1896 Cy Young Award

1896 National League - Kid Nichols, Boston Beaneaters

30-14, 2.83 ERA, 102 K

Nichols was previously ranked as the NL's best pitcher in 1891, and was one of the top 3 in 1893, and in 1896 was once again the league's best pitcher, although it was a pretty close call.  It's always easy to recognize the best pitcher when they win the Triple Crown, or lead the league in a significant category by an enormous margin, but when there's no single pitcher that is at the top of most of the major statistics, it becomes harder to balance one pitcher's accomplishments over another pitcher's. However, Nichols put up the best overall numbers, leading the league in wins, finishing second in ERA (and first among pitchers with over 150 innings pitched) had an impressive 160 ERA+ (first among pitchers over 150 innings pitched, and 13 points higher than the next pitcher), and finished 4th in WHIP and 5th in WAR.  An argument certainly could be made that Cy Young, Nig Cuppy, or Frank Dwyer was the best in the league, but it was Nichols's ERA in particular that stood out above everything else, being nearly a third of a run lower than any of the competition.