Can CC Sabathia Win the NL Cy Young Award?

Carston Charles Sabathia made his first start as a Brewer on July 8, surrendering two earned runs through six innings and earning his first victory as a Brewer.

Since then, Sabathia has won each of his eight decisions in the National League, with five complete games in those eight starts. With an ERA of 1.59 and an average of just under nine strikeouts per nine innings, CC has kept Milwaukee in the playoff picture.

He has only pitched in the National League for half of a season, and was just mediocre in the American League during the first half; Sabathia ended his tenure as an Indian with a 6-8 season record and a 3.78 ERA.

There is no doubt that Sabathia has been close to invincible on the mound since joining the Brewers, but is it really fair that some baseball analysts are throwing his name into the NL Cy Young Award race?

Brandon Webb, who leads the NL in wins and ranks second in innings pitched, won his first nine starts of the season. Webb did go 2-4 in his next six decisions, but he is now on an eight-game winning streak.

Now 19-4, Webb strikes out 7.5 hitters per nine innings and has a stellar 2.74 ERA. With five or six starts remaining, Arizona's ace appears to be the favorite to win the National League Cy Young.

Milwaukee ranks fifth in the NL in runs scored and Arizona is seventh. The No. 14 ranking is attributed to the Giants, who have scored more than 100 fewer runs than the Brewers and the Diamondbacks.

Lincecum features an NL-leading ERA of 2.48, and his record of 14-3 is much more impressive because of San Francisco's atrocious offense. Lincecum also leads the NL with 200 strikeouts in 177.2 innings pitched, good for a ratio of 10.1 strikeouts every nine innings.

It may be difficult for Lincecum to pick up victories down the stretch. The likelihood of inexperienced offensive players seeing some light when the rosters are expanded to 40 players is quite high, especially given San Francisco's struggles, but if Lincecum can keep pitching as dominantly as he has, his name will certainly be in the mix for NL Cy Young candidates.

Edinson Volquez and Ryan Dempster are both 15-5. Volquez has a 2.80 ERA, while Dempster's ERA sits at 2.85. However, neither Volquez nor Dempster lead the NL in any prominent statistical category, so their respective chances of winning the NL Cy Young are not too promising.

The only rational way to decide if Sabathia is meritorious of the NL Cy Young award is to wait and see how the rest of the season plays out. However, Sabathia's performance will really need to transcend the efforts of Webb and Lincecum for him to have a chance of winning the Cy Young.

Right now, considering that the Cy Young award is supposed to be given to the league's best pitcher for the whole season, it would not be seem fair to give Sabathia the award.

Anything can happen over the course of five weeks of baseball, in which Sabathia, Webb, and Lincecum will all start five or six more games. If Sabathia wins his final six starts, including going the distance in four, it will be hard for the Cy Young voting committee to eliminate his name so quickly.