1940 American League - Bob Feller, Cleveland Indians
27-11, 2.61 ERA, 261 K
Not much of a contest here; as good as Bob Feller was in 1939, he was even better in 1940, winning the Triple Crown easily, with six more wins, an ERA nearly a quarter run lower, and 97 more strikeouts than anyone else in the league. Feller never won an MVP Award in his career, but 1940 was the closest he came, finishing second to Hank Greenberg. It would end up being probably his best season, but he certainly had a lot that were very similar, and it's amazing to consider what he might have been capable of, had he not missed three and a half years of his prime due to his service in World War II. After all, his best seasons came immediately before and after the war, so who knows what he could've done in between
1940 National League - Bucky Walters, Cincinnati Reds
22-10, 2.48 ERA, 115 K
This was a fairly close call between Walters and Chicago's Claude Passeau, but in the end I decided to give it to Walters because 1) his numbers in most major stats were slightly better, 2) he helped lead the Reds to their first World Series victory since 1919, and 3) the contemporary sportswriters clearly thought he was the better pitcher; he finished third in MVP voting, with Passeau in a distant 16th place. Walters very nearly won his second consecutive Triple Crown; he led in wins and ERA, but finished fifth in strikeouts. However, he also led in ERA+ (154), complete games (29), WHIP (1.092), and hits per 9 innings (7.112). He went on to have a few more decent seasons after 1940, but his relatively late start in pitching (he didn't pitch regularly until he was 26) and fairly early decline (he never won more than 10 games in a season after the age of 35) meant that he is a borderline Hall of Famer, but it's unlikely he will ever be elected.
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