1954 Cy Young Awards

1954 American League - Bob Lemon, Cleveland Indians

23-7, 2.72 ERA, 110 K

Several posts ago, I mentioned how good of a starting rotation the Indians had in the late 40s and early 50s, and 1954 was probably the best of any of those years.  The award for best AL pitcher was a close call between three great pitchers: Bob Lemon, of the Cleveland Indians; Early Wynn, of the Cleveland Indians; and Mike Garcia of, you guessed it, the Cleveland Indians.  It's not too often that the three best pitchers in the league happened to play on the same team, but that was the case in 1954 for the Indians.  Their other two starters were no slouches either; their #4 starter was Art Houtteman, and #5 was Bob Feller, who also had a decent season.  It's no wonder that the Indians went on to win 111 games in 1954, although they ended up being swept by the Giants in the World Series.  In any case, Bob Lemon had a great season, tying Wynn for the league lead in wins, and finishing third in ERA.  It was a close call between Lemon and Wynn, but I gave it to Lemon mostly because of the better win-loss record.  The MVP voters agreed; they finished 5th and 6th, respectively in the voting, higher than any other pitchers.

1954 National League - Johnny Antonelli, New York Giants

21-7, 2.30 ERA, 152 K

It's only appropriate that the two winners in 1954 both came from pennant-winning teams, and in Antonelli's case, his team won the World Series against an Indians team that had won 14 more games in the regular season.  Antonelli won the only game that he started in the World Series, and allowed 1 run in 10.2 innings over the course of two games.  However, he was most valuable for the Giants in the regular season, leading the league in ERA by a healthy margin, along with leading in winning percentage (.750) and shutouts (6), and finishing second in wins and strikeouts (1.171) and fourth in strikeouts.  He finished third in MVP voting, first among pitchers, and made his first of five All Star appearances in a respectable career with the Giants.

1951 Cy Young Awards

1951 American League - Early Wynn, Cleveland Indians

20-13, 3.02 ERA, 133 K

The Cleveland Indians of the late 1940s and early 1950s had some of the best pitching rotations ever assembled outside of an All Star team.  In fact, there's a good case that they might have had the greatest starting rotation ever; for several years, their four regular starting pitchers were Early Wynn, Bob Feller, Bob Lemon, and Mike Garcia.  There have been other great rotations; Baltimore's 1971 team stands out in particular, with Mike Cuellar, Pat Dobson, Jim Palmer, and Dave McNally each winning at least 20 games.  There have been plenty of teams with multiple Hall of Famers in their rotations (The 1987 Indians, for example, had both Phil Niekro, age 48, and Steve Carlton, age 42, in their rotation), but for the Indians of the early 1950s, they had three Hall of Famers who were all in their prime, plus a solid starter in Mike Garcia.  In any case, it comes as no surprise that, including Wynn, five of the last six pitchers that I have selected in the AL have been Indians pitchers.  It wasn't an amazing season for Wynn; he didn't lead in any Triple Crown categories, but he finished near the top in most of them.  He finished third in ERA, fourth in wins, and second in strikeouts; nobody else ranked higher than him in those categories, plus he led the league in innings pitched (274.1).  Incidentally, Cleveland's four regular starting pitchers finished first, second, fourth, and fifth in the league in innings pitched.


1951 National League - Sal Maglie, New York Giants

23-6, 2.93 ERA, 146 K

Maglie had a great record in 1951, and played a huge role in leading the Giants to an improbable NL pennant-winning season.  However, probably the most famous game that he pitched in was one that he didn't receive a decision for; he pitched the first 8 innings of a game that was later won on a Bobby Thomson home run, which apparently was kind of a big deal.  In any case though, he had a great season, winning over 20 games for the only time in his career, and along with leading the league in wins, he also finished second in ERA, fourth in WHIP, third in strikeouts, and first in ERA+ (134).  Maglie had a few other decent seasons outside of 1951, including the runner-up for the first ever Cy Young Award, but 1951 was definitely his best season.

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.

