1947 Cy Young Awards

1947 American League - Bob Feller, Cleveland Indians

20-11, 2.68 ERA, 196 K

This was the sixth time in the past six full seasons of Feller's career that he led the league in strikeouts, and it was also the fourth time that he was the best pitcher in the league.  It wasn't an overly spectacular season, particularly by Feller's standards, but it was still better than anyone else.  Only Joe Page, who pitched just 141.1 innings, finished higher than Feller in MVP voting, who finished eighth.  He led the league in wins (and was the only pitcher to win 20 games), and finished second in ERA (to someone who pitched over 100 innings less than Feller), and led in strikeouts.  Not bad when a "good but not spectacular" season for Feller consists of winning two-thirds of the Triple Crown and finishing second in the third category.

1947 National League - Warren Spahn, Boston Braves

21-10, 2.33 ERA, 123 K

This was a pretty close call between Spahn and Cincinnati's Ewell Blackwell, but Spahn led Blackwell by narrow margins in most major statistics except for wins, where Spahn finished one behind Blackwell's league leading 22.  The MVP voters in 1947 disagreed with me, though; Blackwell was the MVP runner-up, while Spahn finished a distant 15th, behind five other pitchers.  Still, Spahn led in ERA, ERA+ (170), WHIP (1.136), innings pitched (289.2), shutouts (7), and WAR (9.1).  He also made his first of 14 All Star appearances, and it was his first full season (he had previously pitched 141.1 innings in two seasons) in a 21-year Hall of Fame career.  Interestingly, Spahn is the earliest winner of my retroactive Cy Young Awards who actually won a real Cy Young Award; Spahn won in 1957, the second year of its existence, back when there was only one combined award for both leagues.