Big Red Pitching Machine

As I have probably mentioned on this blog before, the Red Sox are my favorite baseball team.  However, for almost as long as I have been following baseball regularly, I have also been a fan of the Cincinnati Reds.  Historically, the Reds have had some great teams and great players, but one area in which they have always lacked is pitching.

Perhaps most notably, no Reds pitcher has ever won the Cy Young Award.  However, Cincinnati ace Johnny Cueto has put together a spectacular season so far.  With a 17-6 record, a 2.48 ERA (both of which lead the NL) and 144 strikeouts, he is the frontrunner in the Cy Young Award race with just a month left to go.  Clayton Kershaw and R.A. Dickey are close contenders, but if Cueto can stay consistent and finish off the season well, he could very well be Cincinnati's long-awaited Cy Young Award winner.

In the meantime though, here are a few interesting facts to highlight the plight of Cincinnati's pitching:

• Of the 16 "original" non-expansion MLB teams, only the Reds and the Red Sox have never had a pitcher win 200 games in his career with the team.  The Reds leader, Eppa Rixey, has 179, which is 13 fewer than Red Sox co-leaders Cy Young and Roger Clemens.
• There are 11 Hall of Famers who pitched for the Reds (one of whom was a first baseman who pitched 4 innings).  Of those, only two, Eppa Rixey and Tom Seaver, played more than one season in Cincinnati.
• Eppa Rixey is the only Hall of Fame pitcher to pitch the majority of his innings with the Reds.  Even then, he was hardly a first ballot Hall of Famer; his reaction when he heard that he was elected kind of sums it up: "They're really scraping the bottom of the barrel, aren't they?" 
• In 1900, the Reds traded a young minor league pitcher for aging future Hall of Famer Amos Rusie.  Rusie would go on to pitch just three games for the Reds, and never played in the majors again.  But hey, it's not like they traded Christy Mathewson for him or anything.  Oh wait...
• Reds pitchers have received Cy Young Award votes a total of 27 times in 56 seasons.  They have finished in the top three just six times.
• During their World Series winning years of 1975-76, only one Reds pitcher received any Cy Young Award votes each season, Don Gullett and Rawly Eastwick respectively, and each finished a distant fifth.
• The most recent Reds second-place finisher was Pete Schourek in 1995, who had the misfortune of having a career year the same year that Greg Maddux finished with the fifth best ERA+ in baseball history.
• Since 1995, the only Reds pitcher to receive any Cy Young Award votes was Bronson Arroyo, who finished 12th in 2010.

1944 Cy Young Awards

1944 American League - Dizzy Trout, Detroit Tigers

27-14, 2.12 ERA, 144 K

Just a look at the above stat line makes it seem like this was an easy decision, but it was actually a pretty tough call.  I had actually started writing this post with Hal Newhouser as the winner, but as I wrote more I realized I didn't have much of a defense for choosing him over his own teammate Dizzy Trout, so I changed my mind and rewrote it.  They had remarkably similar seasons, with Trout leading the league and finishing second, in both cases to Newhouser, in the other two Triple Crown categories.  The one edge that Newhouser had was a better win-loss record; he went 29-9, which is good enough to earn a retroactive Cy Young Award in almost any season.  However, Trout had a slightly lower ERA in far more innings pitched (352.1!), and led Newhouser in WAR 8.9 to 7.4.  The two of them deservedly finished first and second in MVP voting, although Newhouser barely won it, 236 to 232 points.  The twin aces helped Detroit achieve the lowest ERA in the league and kept them in contention all year, although they ended up finishing second in the pennant race to the St. Louis Browns.

