1901 Cy Young Awards

1901 American League - Cy Young, Boston Americans

33-10, 1.62 ERA, 158 K

No doubt about this one.  In the American League's first year of existence, the newly-created Boston Americans (now the Red Sox) lured Cy Young from St. Louis for a $3,500 annual salary.  Prior to this season, Young had "only" been the best pitcher in the league twice, and not at all since 1895, so it almost appeared as though he was in decline.  However, as it turned out, his career was just reaching the halfway mark, and the best was yet to come.  In 1901, he led the league in almost every imaginable category, and in some he was untouchable.  He did not just win the Triple Crown; he dominated it.  His ERA was 0.80 runs better than the next pitcher (who pitched in over 150 fewer innings), he won 7 more games, and struck out 31 more batters than anyone else.  His career-high ERA+ of 217, which means his ERA was less than half that of the league average, is tied for the 20th best of all time.  In addition, he led the league in shutouts (5), WHIP (0.972), hits per 9 innings (7.853), walks per 9 innings (0.897), strikeout to walk ratio (4.270, more than twice that of anyone else in the league), and WAR, which at 11.2 was nearly twice that of the runner up, who had 5.9.  It was by far the best season of his career, but only the first of many great seasons with Boston.

1901 National League -  Deacon Phillippe, Pittsburgh Pirates

22-12, 2.22 ERA, 103 K

Unlike in the American League, there was no one pitcher who really stood out.  In fact, Phillippe didn't lead the league in any significant categories, but overall he finished closer to the top in more of the categories than anyone else.  He was the only pitcher to finish in the top 3 in ERA, wins, win-loss percentage, and WHIP, and although his strikeout totals were fairly low, his strikeout to walk ratio was still good enough for 4th in the league.  Interestingly, with Phillippe earning my retroactive Cy Young Award, he is the first non-Hall of Fame pitcher to do so in any league since George Haddock in 1891.