1876 Cy Young Award

1876 National League - George Bradley, St. Louis Brown Stockings

45-19, 1.23 ERA, 103 K

Although not exactly a household name today, George Bradley would have been my pick for the Cy Young Award, had I been alive in 1876, and had the Cy Young Award existed then.  Not only did he pitch the first no-hitter in MLB history, he was also the league's first ERA leader, winning by a healthy margin, and finished second in wins for the third place Brown Stockings.  He also pitched 16 shutouts that year, a record that Grover Cleveland Alexander tied in 1916, but that nobody else has come close to.  Incidentally, Bradley's win-loss record of 45-19 was also the team's win-loss record; he started all 64 of their games and completed all but one, with outfielder Joe Blong pitching the final four innings of one game.