1900 National League - Joe McGinnity, Brooklyn Superbas
28-8, 2.94 ERA, 93 K
This was the last season with just one major league; the American League declared themselves to be a major league the following year in competition with the National League. In the meantime though, future Hall of Famer Joe McGinnity put up an impressive season, leading Brooklyn to the NL pennant. Along the way, he led the league in wins by a huge margin (28 to 20), winning percentage (.778), and innings pitched (343). Trying to decide who was the best pitcher was an interesting challenge though, among other things because McGinnity only finished 7th in ERA. However, none of the six pitchers pitched more than 279 innings, and many of them finished poorly in other areas, such as ERA leader Rube Waddell's 8-13 win-loss record in only 208.2 innings pitched. So, it wasn't a clear-cut decision as to who had earned the 1900 award, and although I don't generally like to rely too heavily on wins and losses, I think that McGinnity winning nearly 50% more games than anyone else suggested that he was the dominant pitcher of the season.
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