Let's have some fun preparing for the NL Cy Young and the last month of the season. There are a few interesting stories, but I've ignored those for now and took a list of the Top 20 NL pitchers ranked by VORP (Value over replacement player), and then included ERA+ and runs support per 27 outs.

VORP, which basically measures the number of runs a pitcher has saved compared with an average replacement player, ERA+, which measures the value of a pitcher's ERA against the league average ERA, and runs support are valuable reference tools to frame the bread-and-butter Cy Young criteria -- like W-L record, K, SV, etc.

 All runs support data is from Player GameLogs on www.baseballreference.com, except for C.C. Sabathia -- I provided my own calculation of his runs support as a member of the Brewers, because baseball-reference only provides his full season runs support.

1. Tim Lincecum (173 ERA+): 4.60 runs per 27 outs

2. Johan Santana (156 ERA+): 4.80 runs per 27 outs

3. Brandon Webb (154 ERA+): 4.76 runs per 27 outs

4. Dan Haren (147 ERA+): 5.42 runs per 27 outs

5. Ryan Dempster (158 ERA+): 6.18 runs per 27 outs

6. Ben Sheets (142 ERA+): 4.71 runs per 27 outs

7. Cole Hamels (140 ERA+): 4.87 runs per 27 outs

8. Jake Peavy (137 ERA+): 3.66 runs per 27 outs

9. Chad Billingsley (140 ERA+): 3.68 runs per 27 outs

10. Edinson Volquez (161 ERA+): 5.24 runs per 27 outs

11. Matt Cain (121 ERA+): 3.27 runs per 27 outs

12. Carlos Zambrano (128 ERA+): 5.72 runs per 27 outs

13. Paul Maholm (116 ERA+): 4.08 runs per 27 outs

14. Tim Hudson (130 ERA+): 4.85 runs per 27 outs

15. Mike Pelfrey (111 ERA+): 5.41 runs per 27 outs

16. C.C. Sabathia (272 ERA+): approx. 5.81 runs per 27 outs

17. Ricky Nolasco (115 ERA+): 4.66 runs per 27 outs

18. Aaron Cook (119 ERA+): 5.32 runs per 27 outs

19. Jamie Moyer (117 ERA+): 5.10 runs per 27 outs

20. Kyle Lohse (107 ERA+): 4.30 runs per 27 outs