1927 Cy Young Awards

1927 American League - Waite Hoyt, New York Yankees

22-7, 2.63 ERA, 86 K

It only seems natural for a Yankees pitcher to win the award in 1927; the 1927 Yankees tend to be the benchmark for measuring any other team's greatness.  They are best known for their impressive lineup, but their pitchers also claimed the top three spots for ERA leaders.  The leader was rookie Wilcy Moore, who somehow managed a 19-7 record despite only starting 12 games.  His ERA was 0.35 runs lower than runner-up Hoyt, but Hoyt started almost three times as many games, and pitched more innings.  Hoyt also led the league in wins and winning percentage (.759), and finished third in WAR (5.6), WHIP (1.155), and tied for second in shutouts (3).  Of course, it could be said that Hoyt had the advantage of not having to pitch against his own team, which every other team in the league had to do, but it can't really be held against him either.


1927 National League - Ray Kremer, Pittsburgh Pirates

19-8, 2.47 ERA, 63 K

Probably the most surprising thing about the top pitchers in the NL in 1927 wasn't that Ray Kremer won for the second time in a row, but that the runner-up when I was looking at the stats was Grover Cleveland Alexander.  That's right, Grover Cleveland Alexander, who hadn't been anywhere near the top pitchers in the league since he won in 1920, was now, at the age of 40, back among the best in the league.  However, Kremer was better, leading in ERA and ERA+ (167), and finishing fourth in WHIP (1.142) and shutouts (3), and second in hits per 9 innings (8.164) and WAR (6.1).  Kremer also continues an unusual trend among winners of my NL Retroactive Cy Young Award; only three of the past ten seasons have been won by a Hall of Famer, with three non-Hall of Famers (Kremer, Dolf Luque, and Hippo Vaughn) each winning twice.  He pitched for ten seasons, all with Pittsburgh, but none of his other eight seasons were particularly noteworthy.  It may have been different for him had he reached the majors sooner though; he didn't play his first MLB season until he was 31, after 10 seasons in the minors.