1943 Cy Young Awards

1943 American League - Spud Chandler, New York Yankees

20-4, 1.64 ERA, 134 K

Back in the days prior to the Cy Young Award, there seemed to be little issue over giving the MVP Award to pitchers; today a pitcher has to be particularly exceptional in order to even come close to winning it.  Chandler had one of those seasons in 1943, and if it had happened today, he would've been assured the Cy Young Award and probably the MVP as well.  Along with an ERA that was 0.63 runs better than anyone else, he led the league in wins, winning percentage (.833), shutouts (5), WHIP (0.992), and WAR (6.0), and he easily won the NL MVP Award on his way to helping the Yankees win the World Series.  In a relatively short 11 year career, Chandler barely won 100 games, but he will be remembered as having the highest career winning percentage (.717) among any pitcher with at least 100 decisions, and his 1943 season had a lot to do with that.


1943 National League - Mort Cooper, St. Louis Cardinals

21-8, 2.30 ERA, 141 K

Mort Cooper strikes again, becoming the best NL pitcher for the second year in a row.  It wasn't quite as impressive as his MVP 1942 season, but it was good enough for fifth place in MVP voting and highest among pitchers.  Along with tying for the lead in wins, he finished second in ERA, strikeouts, and ERA+ (147), and although teammate Max Lanier had a substantially lower ERA, he also pitched in substantially fewer innings.  Cooper's Cardinals again made it to the World Series, although the tables were turned; instead of them beating the Yankees four games to one, the opposite happened.