FanHouse MLBCyYoungWatch

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 ...

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 fifth installment.

I think I may be jinxing these guys. In our last installment, I put John Lackey in the lead for the A.L. Cy Young award. Since then, he's given up 15 runs (11 earned) in three starts. In our second installment, the lead went to John Maine at 5-0. Since then, he's 2-4. So let's see which career I can ruin this week:

American League: Dan Haren

Billy Beane can sure make a trade, can't he? Dan Haren was part of the haul that Beane received for Mark Mulder, and Haren has been gold this season. He's 8-2 after five wins in his last six starts, and his ERA is at ... get this: 1.64 in 104 innings. Haren goes tonight against the Reds, and if he gets bombed I'll take full responsibility.

Also in the mix:
Josh Beckett: 10-1, 3.14 ERA
John Lackey: 10-4, 2.96 ERA
Justin Verlander: 8-2, 2.90 ERA (and moving fast thanks to his no-hitter)
C.C. Sabathia: 9-2, 3.19 ERA

National League after the jump ...

Compatriot Dan Shanoff brings up an excellent point today: Jake Peavy has been quietly torching the Major Leagues this year. And Peavy continued that stretch of pitching with his -- get this -- fourth straight 10 strikeout game last night, a 7-0 shutout win over the Cardinals.

Yes, you read that right. Four straight games with ten strikeouts, a 1.52 ERA, a .938 WHIP, 66 strikeouts to 17 walks, a 244 ERA+ (!!!!) ... the list goes on. By all statistical measures, Peavy is obliterating the National League, and should be a near-lock for starting the All-Star Game at the break.

What's perhaps more surprising about this breakout performance from Peavy is the step back he took last year. While he wasn't awful, his ERA was over 4 and his ERA+ came out at right about the league average, 103. Thus far, this year isn't just a bounce-back for the Padres' ace ... it's a full-blown revolution. Peavy is recapturing his former All-Star form -- and then some -- and is proving he's anything but league average.

Previously on the FanHouse:
MLB Cy Young Watch

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 second installment.

National League: John Maine

The Mets can thank Anna Benson. If you believe the tabloids, it was Anna's plunging Christmas dress at a team function where hubby Kris was Santa Claus for a group of children that was the last straw in trading Benson for Jorge Julio ... and a throw-in named John Maine. Maine is now 5-0 with a 1.37 ERA, and wouldn't it be funny if the Mets came up with a Cy Young award winner in 2007, the season where their starting pitching was widely thought of as just a step above kitchen grime in its usefulness. Maine, who pitches tonight against San Francisco, barely beats out Brad Penny, who after striking out 15 and walking 17 in his first six starts this season, struck out 14 and walked none on Monday night against Florida.

Also in the mix:
Brad Penny: 4-0, 1.39 ERA
Jake Peavy: 4-1, 1.75 ERA 56 K's
Rich Hill: 4-1, 1.73 ERA
Tim Hudson: 3-1, 1.70 ERA

American League: Josh Beckett

At 7-0 after last night's drubbing of the Blue Jays, Beckett is threatening to make a mockery of the Cy Young race. C.C. Sabathia is keeping pace at 5-0. But Beckett's 1.06 WHIP, .219 batting average against, and 2.72 ERA bests Sabathia significantly, and those numbers are before last night's game, where he went seven innings, giving up five hits, only one walk. (Hey, that Hanley Ramirez trade doesn't look so bad now, does it?) Beckett leads a good starting staff, with Daisuke Matsuzaka providing the hype, Curt Schilling providing the biting commentary, Tim Wakefield providing the knuckleball, and Beckett providing nothing more than solid pitching. The Blue Jays announcers tried to hate during Tuesday night's game, remarking that at some point, "this roll's gotta stop ... Beckett's not going to go 35-0". Probably not ... but winning the Cy Young award isn't going to take a 35-0 record.

Also in the mix:
C.C. Sabathia: 5-0, 61 K's
Roy Halladay: 4-1, 2 CG's, 1.06 WHIP
Gil Meche: 3-1, 2.23 ERA

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

National League: Tim Hudson

There have been a lot of great pitching performances over the first few weeks in the N.L., and the race is close. Cubs lefty Rich Hill had barely edged out Tim Hudson for this first installment with only seven walks and eight hits given up in his first 22 innings, and a stellar 0.41 ERA. But Hill's first loss of the season to the Brewers knocks him off of the perch at the last minute. Hudson's 0.62 ERA is scary good, and he could stay in the lead for a while because I suspect Hudson is on a mission to prove last season was a fluke.

Also in the mix:
Cole Hamels: 33 strikeouts and only six walks in 28 innings
Brad Penny: 3-0 record, 1.37 ERA
Rich Hill: 1.57 ERA, 3-1 record.
Matt Cain: 1.55 record, 0.83 WHIP

American League: Josh Beckett

Beckett was considered a bust in his first season in the American League. But Beckett was self-aware enough to realize that pitch selection was a problem. So he has adjusted in season two, and the results are palpable. A 4-0 record, 25 strikeouts and seven walks, and a 2.55 ERA in 24 and 2/3's innings is good enough to lead the way for A.L. Cy Young honors. You could also make a case for Indians lefty C.C. Sabathia, but Iet's give Beckett the nod for giving up only 19 hits to Sabathia's 30 (albeit in three and a third less innings).

Also in the mix:
C.C. Sabathia: 3-0 record, 27 K's in 28 innings
Johan Santana: 32 K's in 27 innings
Roy Halladay: 2-0 record, 2.37 ERA
Dan Haren: 1.41 ERA in 32 innings