TOWER GROVE — This morning, St. Louis Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright was announced as his peers’ selection for the National League Outstanding Pitcher, as discussed over on the breaking-news blog, Cardinal Beat. The Players Choice awards, founded a little more than a decade ago by the players’ union, doesn’t have the historical oomph or bonus panache of the more revered hardware — the MVP, the Cy Young, etc. — but do they serve as indicators for those winners?

When it comes to pitching, the answer is … meh.

The Players Choice winner of the NL Outstanding Pitcher award has also won the Cy Young Award the previous two seasons. Tim Lincecum swept the award in 2008 and Jake Peavy won both in 2007. But back in 2006, Chris Carpenter won the Players Choice award and Brandon Webb won the Cy Young. The PC Outstanding Pitcher award has been given 15 times, as it started in 1994. Nine of those 15 times the winner of the PC award has also gone on to win the Cy. That includes the first four years of the award, but it’s gotten spotty since.

Curt Schilling, for example, won the PC award in consecutive seasons, 2001 and 2002. But he finished second both of those seasons to teammate Randy Johnson in the Cy Young voting. The PC winner has also been the Cy winner in only four of the previous eight seasons.

The National League winner of the Cy Young Award, voted on by members of the Baseball Writers Association of America, will be announced Nov. 19. Carpenter, Wainwright and Lincecum figure to be the three pitchers mentioned on the majority — if not all — of the ballots. Lincecum won The Sporting News’ postseason award for best NL pitcher, and Carpenter gained momentum with voters as he closed the win gap on Wainwright and finished with the best ERA in the National League. Lincecum endorsed Carpenter for the award. Carpenter endorsed Wainwright. And so …

More than an indicator of an award to come, the PC award for Wainwright is much more a confirmation of his growing profile in the game. His peers noticed.

Past winners of the PC NL Outstanding Pitcher award (* also won Cy):

2008 Tim Lincecum*, SF … 2007 Jake Peavy*, SD … 2006 Chris Carpenter, STL … 2005 Chris Carpenter*, STL … 2004 Jason Schmidt, SF … 2003 Eric Gagne*, LA … 2002 Curt Schilling, AZ … 2001 Curt Schilling, AZ … 2000 Randy Johnson*, AZ … 1999 Mike Hampton, HOU … 1998 Greg Maddux, ATL … 1997 Pedro Martinez, MTL … 1996 John Smoltz*, ATL … 1995 Greg Maddux*, ATL … 1994 Greg Maddux*

Each winner of a Players Choice award is given a cash prize to donate to a charity. Wainwright received $20,000 and he elected to split it between two charitable programs. One is the Fellowship of Christian Athletes organization in Southeast Georgia and its programs. The other is Catch-A-Dream, which is a hunting and fishing equivalent of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. More information about the Catch-A-Dream program can be found here at its Web site.

The PC awards are being announced this week on ESPN Radio, and the next one set to be won by a Cardinal is the NL Outstanding Player player. The PC awards have Outstanding Player awards for both leagues and then an overall Player of the Year Award. Albert Pujols won both last season.

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