1944 National League - Bucky Walters, Cincinnati Reds

23-8, 2.40 ERA, 77 K

It's been a few years since we've heard from Bucky Walters.  He had previously won in 1939 and 1940, but went on to have a few average seasons before again becoming the best in the league in 1944.  The National League didn't have quite the same caliber of pitching that the AL did with Trout and Newhouser, but Walters nonetheless put up a respectable season, leading the league in wins and hits per 9 innings (7.358), and finishing second in ERA and ERA+ (146), behind only fellow teammate Ed Heusser, who pitched nearly 100 fewer innings.  He also tied for fifth in the MVP voting, tied for first among pitchers along with New York's Bill Voiselle, and he made his sixth and final All Star appearance.  Unlike in his other two award-winning seasons though, the Reds didn't win the NL pennant, and instead they finished in third, behind the NL champion and ultimately World Series champion Cardinals.

1940 Cy Young Awards

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.

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.

1925 Cy Young Awards

1925 American League - Stan Coveleski, Washington Senators

20-5, 2.84 ERA, 58 K

For once, there's a Washington Senators pitcher featured here whose name isn't Walter Johnson.  Johnson did pitch for the Senators in 1925, and they did win the AL pennant again, but this time their best pitcher was 1920 winner Stan Coveleski, who was just acquired from the Indians.  Although 35 years old, the future Hall of Famer had one of his best seasons, leading the league in ERA, and finishing second in wins.  He also had an impressive, league-leading win-loss percentage of .800, and finished third in WHIP (1.257), hits per 9 innings (8.589), and first in WAR (6.0) and ERA+ (150).  Along the way, he helped the defending World Series winners to win the AL pennant again, although he was the losing pitcher in two of the games in the World Series, which the Pirates ultimately won four games to three.

1925 National League - Dolf Luque, Cincinnati Reds

16-18, 2.63 ERA, 140 K

This was a tough call; it's hard to name someone as the best pitcher in the league when he had a losing record, but that was the case for Luque, the 1923 winner, in 1925.  Although other pitchers had more wins and better records, Luque was so far above them in every other category that it was hard to hold his record against him.  After all, a pitcher only has so much control over getting the win or loss.  In Luque's case, the Reds scored two runs or less in 13 of his starts, which accounted for over a third of his starts.  Ironically, he pitched best in games that his team scored two or fewer runs - his record was 3-10 in those games, but his ERA was 1.83, which suggests that it was bad circumstances, rather than bad pitching, that accounted for his sub-.500 record.  What Luque did do was lead the league in ERA (by a lot, with an ERA+ of 156), shutouts (4, 2 of which accounted for 2 of his 3 wins when his team scored 2 or fewer runs), WHIP (1.172), hits per 9 innings (8.134), and WAR (6.2).  He also finished second in innings pitched (291) and third in complete games (22).  Overall not bad for a pitcher who finished under .500.

1923 Cy Young Awards

1923 American League - Herb Pennock, New York Yankees

19-6, 3.13 ERA, 93 K

There isn't much that is outstanding about Pennock's 1923 season, other than the fact that it was marginally more outstanding than anyone else's.  That's nothing against the future Hall of Famer; he just happened to pitch at a time when offense was way up and pitching suffered.  He finished seventh in ERA, sixth in wins, and ninth in strikeouts, along with fifth in WHIP (1.271), second in WAR (5.0), and first in win-loss percentage (.760).  However, no other pitcher consistently ranked higher than Pennock in most of those categories; either they had a low ERA but a poor record, or a lot of wins but a poor ERA, or some other combination like that.  It also didn't hurt Pennock that he helped lead the Yankees to their first-ever World Series title.

1923 National League - Dolf Luque, Cincinnati Reds

27-8, 1.93 ERA, 151 K

It's one of the greatest pitching seasons that any Reds player has had in the modern era.  Unlike in the American League, where the race was wide open, in the NL there was little doubt that Luque was the best.  He very nearly won the Triple Crown, finishing first in wins and ERA (with an ERA nearly a run better than anyone else) and second in strikeouts.  He also had the second lowest WHIP (1.140) second most innings pitched (322), and the most shutouts (6), hits per 9 innings (7.798) and WAR (9.9).  Luque's numbers would've looked pretty good in the previous decade, but in the 1920's, with much more powerful offenses, such numbers were nearly unheard of.  His ERA+ put him at 201, more than double the league average.  And the closest pitcher to his 1.93 ERA was fellow teammate Eppa Rixey, at 2.80.  Interestingly, Luque, whose full first name Adolfo has since fallen out of style, played in the Negro Leagues before the majors.  Although light-skinned, he was born in Cuba and played on several Cuban Negro League teams. 

