FanHouse Cy Young

I don't know if you know this or not, but since he's commissioner of Major League Baseball, Bud Selig seems to think this gives him special privileges that nobody else in America is entitled to. Why, as commissioner of baseball he's not bound by the ex post facto laws of our society, which means he's allowed to suspend Alex Rodriguez for breaking rules that weren't yet in place.

In a shocking turn of events, it was announced on Thursday that Cleveland Indians pitcher Clifton "Cliff" Lee had been voted the AL Cy Young Award winner for 2008. His 22-3 record and 2.54 ERA were good enough to top Roy Halladay, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Francisco Rodriguez, and even fireballer Kyle Farnsworth. It certainly did not hurt that Lee won 22 games for an Indians team that only won 26 all season.

As an Indians fan and a resident of Cleveland (well, Bedford), two things have gotten me excited about this: One, that another Indians pitcher gets honored by the league, and two, that next year I will undoubtedly get a Cliff Lee Cy Young bobblehead to go on my shelf next to Cy Cy Sabathia.

Tonight's Dugout Wahoo Messenger is after the jump. And yes, the story about the little girl in Heritage Park is 100% true.

We here at the MLB FanHouse will be musing twice a month until the end of the season on who we think leads the AL and NL Cy Young award races.

National League: Brad Penny, Los Angeles Dodgers

Even with his recent abdominal strain, Brad Penny has lengthened his lead on the Cy Young chase. Even after Tuesday's loss to the Giants, Penny still outdistances the field 13-2 with a 2.60 ERA, including the guy who was once much closer in the race, Jake Peavy. Peavy hasn't been bad but he's been quite ordinary in losing four of his last five decisions, putting him in the everyone else discussion as in: There's Brad Penny, and then there's everyone else.

Also in the mix:
Jake Peavy: 10-5, 2.41 ERA, 144 K's
John Maine: 12-5, 2.92 ERA
Cole Hamels: 12-5, 143 K's
Carlos Zambrano: 14-7, 128 K's
Chris Young: 9-3, 1.82 ERA

American League after the jump ...

What are baseball's most unbreakable records? Almost anyone reading this would immediately go with Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hit streak, or Cy Young's astounding career win total of 511 (!!!). I did the exact same thing.

Still, there are other records which are basically assured to never be broken, and The Fantasy Baseball Generals have done the legwork and compiled them for our enjoyment. To wit:

1. Most consecutive batters reaching base safely, an astounding 19, by the Dodgers in 1952.
2. Most hits let up in a 9-inning game, 36 by J. Wadsworth in 1894.
3. Most HR allowed by a winning pitcher, 6 by two guys in the 30s. This could be breakable, but it is crazy to think that it could happen.
4. Least Double Plays hit into: 0 by future (hopefully) Hall of Famer Craig Biggio. Can someone hit into negative double plays to break it??

The Craig Biggio mark is perhaps most astounding to me, perhaps because I've honestly never heard of Biggio's double-play prowess before. Is this the least talked-about milestone in this, the seminal year for milestones?

Anyway, go to The Generals for the entire list, and come on stat-heads -- got any refutations or records of your own?

(HT: BBTF)

We here at the MLB FanHouse will be musing twice a month until the end of the season on who we think leads the AL and NL Cy Young award races. This is the sixth installment.

National League: Brad Penny, Los Angeles Dodgers

Brad Penny proved he belongs at the top of the list after staring down Jake Peavy in a Cy Young worthy battle. This race is razor thin. Penny is at 10-1 with a 2.00 ERA, while Peavy is at 9-2 and 2.09. What keeps this race so close is Peavy's huge strikeout advantage (119 to 77), but chances are this race will go back and forth the rest of the season, with the team that wins the division also winning the Cy Young Award for their pitcher.

Also in the mix:
Jake Peavy: 9-2, 2.09 ERA, 119 K's
Chris Young: 8-3, 2.14 ERA
Ben Sheets: 10-3, 3.19 ERA
John Maine: 9-4, 2.74 ERA
Takashi Saito: 23 saves, 1.30 ERA

American League after the jump ...

On Deck is The FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Los Angeles Dodgers (45-35) vs. San Diego Padres (45-33)-10:05PM Est.

This game isn't just a battle for the NL West division lead, it's also a contest between the top two candidates for the NL Cy Young Award. Brad Penny is 10-1 with a 2.04 ERA this season, and he's going against Jake Peavy who's 9-2 with a 2.14. In other words, nobody's going to want to hit today. The Padres took the first game of this series to gain a full game lead on the third place Dodgers, and a half game lead on the second place Diamondbacks. The Padres have won four straight against the Dodgers this season, and look to continue that recent dominance tonight. Of course, this will be the first time they've had to face Brad Penny this season, though he was 0-2 with an 8.55 ERA last year against San Diego.

If you've seen Johan Santana pitch this season, you've probably noticed something different than you're used to seeing. It's hard to put your finger on exactly what it is though. He looks the same. He has the same mechanics he's always had, and his stuff is just as good. So what is it?

It's that teams are actually getting hits off of him.

Santana has a very nice ERA of 3.19-his career ERA is 3.20-but he's only 6-6 and has allowed 14 home runs in his 14 starts this season. He's still among the American League leaders in strikeouts, it's just he's giving up hits, and it's a bit confusing.

"Everybody is so used to him dominating," Twins Manager Ron Gardenhire said. "The expectation when he takes the mound is, he's going to shut everybody out. For whatever reason, hitters are making it a lot harder for him to get them out."

Even though Santana is only one loss shy of equaling his career high in that category, it's not really his fault. The fact is he's making mistakes more often this season over the plate, but the only reason anyone has even noticed is he isn't getting any support from his offense. In his 14 starts this season, the Twins have only scored more than three runs four times. Johan is 4-0 in those starts.

Who's going to bring home the hardware this year? AOL Sports polled four experts and one "expert" for their predictions -- yeah, I'm the guy in quotes. Throughout the day, I'm going to explain just what I was thinking for my Cy Young, MVP and Rookie of the Year picks.

AL Cy Young: Johan Santana. I know, really going out on a limb, right? But at this point, it's pretty foolish to bet on anyone but Santana. He won this award in 2004 and last year, finishing third in 2005. Each year he's overcome something of a slow start early in the year before catching fire after the All-Star break -- he's Minnesota's ace in the hole in what should be an extremely tight AL Central race.

Plus, I have a thing for strikeout pitcher, and nobody comes close to Santana in that department. I won't be too surprised if a guy like Jeremy Bonderman or John Lackey puts it all together and emerges as a viable candidate, but they've been too inconsistent in the past to shake my confidence in the reigning king.

NL Cy Young: Roy Oswalt. I went with Oswalt as much by default as anything else. I like Brandon Webb and I wouldn't be surprised if he repeated, but sooner or later Oswalt has to break through and finally win this thing, right? He's been a top-five vote-getter in five of his first six years in the majors, and he's been a complete workhorse averaging over 230 innings in each of the last three years. While the Astros are still holding out hope for a Rogers Clemens return, having a Rocket-less summer would probably be the best thing for Oswalt in terms of finally getting the recognition he deserves.