1929 Cy Young Awards

1929 American League - Lefty Grove, Philadelphia Athletics

20-6, 2.81 ERA, 170 K

For the third time in his five years in the majors, Lefty Grove has been the best pitcher in the league, and for the fifth time in five years he led the league in strikeouts.  He also led the league in ERA for the second time, and finished third in wins, 4 behind league-leading teammate George Earnshaw.  His ERA was probably the most impressive part of this season; he had an ERA+ of 151, and he was 0.25 runs lower than anyone else, despite also pitching the third-most innings.  He was the only pitcher in either league to finish with an ERA under 3.00, in a year when the league average was 4.24.  Although Grove's career ERA of 3.09 doesn't seem particularly impressive, especially compared to pitchers of the dead ball era like Mathewson and Alexander, it is important to note that Grove's career fell right in the middle of one of the greatest hitter-friendly eras in baseball history; probably second only to the 1990s-early 2000s steroid era, making what Grove did even that much more impressive.

1929 National League - Burleigh Grimes, Pittsburgh Pirates

17-7, 3.13 ERA, 62 K

It's been a while since we've heard from Burleigh Grimes; he won my Retroactive Cy Young Award in 1921, and didn't do much until 1928, when he was in contention for it, and this year, when he won it for the second time.  Even then, his stats don't exactly jump out as being particularly impressive; he just happened to have the best season out of a lot of mediocre ones in 1929.  Grimes finished second in ERA (although first in ERA+ at 154), although he was a distant seventh in wins, and eighth in WHIP (1.354), seventh in hits per 9 innings (9.477), and fifth in WAR (4.8).  Still, he was the best of a weak field, and even the MVP voters of his day agreed; he finished fourth overall, and first among pitchers.  Interestingly, Grimes is one of few Hall of Fame pitchers to win my NL Retroactive Cy Young Award in the past 12 seasons.  Only five awards have been won by Hall of Famers in the NL since 1918, but in the AL a future Hall of Famer has won every year.  Grimes has won two such awards, and even then his Hall of Fame credentials are questionable; he was featured in my Worst Pitchers in the Hall of Fame post as the sixth worst.
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