National League Cy Young Award Winner

Roy Halladay deserved this one and the voters agreed as Halladay won unanimously.

But (there is always a but in BBWAA voting), that doesn't help explain some of the oddities in the non first place votes:

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	Points
Roy Halladay, Philadelphia Phillies	32					224
Adam Wainwright, St. Louis Cardinals		28	3		1	122
Ubaldo Jimenez, Colorado Rockies		4	19	8	1	90
Tim Hudson, Atlanta Braves			3	13	4	39
Josh Johnson, Florida Marlins			5	5	9	34
Roy Oswalt, Houston Astros/Philadelphia Phillies			1	3	5	14
Brian Wilson, San Francisco Giants				1	5	7
Heath Bell, San Diego Padres			1		1	4
Mat Latos, San Diego Padres				1	2	4
Brett Myers, Houston Astros				1		2
Tim Lincecum, San Francisco Giants					2	2
Bronson Arroyo, Cincinnati Reds					1	1
Matt Cain, San Francisco Giants					1	1

For instance, Heath Bell and Brian Wilson got more votes than Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain.

Bronson Arroyo actually received a 5th place vote and Brett Myers a 4th place vote. Are you kidding?  Is there any doubt that these voters were from Cincinnati and Houston?  The voters are required to vote on the top 5 pitchers in a given league, not to "give respect" to a player that may have gone largely unnoticed all year because the nation didn't get a chance to see Bronson Arroyo day in and day out on the Reds.

Apparently this beard is better than
Tim Lincecum

Listen, Bronson Arroyo had a solid season but could you (whoever that voter is) really tell me that there weren't 5 better pitchers than Arroyo in 2010 in the National League?  If we go to baseball-reference and sort by their version of WAR, Bronson Arroyo checks in at 38th.  Yes, that's correct, 38th.  Of course that is only one way of measuring a pitcher, but 38th is a long way from 5th.  Voting Arroyo 5th, or Wilson above teammates Cain and Lincecum, didn't affect the results as Halladay won unanimously, but it could have in a different year.

Maybe this year, in the American League.  Roy Halladay was a no brainer, at least they got that one right.  In the AL, Felix Hernandez should be a no brainer but he doesn't have too many of those all important wins.  If you put a lot of stock into wins (as the voters do by giving Arroyo and his 17 wins a vote as well as giving Tim Hudson more votes than Josh Johnson) then the AL race could become a tossup.  And it's in a tossup where votes for guys like Brian Wilson, Heath Bell and Bronson Arroyo could influence the award.

Maybe I'm jumping the gun here and I should focus on the end result, but I believe it's the thinking process that is important and right now I'm not sure I agree with a lot of it.