1948 Cy Young Awards

1948 American League - Gene Bearden, Cleveland Indians

20-7, 2.43 ERA, 80 K

Once again, it was a Cleveland pitcher who was the best pitcher in the league, but for once it wasn't Bob Feller.  Rookie Gene Bearden, who had previously pitched in one game in his entire MLB career, emerged as the best pitcher on a very talented staff that included Bob Feller, Bob Lemon, and Satchel Paige.  A wounded World War II veteran, he had to have part of his skull removed after being struck by shrapnel, yet he had a great rookie year, leading the league in ERA, ERA+ (168), and finishing second in wins and winning percentage.  Teammate Bob Lemon also had a great season, but I gave it to Bearden, who had fewer innings pitched than Lemon but also a substantially lower ERA.  Lemon did lead the league with an amazing 10 shutouts, but Bearden was no slouch either, finishing the season with six.   Bearden finished eighth in MVP voting, behind only Lemon among pitchers, and he finished second in Rookie of the Year voting.  He was not chosen as an All Star, but at the end of the season, when the Indians and Red Sox finished the season tied for first, Cleveland manager Lou Boudreau didn't go with Bob Feller or Bob Lemon; he started Gene Bearden on one day's rest, and he responded by leading the Indians to the World Series, which they won over the Boston Braves.  It was the last time the Indians would win the World Series, and for Bearden it was the highlight of an otherwise unremarkable career; he bounced around to five different teams over the next five seasons, never winning more than eight games in a season; his career total of 45 wins was barely twice that of his win total in 1948.

1948 National League - Harry Brecheen, St. Louis Cardinals

20-7, 2.24 ERA, 149 K

This year had probably the least notable combination of winners with Gene Bearden and Harry Brecheen since the 1886 season, when the best pitchers in each league were Dave Foutz and Lady Baldwin.  However, Brecheen had a great season in the National League as part of an otherwise decent but undistinguished baseball career.  He led in two thirds of the Triple Crown, ERA and strikeouts, while finishing second to Johnny Sain in wins, and he also led in shutouts (7), WHIP (1.037), and ERA+ (182).  It was his sixth full season in the majors, and while he had posted some respectable seasons as one of the better pitchers in the league, 1948 was his only really great season.  It was his second year as an All Star, and his third season finishing in the top 20 for MVP voting, but he would never quite repeat his success, winning just 42 games in the next five seasons before retiring.

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.

1946 Cy Young Awards

1946 American League - Bob Feller, Cleveland Indians

26-15, 2.18 ERA, 348 K

This was a tough call; 1945 winner Hal Newhouser had another great season, but Bob Feller pitched just as well in his first full season after serving in World War II.  Newhouser actually probably pitched better, but Feller pitched almost as well, in far more innings pitched.  They both won the same number of games to lead the league, and Newhouser led the league in ERA at 1.94.  Feller finished third in ERA, and fifth in WHIP (1.158), while Newhouser led in both of those categories.  Normally, I would've chosen Newhouser in such a situation, but what gave Feller the edge was 371.1 innings pitched, to lead the league over Newhouser's second place 292.2.  Feller pitched more complete games (36) than Newhouser started (34), and his 10 shutouts easily led the league over Newhouser's six.  In terms of WAR, they were both extraordinarily high, with Feller at 9.4 and Newhouser at 9.1.  Clearly, they both had spectacular pitching seasons, but I have to give the nod to Feller; the additional eight starts and nearly 80 innings more that he pitched are more valuable, in my opinion, than the slightly lower ERA and WHIP that Newhouser had.  One last statistic worth mentioning was Feller's unbelievable 348 strikeouts.  Although I don't like to put too much faith in strikeout numbers, he finished one shy of Rube Waddell's modern single-season records, and today it remains the sixth most strikeouts in post-1900 baseball history The MVP voters disagreed with me, however, with Newhouser finishing as the runner-up to Ted Williams, and Feller in sixth place.

