By Mark Maynard
The Independent

ASHLAND, Ky.

Brandon Webb doesn’t have those bookend National League Cy Young Awards just yet.

For the second year in a row, Arizona’s sinkerball ace pitcher and 2006 Cy Young winner finished runner-up in the voting for the NL’s best pitcher.

Just think about that three-year run for a moment. While finishing second again has to be a bit disappointing, in the big picture, it’s still huge.

For the second year in a row, Webb lost out to a pitcher who had a dominating season from April to October. San Francisco’s Tim Lincecum pitched lights out, going 18-5 and leading the league in strikeouts. His 2.62 ERA was second in the league, too.

There wasn’t a hair’s difference between the contenders: Webb, Lincecum, Mets’ ace Johan Santana, Brewers’ star CC Sabathia and Phillie closer Brad Lidge.

In ’07, San Diego’s Jake Peavy was the clear winner and Webb the runner-up. No argument.

This time, nobody seemed to stand out above the others. The voters thought otherwise, giving Lincecum 23 of the 32 first-place votes. Webb had four first-place votes, a little surprising considering his league-leading 22 victories – a category that, right or wrong, sways voters in most seasons.

The ESPN Talking Heads didn’t give much love to Webb either, which didn’t help in a neck-and-neck race.

But in the end, Lincecum’s season was simply flashier.

As always, Webb was gracious, congratulating Lincecum on the award and great season in a statement through his agent. But Webb’s season was pretty special, too. If not for three uncharacteristic horrific starts late in the season, the award was his. But that’s baseball, and he did bounce back to pitch very well down the stretch.

To finish in the top two of the Cy Young voting for three consecutive seasons is practically groundbreaking. He is only the fifth pitcher to do it, the others being Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux, Pedro Martinez and Jim Palmer. Palmer is already in the Hall of Fame and the rest are likely to join him in Cooperstown eventually.

It’s nice to have your name and Hall of Fame mentioned in the same paragraph. Webb is getting close to having that kind of mention in the same sentence.

Webb’s three-year success story — 56-25 record, 3.13 ERA and 555 strikeouts — puts him in elite company. No pitcher has more victories (70) or innings pitched (927) since 2005.

That’s all ammunition for agent Jonathan Maurer as he tries to negotiate a deal with the Diamondbacks. Last summer, an extension worth $54 million that would have kept Webb in the dessert through 2014 was taken off the table by Arizona. Maurer told the Arizona Republic that the price has since gone up. “No, that wouldn’t work today,” he told the newspaper.

Webb is locked into Arizona through 2010, although his Cy Young runner-up finish upped the ante for that as well, increasing the buyout of his $8.5 million 2010 club option by $500,000 to $2 million.

Maybe being second in the Cy Young voting isn’t so bad after all. Completing that set of bookends can wait another year.

Mark Maynard can be reached at mmaynard@dailyindependent.com.