1914 Cy Young Awards

1914 American League - Dutch Leonard. Boston Red Sox

19-5, 0.96 ERA, 176 K

Walter Johnson, the winner in the previous two years, had another good season in 1914, but there was no way it could possibly compare to how well Dutch Leonard pitched.  No pitcher in modern baseball history (since 1893) has won the ERA title with an earned run average of less than 1.00.  None, except for Dutch Leonard, of course.  Only Tim Keefe in 1880 had a lower ERA (0.86), and it was in only 105 innings - less than half of the number that Leonard pitched (224.2).  Since the pitchers mound was moved to its current location 60'6" from home plate though, the closest anyone has come to Leonard's record was Mordecai Brown in 1906, when he had an ERA of 1.04.  Leonard's ERA was 0.74 runs lower than anyone else, and his ERA+  of 279 was over 100 points higher than anyone else and the third best of all-time (behind Keefe in 1880 and Pedro Martinez in 2000).  In addition, he led the league in WHIP (0.886), hits per 9 innings (5.568; 6th all-time), strikeouts per 9 innings (7.050), and finished second in shutouts, pitching 7 in 25 starts.  He didn't rank as high in counting stats like wins because he pitched fewer innings than some of the leaders (he pitched 224.2, compared to Walter Johnson's 371.2) but he was so dominating that nobody else even came close to being as valuable to their team as he was.  Apparently the MVP voters in 1914 agreed as well - although he finished a dismal 16th place, it was higher than any other pitcher.  It was definitely the high point of his career, though.  Despite helping Boston win three World Series titles in the four years following his 1914 season, he never again had an ERA that was even under 2.00 (something that was not at all uncommon in the early 20th century) and his ERA+ never went above 123 again.  After Boston, he spent his remaining five seasons as a moderately effective starter in Detroit.


1914 National League - Bill James, Boston Braves

26-7, 1.90 ERA, 156 K

No, not that Bill James.  I had never even heard of this particular Bill James before I started doing research on the 1914 season.  And there isn't much reason why I would have heard of him; unique among all of the pitchers that I've featured so far, his Retroactive Cy Young Award winning season was also his only full season in the majors. However, he was certainly effective, finishing second in wins and ERA (and ERA+ with 150), fifth in strikeouts, and first in winning percentage and WAR.  There were other pitchers who did well in 1914, but overall James was the best.  His successful season didn't come in vain either; he was the ace of the "Miracle Braves."  In early July, the Braves were 26-40 and in last place; they then went 70-19 for the rest of the season and won the pennant by 10.5 games, and beat the A's in the World Series, for the only title that the Braves won while in Boston.  It was his second year in the majors, and his first full season (he pitched 135.2 innings in 24 games in 1913), but the next year he pitched just 68.1 ineffective innings, and other than a one game stint in 1919, was out of the majors after that.  As far as one hit wonders go, it was a pretty good season though.  In addition to winning my Retroactive Cy Young Award, he finished third in MVP voting (the real one), behind two of his teammates, Hall of Famers Johnny Evers and Rabbit Maranville, making James the highest-ranked pitcher in the league.

1914 Federal League - Claude Hendrix, Chicago Chi-Feds

29-10, 1.69 ERA, 189 K

 The Federal League was the most recent "third league" to compete with the AL and NL, playing for two seasons from 1914 to 1915.  In 1914, their best pitcher was Claude Hendrix of Chicago's unusually-named Chi-Feds (which were renamed the Chicago Whales the next season).  The Chi-Feds played at a brand-new ballpark named Weeghman Park, which was later sold to the Cubs after the Federal League folded and renamed Wrigley Field.  Hendrix, who had previously pitched for the Pirates, was the winning pitcher in the first game ever played at the ballpark, and in 1914 he led the league in wins, ERA, games pitched (49), and complete games (34).  He also finished second in WHIP (0.934), WAR (9.2), and third in strikeouts and shutouts (6).  It would be by far the best season of his career though; the following year his ERA was significantly under the league average (ERA+ of 93), and after the Federal League folded he spent his last three years in the majors with the Cubs as a moderately effective if unspectacular starter.