Haren finishes 5th in NL Cy Young voting

Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants won his 2nd consecutive National League Cy Young Award in one of the closest votes ever, beating out St. Louis right-handers Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright, who finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Only ten points separated the three pitchers in the voting.

Atlanta’s Javier Vazquez (a former Diamondback) and Arizona ace Dan Haren finished 4th and 5th.

After a sparkling first half of the season in which he went 9-5 with a miniscule ERA of 2.01, many believed that Haren was the midseason favorite for the National League Cy Young Award.

With his team out of contention, Haren struggled in the 2nd half, posting a 5-5 record and an ERA of 4.62. He finished with a 14-10 record, a 3.14 ERA and 223 strikeouts, which ranked 3rd in the National League.

Haren becomes the 5th Diamondback pitcher in history to either win or receive votes in the NL Cy Young voting. Randy Johnson won the award in four consecutive years (1999 to 2002) and finished 2nd in the voting in 2004. Curt Schilling finished 2nd (to Johnson) in 2001 and 2002. Brandon Webb won the Cy in 2006 and finished 2nd in the balloting in both 2007 and 2008, and reliever Jose Valverde finished tied for 6th in the 2007 voting.

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