Tuesday, April 24, 2012

1934 Cy Young Awards

1934 American League - Lefty Gomez, New York Yankees

26-5, 2.33 ERA, 158 K

Yet again a pitcher named Lefty won the AL Retroactive Cy Young Award, but for once it's Lefty Gomez, not Lefty Grove.  With the winner of the past six awards having an injury-shortened year, Gomez stepped up nicely and won the Triple Crown, along with leading the league in winning percentage (.839), WHIP (1.133), hits per 9 innings (7.125), shutouts (6), WAR (8.1) and ERA+ (176).  It was a dominating season for the future Hall of Famer, and interestingly the 17th consecutive season in which a future Hall of Famer was the best pitcher in the AL.  He was selected third overall in MVP voting in 1934, first among all pitchers, and was selected to his second of seven All-Star games.

1934 National League - Dizzy Dean, St. Louis Cardinals

30-7, 2.66 ERA, 195 K

The 1933 winner, Carl Hubbell, had an impressive season in 1934 as well, leading the league in ERA by a third of a run, but it was impossible to not choose Dean's 30-win season.  Dean was the last NL pitcher ever to win 30 games, and was the second to last (with Denny McLain in 1968 being the last) pitcher in either league to accomplish the now seemingly-impossible feat.  The wins category wasn't the only thing that Dean led in though; he also lead in strikeouts, winning percentage (.811), shutouts (7), and easily won the NL MVP Award, en route to leading the Cardinals to a World Series title.

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