Tim Lincecum needed just 15 wins to bag another NL Cy Young Award.

Throw out those old baseball cards. Wins and losses do not mean much anymore when it comes time for voters to pick baseball's best pitchers. It is all about WHIP, FIP, BABIP and other lines of alphabet soup.

"It's turned into a game of complete numbers and statistics and what people do with that," Lincecum said.

Lincecum won the Cy Young Award yesterday for the second consecutive year, emerging from one of the tightest votes in the history of the honor to become the first repeat winner since Randy Johnson.

Only 10 points separated the top three vote-getters. Chris Carpenter was second and St. Louis teammate Adam Wainwright finished third but got the most first-place votes.

Lincecum, nicknamed "The Freak" for his giant stride, led the NL with 261 strikeouts and tied for the league lead with four complete games and two shutouts.

The 2009 honors for Lincecum and Kansas City Royals ace Zack Greinke reflect a recent shift in how pitchers are evaluated. The focus has changed to more developed statistics, including some that take into account team defense.

Lincecum is facing misdemeanor marijuana charges stemming from a traffic stop Oct. 30 in his home state of Washington. No questions were allowed about the incident in his conference call, but he acknowledged making a mistake and apologized in a prepared statement.

Arizona acquired reliever Aaron Heilman from the Chicago Cubs for two minor league prospects. The right-hander, 31, was 4-4 with a 4.11 ERA in 70 appearances last season, striking out 65 and walking 34. Chicago gets left-hander Scott Maine, 24, and infielder Ryne White, 23.

A minor leaguer in the Detroit organization has been suspended for 50 games after testing positive for an amphetamine under baseball's minor league drug program. Class AA third baseman Ron Bourquin will serve the suspension at the start of next season.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig said after the final owners meeting of the year that some franchises lost money this past season, but he declined to identify them.

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