Chris Carpenter

Barring an injury that keeps Albert Pujols out of the line-up for any significant amount of time, the St. Louis Cardinals are the prohibited favorites to win the NL Central again this year.

Entering the 2010 season, the Cardinals top the division in several important factors. They have the best player (Pujols), the best catcher (Yadier Molina), the best manager (Tony LaRussa), the best starting rotation, and the best fans.

I’m not normally one to criticize Chris Carpenter.

I spent a solid month arguing with whoever would listen about why he should win the Cy Young, and even wrote a manifesto about why he was a the best choice.

I lied in the headline.  Statistics are in fact, well, a fact.  But my point is that the way people use stats are opinionated.  I'll use the hotly debated Cy Young award as an example.

Here's a statement that is false:  "Stats are stats.  Lincecum's stats are just better. It's a fact."

Why is that false?  Well, the three pitchers are three different types of players.  Lincecum is dominant, Wainwright is a workhorse and Carpenter is just efficient. 

ESPN has just announced that Tim Lincecum has become the first MLB repeat winner of the Cy Young Award since Randy Johnson won four in succession from 1999-2002.

Lincecum, in my opinion, won the award by default this season. I don't think the voters could choose between Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright, both of the St. Louis Cardinals, so they chose Lincecum by default.

Carpenter led the league in ERA with a dazzling 2.24 and the best ERA+ at 183. He also had the best W/L PCT with .810 and the best whip of the three at 1.007.

The National League Cy Young Award will be announced early Thursday afternoon, and there are a trio of pitchers with viable claims to the trophy.

Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright, and Tim Lincecum are the front runners to win, but one of the main things to keep in mind as the results are announced is that it is rare to see two pitchers from the same team vying for the Cy Young.

For this reason, I see Carpenter and Wainwright splitting votes and weakening the chances of either to take home the honor. 

For the most part, the 2009 MLB Awards Season will be a snoozefest.

Beginning tonight at 9:37 PM Eastern time, the Los Angeles Dodgers will take on the St. Louis Cardinals at Dodgers Stadium. Both teams are tremendously talented and lead their respective leagues in several categories.

Both the Dodgers and the Cardinals have strong pitching and stacked hitting lineups. The question is, who has the advantage at each position?

This slideshow breaks down the projected lineup each team will put out on the field during this NLDS, of course I my lineups may not be completely accurate but I am going by what they most likely will be.

I'm a shade unclear as to the specific voting rules for Major League Baseball's regular season awards. Common sense would dictate the writers who select the winners have to wait until the last of the 162 games (including any one-game playoffs that might be necessary) so that they have a complete data set.

If that's the case, the official tallies should begin rolling in once the Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers finish up their hostilities on Tuesday.

As of this morning, the St. Louis Cardinals are 84-58, 10.5 games in front of the Chicago Cubs for first place in the NL Central. 

How have they achieved this success?

One may attribute it to the MVP caliber season of Albert Pujols, the trade deadline acquisition of Matt Holliday, or the amazing pitching of Adam Wainwright.

Or Chris Carpenter.

The 34-year-old is 16-3, with a league leading 2.16 ERA in 24 starts this season.

It seems like a simple concept, bordering on cliche: as Albert Pujols goes, so go the St. Louis Cardinals.

The past week has made this as clear as it has ever been. 

Entering the week, Pujols was riding a slump, at one point going 15 straight at-bats without a base hit. After breaking the hitless streak with an opposite way single in Florida against the Marlins, Cardinals' color commentator Al Hrabosky made a prediction that Pujols would get into a hot streak.