1889 Cy Young Awards

1889 American Association - Jesse Duryea, Cincinnati Red Stockings

32-19, 2.56 ERA, 183

Unlike 1888, there was no clear-cut winner for the AA in 1889.  I ended up choosing Duryea because, although he did not lead the league in any significant category, he was close to the top in most categories, finishing second in ERA and ERA+, third in wins, and fourth in WHIP and WAR. I considered Bob Caruthers, the 1885 winner, but his ERA was fairly high, and his ERA+ of 112 shows that, while he was above average, Duryea, at 155, was far above average.  While there was no single pitcher who clearly dominated the AA in 1889, Duryea was the best all-around pitcher, and I feel would have deserved the Cy Young Award.  This year was certainly the high point of his career though; it was his rookie year, but he only pitched for four more seasons, and more than half of his career wins came in 1889.

1889 National League - John Clarkson, Boston Beaneaters

49-19, 2.73 ERA, 284 K

Little doubt about this one.  Clarkson, who previously won in 1885 and 1887, once again dominated the league.  He led almost every significant pitching category, and most of them weren't even close.  There have only been four seasons in which a pitcher has won 49 or more games, and Clarkson did it twice, winning 53 in 1885 and 49 in 1889.  His 49 were 21 more than the nearest competition, but that's not all he did.  He led the other two Triple Crown categories as well; his ERA was nearly a quarter run lower than anyone else, and he struck out 29 more than the second place pitcher.  He also had 25 more starts than anyone else, 22 more complete games, 200 more innings pitched, and twice as many shutouts.  He even led in sabermetrically oriented statistics, like WHIP and WAR (finishing an astonishing 6.3 wins above anyone else).  Clarkson's numbers would've looked good 5 to 10 years earlier, but as pitchers began starting fewer games each year, 45+ wins and 600+ innings pitched were rarely seen by 1889.  His new team for the 1889 season, the Boston Beaneaters, only had three pitchers all year, with Clarkson starting more than half of the team's games.  All but 19 of the remaining games were started by another future Hall of Famer, Old Hoss Radbourn, but despite the strong pitching staff and Hall of Fame outfielder King Kelly, Boston finished a game behind New York in the pennant race.