1913 Cy Young Awards

1913 American League - Walter Johnson, Washington Senators

36-7, 1.14 ERA, 243 K

In 1912, Walter Johnson missed the Triple Crown by one win, but he won it in 1913, for the first of three times in his career.  It was the best season of his career, which says something considering how great Johnson's career was.  Along with the Triple Crown, he led in most other major categories, including winning percentage (.837), complete games (29), shutouts (11), innings pitched (346), ERA+ (259; sixth all time, sandwiched between 1968 Bob Gibson and 1995 Greg Maddux), WHIP (0.780; second in post-1893 baseball, behind only 2000 Pedro Martinez), hits per 9 innings (6.035), walks per 9 innings (0.988), and WAR (12.4, compared to second place 7.3).  His 1.14 ERA, aside from being a career high, is also the 6th lowest of all time, and he also set career highs with 36 wins and 11 shutouts. Plus, he did all of this while playing for a Washington team that only barely improved upon its hitting, finishing 5th out of 8 teams with a .252 team batting average.  Even Walter Johnson himself had a higher batting average, and he finished third on the team in home runs (with 2).

1913 National League - Christy Mathewson, New York Giants

25-11, 2.06 ERA, 93 K

At this point, Mathewson has now been the best pitcher in the league for five consecutive seasons, and I see no reason to deny him a sixth; his 1913 season, while not as great as some of his previous ones, was still enough to make him the best in the league.  There were others, particularly Pittsburgh's Babe Adams, who had good seasons, but Mathewson led the league in ERA, ERA+ (152), and WHIP (1.020).  In addition, he finished second in wins and WAR (7.6), and third in shutouts (4), although Grover Cleveland Alexander pitched as many shutouts (9) as Mathewson and the second place pitcher combined.  In any case, if the Cy Young Award had been given out during this time period, Mathewson would now be at eight, including six straight, according to my assessment.  No pitcher has ever won more than seven, and none have won more than four in a row.  However, it was the last great season for Mathewson, who pitched two more full seasons with the Giants.  After pitching part of the year for the Giants, he was traded to Cincinnati, where he pitched one game, against longtime rival and fellow Hall of Famer Mordecai Brown.  Cincinnati won 10-8 in what would be the final game for both of these all-time greats.  Mathewson finished his career with 373 wins, tied with Grover Cleveland Alexander for third all-time.