1946 National League - Howie Pollet, St. Louis Cardinals

21-10, 2.10 ERA, 107 K

Howie Pollet didn't have a particularly spectacular MLB career; he played 14 seasons of occasionally above-average baseball as both a starter and reliever, but in 1946 he was the ace of the World Series winning Cardinals, and the best pitcher in the league.  He led in both ERA and innings pitched (266.0), which is a combination that I like to see, and he also led in wins and ERA+ (165).  Perhaps most impressive, however, was the fact that he had not thrown a pitch in professional baseball in two and a half seasons before 1946 due to service in World War II.  After 1946, he would continue as a decent pitcher for a variety of teams, but he never quite matched his success from this season.

1939 Cy Young Awards

1939 American League - Bob Feller, Cleveland Indians

24-9, 2.85 ERA, 246 K

This year was the last great season for Lefty Grove, who I had previously awarded a record nine retroactive Cy Young Awards to.  He led the league in ERA for a record ninth and final time, and he made his sixth and final All Star appearance.  However, he wasn't quite as good as Cleveland's ace Bob Feller who, at just 20 years of age, was already an All Star from the previous year and the defending league leader in strikeouts.  He ended up finishing third in the MVP voting in 1939, was selected to another All Star game, and led the league in wins, complete games (24), innings pitched (296.2), and an astonishing 246 strikeouts, 54 more than the runner up and 109 more than the NL champion.  It was a great season for the young Bob Feller, but the best was still to come for him.

1939 National League - Bucky Walters, Cincinnati Reds

27-11, 2.29 ERA, 137 K

Throughout the history of the Cincinnati Reds, they have had some great teams, yet one area that they have always been lacking in is good pitching.  As mentioned before, no Reds pitcher has ever won the Cy Young Award, few have been elected to the Hall of Fame, and none have won 200 games or more while in Cincinnati; their all-time leader in wins is Eppa Rixey, with 179, the least among any of the "original" 16 MLB teams (The Red Sox are the only other team without a 200-game winner in their history; Cy Young and Roger Clemens are tied for the team lead with 192).  However, for several seasons in the late 1930s and early 1940s, the Reds had one of the best pitchers in the league in Bucky Walters.  While winning both the Triple Crown and the MVP Award, Walters also led the Reds to their first NL pennant since 1919, although they were swept in the World Series by the Yankees.  Interestingly, although he developed into one of the best pitchers of his era and a borderline Hall of Fame candidate, he spent his first four MLB seasons as a third baseman for the Braves, Red Sox, and Phillies before he decided to give pitching a try.  Naturally, it would figure that the Red Sox of all teams would unknowingly have an MVP-caliber pitcher playing as a backup third baseman.

1920 Cy Young Awards

1920 American League - Stan Coveleski, Cleveland Indians

24-14, 2.49 ERA, 133 K

This year marked the end of the Dead-ball era in baseball, and for the first time in the history of the American League, the league leader had an ERA over 2.00.  Coveleski finished second in both ERA and wins, first in strikeouts, and first in WHIP (1.108) and hits per 9 innings (8.1).  It was a mediocre season by pre-1920 standards, but in 1920 it was the best; his ERA of 2.49 gave him an ERA+ of 154; a few years earlier the same ERA would've barely been better than the league average.  along the way, Coveleski led the Indians to the World Series, winning the pennant over a White Sox team that imploded after the players suspected of throwing the 1919 World Series were suspended.  Coveleski's Indians had to overcome problems of their own though, with star shortstop Ray Chapman getting killed by a pitch on August 17.  However, Chapman's replacement, Joe Sewell, would go on to have a successful career of his own, and both Sewell and Coveleski would end up in the Hall of Fame.

1920 National League - Grover Cleveland Alexander, Chicago Cubs

27-14, 1.91 ERA, 173 K

The end of the Dead-ball era didn't seem to affect Grover Cleveland Alexander, who was returning to form after spending most of his 1918 season in the army fighting World War I.  Along with winning the Triple Crown for the third time,  he also led the league in innings (363.1), starts (40), complete games (33), ERA+ (168), and WAR (10).  It was the fourth time that he would be the best pitcher in the league, but it was also his last great season.  He would pitch until 1930, winning 373 games to put himself in a tie with Christy Mathewson for third all-time.  However, he was never again able to duplicate his prewar success; despite nine more seasons with an ERA above the league average, he never again led the league in any major categories.

