Every year, the Cy Young Award is given out to the best pitcher in each league, and along with the MVP Award is considered to be the most prestigious postseason award a player can receive. However, the Cy Young Award has only been given out since 1956, which leaves 80 years of Major League Baseball without any official awards for pitchers.
MVP Awards, which were given out sporadically between 1911 and 1929, and annually from 1931 onward, have been given out to pitchers at times, but until 1956 there was no equivalent award specifically for pitchers. The closest thing to a pre-Cy Young Award recognition of the best pitcher in each league was the TSN Pitcher of the Year Award, which was given out in 1944 and 1945, and 1948 onward. However, while other awards and recognitions such as the MVP Award and Hall of Fame selections are chosen by the Baseball Writers Association of America, the Pitcher of the Year Award is chosen by the The Sporting News, and is not officially endorsed by Major League Baseball.
In any case, there is a substantial gap in MLB history between when the National League was first established and when any kind of awards were given out for pitchers. So, what I will be doing on this blog is going through each league, each year, and deciding which pitcher probably would have, or at least deserved to have won the Cy Young Award, had it existed. Because the National Association of 1871-1875 is not generally regarded as a major league, I won't be including pitchers from that league, but I will be including winners for the American Association (1882-1891), Union Association (1884), Players League (1890), and the Federal League (1914-1915).
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