Mike Celizic

Jake Peavy had to win the NL Cy Young Award. There wasn’t anything, including Brandon Webb’s 42 consecutive scoreless innings, that kept the San Diego ace from the plaque.

Seldom has there been an easier pick, and you can blame Peavy for that. He won pitching’s triple crown, leading the league in wins, strikeouts and ERA. Only three other times in the past 40 years has a National League pitcher led in those three categories — Steve Carlton in 1972, Dwight Gooden in 1985 and Randy Johnson in 2002 — and each one of those worthies won the Cy Young.

And how could they not? You don’t have to argue about who was the best, the numbers make the decision easier than choosing between peat moss and chocolate mousse for dessert.

What’s remarkable is how little buzz Peavy’s accomplishment has generated. He has been one of the top young pitchers in the game for five years, and he hasn’t gotten near the publicity he would have gotten in a bigger market.

In fact, the real measure of his relative anonymity is that a San Diego area newspaper recently reported that the team is willing to consider trading its best pitcher, who has one more year and an option year on his contract, and it didn’t crack most East Coast sports sections.

The Padres aren’t eager to move him, and they’re asking multiple top prospects in return, but let it serve as fair warning to San Diego fans. Celebrate the kid’s triumph now, because in two years, he’s probably going to be on another team that isn’t afraid to pay him what he’ll be worth.

And it really is important to appreciate what Peavy has done. If a position player has even a chance as early as July at hitting’s triple crown — average, homers and RBIs — you’re going to read about it. If he’s got a real chance at doing it in September, you’ll get daily updates on the chase.

It is admittedly harder to win hitting’s triple crown — a lot harder. In the last 40 years in the National League, it’s been done exactly zero times. In the last 50 years, it’s still zero, as it is in the last 60. The last time a National Leaguer pulled it off was 70 years ago, when Joe Medwick did it. In the American League three players, Mickey Mantle (1956), Frank Robinson (1966) and Carl Yastrzemski (1967), did it three times in 12 seasons, but it hasn’t been done anywhere since.

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