1911 Cy Young Awards

1911 American League - Vean Gregg, Cleveland Naps

23-7, 1.80 ERA, 125 K

If you've never heard of Vean Gregg before, that's okay, because I never had before either.  But, despite pitching for a team whose nickname could easily be confused with a midday rest period, Gregg was the best pitcher in the league during his rookie season.  Along with a league-leading 1.80 ERA (and 189 ERA+), he had the second highest win-loss percentage, the lowest WHIP (1.054), and finished fourth in wins and third in shutouts (5).  It was an impressive season with an otherwise mediocre Cleveland team, but Gregg only had two more successful seasons before suffering an arm injury in 1914 that essentially ended his major league career.

1911 National League - Christy Mathewson, New York Giants

26-13, 1.99 ERA, 141 K

Mathewson faced some competition from rookie Grover Cleveland Alexander in 1911, but he remained the best pitcher in the league for the fourth consecutive year and the sixth time in his career.  Mathewson is one of the top 5 greatest pitchers of all time, and 1911 was just another feather in his cap.  He was the only NL pitcher with a sub-2.00 ERA, and he also led in fewest walks per 9 innings (1.114), second in wins, third in WHIP (1.111), and third in WAR.  Alexander finished ahead of him in some of these categories, including leading the league in wins and innings pitched, but Mathewson's ERA was so much lower (1.99 to Alexander's 5th place 2.57), and all of their other stats were so similar, that I had to give it to him.

Sewell's Strikeouts

There are certain players who are best known for a single statistic that defined their careers: for Cy Young, it is 511 wins; for Hank Aaron, it is 755 home runs; for Cal Ripken, Jr., it is 2632 consecutive games. Then, there is Joe Sewell, whose number is 114. The number times that he struck out. In 14 seasons. Nobody else in the modern era has had a lower at bat to strikeout ratio, and it's a record that isn't likely to be broken, considering how frequently players today strike out. So, here's a few facts to put his accomplishment in context:

• Sewell led the AL in lowest at bat per strikeout ratio nine years in a row, from 1925 to 1933.
• The only reason he didn't win in 1934 was because he retired. The 1934 winner, Joe Vosmik, struck out once every 40.5 at bats. The previous year, Sewell struck out once every 133 at bats.
• Sewell's career average was 62.6 at bats per strikeout, the best in MLB history.
• In 1932, he averaged one strikeout every 167.7 at bats, the best single season average since strikeouts started being reliably recorded in 1910. He also has the record for the second best single season average, in 1929. And third best, in 1925. And fourth best, in 1933.
  
• In 2011, Juan Pierre led the AL with 15.6 at bats per strikeout.
• Sewell's worst at bat to strikeout ratio in a full season was 1922, when he averaged one every 27.9 at bats. No MLB player has even averaged that few strikeouts in a season since Tony Gwynn in 1995.
• The last MLB player to reach Sewell's career average in a single season was Don Mueller in 1956, when he averaged one strikeout ever 64.7 at bats.
• There have been more than twice as many no-hitters (272) than Joe Sewell strikeouts in MLB history.
• In 14 seasons, Joe Sewell struck out 114 times. Players have struck out more than that in a single season 1096 times.
• Since 1947, six batters have struck out six times in a single game. That is twice as many as Sewell's entire 1932 season (3 in 503 at bats).
• In 1929, Sewell struck out on May 17. He did not strike out again until September 20, 115 games and 442 at bats later, setting a MLB record.
• There were only two games in his career in which Sewell struck out twice.
• The record for the most no-hitters by one pitcher is 7. The most Joe Sewell strikeouts by one pitcher is 4.
• The all-time leader in strikeouts by a batter is Reggie Jackson, who accumulated 2597 strikeouts in 21 seasons. In order to strike out that many times, Sewell would have had to have played for 325 years.