1950 Cy Young Awards

1950 American League - Bob Lemon, Cleveland Indians

23-11, 3.84 ERA, 170 K

This one was a total toss-up, so I deferred to the judgement of the 1950 MVP voters and gave it to Bob Lemon.  He finished 5th in MVP voting, ahead of any other pitcher, and I'm sure most of it has to do with him leading the league in wins and strikeouts.  However, he did have a relatively poor ERA (10th in the league) and his ERA+ was a decent if unimpressive 112.  However, he also had a few things going for him, particularly the fact that he led the league in innings pitched (288.0).  As I've said before, I think decent pitchers who pitched a lot of innings were more valuable to their teams, and hence better pitchers, than someone who pitched better but in fewer games.  And, given that there was no clear-cut winner who had a low ERA, I figured future Hall of Famer Bob Lemon was as good a good choice as any.


1950 National League - Jim Konstanty, Philadelphia Phillies

16-7, 2.66 ERA, 56 K

Konstanty was the NL MVP in 1950, although I'm not entirely sure he deserved it over Stan Musial.  Still, he was probably the best pitcher in the league at least, although I picked him more because there was no real competition than because I thought he had an amazing season.  The stat line above seems decent but not amazing, until you consider that he made exactly zero starts.  I don't usually like relief pitchers to win the Cy Young Award, because I feel like usually a starter with 250 innings pitched is more valuable than a closer with 75 innings pitched, but back in 1950 things were a little different for closers.  Konstanty pitched in a league-leading 74 games, and with 152.0 innings pitched, he was just 2 innings away from qualifying for the ERA title, which he would've won with those extra innings.  He also led the league in saves (a stat that hadn't been invented yet) with 22, compared to the second place finisher who had 8.  All in all, he had a decent season, and just like in the AL there was no clear-cut winner, so I decided to give the benefit of the doubt to the MVP voters of the day.