thrown 27 quality starts. He's also pitched seventeen games where he threw for 6 or more innings and surrendered one or less runs. That is sutained dominance.

But the kid also has the highlight to go along with the workmanlike effort. He's poised to become the first pitching triple crown winner in the national league since Randy Johnson in 2002. And it's not really a close race in any of the three categories. Peavy has two more wins than any other pitcher, he leads in strikeouts by ____ and his ERA is 2.39, amost half a point lower than his closest competitor.

Peavy has 27 quality starts in a total of

He has also gotten his cold streak out of the way. Peavy lost four straight starts from late June until late July, but he has been in complete control of National League hitters ever since. In his last five starts, Jake is 4-1 with a 0.81 ERA and 39 strikeouts. His only loss during that period came in a game in which he pitched 7 innings and surrendered one run.

If he keeps up his recent pace, Jake Peavy will win the National League Cy Young by a greater margin than the gap between Reagan and Mondale in the '84 election.

Current Odds: Even

2. Brad Penny (15-4, 2.82 ERA, 124 Ks). Penny has been a dream come true for the Dodgers in what could have been a nightmare season. First, they lost high-priced free agent starter Jason Schmidt for the season in early June to season-ending shoulder surgery. Then, a month later, they lost Randy Wolf because of shoulder soreness (and he's still not back). Their third starter, Derek Lowe, is just 11-12.

Yet, somehow, the Dodgers are still very much in the thick of the playoff race with just three weeks to go in the season.

That "somehow" is Brad Penny, a 260-pound behemoth of a pitcher who has made every one of his scheduled 29 starts this season. Twenty-five of them have been quality starts, and in 16 of his appearances, Penny has surrendered one earned run or less. Dominating stuff.

If Peavy stumbles at all down the stretch, Penny could take the crown.

Current Odds: 3-1

3. Cole Hamels. (14-5, 3.50 ERA, 156 Ks). Hamels ranks high for a number of reasons, chief among them are his league-leading 14 wins. His 156 strikeouts, which are 4th most in the league, are another good reason to vote for him.

But most importantly, in a season where the Phillies lost all of their other starters to the disabled list, Hamels has gone out every fifth day and given his team a good shot to win. On a team that lost Freddy Garcia, Brett Myers and Jon Lieber for almost the whole season, Hamels' consistency and durability surely should bolster his Cy Young candidacy.

Furthermore, Hamels pitches in a replica of a little league field at Citzens Bank PallPark. It's 350 feet to the gap in left-center. Seriously. That kills a left-handed pitcher, as evidenced by the 25 home runs Hamels has surrendered. If he pitched in the spacious confines of PetCo Park and Peavy pitched in Philly, their respective ERAs would probably be reversed.

Current Odds: 5-1

4. Brandon Webb. (14-10, 2.91 ERA, 1677 Ks). It's hard to win back-to-back Cy Young Awards. A pitcher really has to earn that second one. For most of the season, Webb didn't look like the guy who was the best pitcher in the National League in 2006. The chances of him repeating as Cy Young winner were thinner than Nicole Richie before she got knocked up.

But in the second half, Webb has been as briiliant as a pitcher can be. He threw 42 consecutive shutout innings. That's the kind of thing that stands out on a resume. Although Webb still needed 17 1/3 more scoreless innings to break Orel Hershiser's record, his streak has made him one of the favorites for this year's Cy Young.

Current odds: 10-1

5. Tim Hudson (15-7, 3.47, 117 Ks). For some reason, no one outside of Atlanta seems too excited about Tim Hudson, but he is having one hell of a good year, using his great movement and control to keep National league hitters at bay. With six weeks left in the season, he is still in the running, but to have any realistic shot, he might need to win every start down the stretch.

Current Odds: 12-1

6. Takashi Saito: J.J. Putz and Bobby Jenks have gotten the lion's share of the attention paid to closers this year, but in reality, this guy is probably the best ninth inning specialist in the game. In his 49 appearances, Saito is 1-0 with 36 saves. He has a 1.31 ERA and 69 strikeouts in 55 innings. His WHIP is an absurdly low 0.73 and National Leaguers are hitting a mere buck-62 against the Japanese import.

Unlike voters in the American League, who haven't given the Cy Young to a reliever since 1992, the National League awarded Eric Gagne the Cy Young in 2003, his reward for saving 837 straight games or something incredible like that. If Saito gets 50 saves and keeps the rest of his numbers steady, voters will have to think long and hard about giving the award to a stopper instead of a starter.

Current Odds: 15-1.

7. Carlos Zambrano. (14-12, 4.35 ERA, 155 Ks). All Carlos Zambrano needed was a little dugout fist-fight to get his motor going. At least, that's how it looks now.

On June 1, Zambrano was 5-5 with an ERA of 5.62. During his outing on that day, Zambrano got into an argument on the field with Cubs' catcher Michael Barrett that escalated into a televised fistfight in the dugout. It was an ugly scene. Many watching posited that Zambrano was cracking under the pressure because he was having a very bad season in his contract year.

Rumors of trades quickly surfaced and then disappeared. Speculation that the Cubs wouldn't re-sign Zambrabo was rampant.

But things didn't work out like so many expected. Barrett was sent packing, Carlos went on a great run, improving his record to 14-12 and lowering his ERA more than one and a half points, and the Cubs just gave him a brand new 5-year, $91.5 million contract.

Aaaahhh, this guy's got it too good. He doesn't need a Cy Young award, too. Which is okay, because he ain't gonna win it this year.

Current Odds: 40-1

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