1890 Cy Young Awards

1890 American Association - Scott Stratton, Louisville Colonels


34-14, 2.36 ERA, 207 K

Although I wouldn't refer to his season as a "lock" for the retroactive Cy Young Award, Stratton certainly pitched very well, and I would say better than anyone else in the league in 1890.  Stratton led in ERA, WHIP, WAR, win-loss percentage, and fewest walk per 9 innings (by far).  He also finished second in both wins and shutouts.  Pitching for the team that won the pennant that year, Stratton started 49 of Louisville's 132 games, but it would be the highlight of his career by far.  He eventually retired after the 1895 season with a 9-114 record and an ERA+ of 99, barely below league average.  However, at least for the 1890 season he was better than anyone else in the league.

1890 National League - Billy Rhines, Cincinnati Reds

28-17, 1.95 ERA, 182 K

This was the year and league in which the award's namesake, Cy Young, began playing Major League Baseball.  However, he would not be much of a contender in this particular season, so the award named after him would go to Billy Rhines instead.  Just like the year before in the AA, there was no clear winner in the NL in 1890.   However, it was once again a pitcher from Cincinnati (a team which moved from the AA to NL during the offseason) who was, in my opinion, the best overall pitcher.  Although his win total ranked only 5th in the league, he was the ERA leader by far (better over a quarter of a run) and also led the NL in WHIP.  Although he didn't lead too many categories, he was consistently near the top in almost every category, and it was his substantial lead in ERA that put him over the others in my opinion. 

1890 Players League - Silver King, Chicago Pirates

30-22, 2.69 ERA, 185 K

Billy Rhines did well in the NL by posting an ERA more than a quarter run lower than anybody else in the league, but 1888 AA winner Silver King had an even bigger lead in that category in the newly-created Players League.  King's ERA of 2.69 was over a half of a run better than the next lowest, Henry Staley, who finished with a 3.23 ERA.  King also had a huge lead in ERA+, 162 to 134.  King also led in WAR, and finished second in many other categories, including wins, strikeouts, innings pitched, and WHIP.  The fact that he was near the top of almost every category, plus the fact that he had such a wide margin of victory for the ERA title, leads me to give King the retroactive Cy Young Award without much hesitation.  As I mentioned in my 1888 post, King didn't have many great seasons, and was done in the majors by age 29, but he still managed a couple seasons as the best pitcher in his league, the last of which was 1890.  The Players League didn't fare much better after the 1890 season either; the league disbanded after just one season, leaving King as technically the best pitcher in the history of the league.

1889 Cy Young Awards

1889 American Association - Jesse Duryea, Cincinnati Red Stockings

32-19, 2.56 ERA, 183

Unlike 1888, there was no clear-cut winner for the AA in 1889.  I ended up choosing Duryea because, although he did not lead the league in any significant category, he was close to the top in most categories, finishing second in ERA and ERA+, third in wins, and fourth in WHIP and WAR. I considered Bob Caruthers, the 1885 winner, but his ERA was fairly high, and his ERA+ of 112 shows that, while he was above average, Duryea, at 155, was far above average.  While there was no single pitcher who clearly dominated the AA in 1889, Duryea was the best all-around pitcher, and I feel would have deserved the Cy Young Award.  This year was certainly the high point of his career though; it was his rookie year, but he only pitched for four more seasons, and more than half of his career wins came in 1889.

1889 National League - John Clarkson, Boston Beaneaters

49-19, 2.73 ERA, 284 K

Little doubt about this one.  Clarkson, who previously won in 1885 and 1887, once again dominated the league.  He led almost every significant pitching category, and most of them weren't even close.  There have only been four seasons in which a pitcher has won 49 or more games, and Clarkson did it twice, winning 53 in 1885 and 49 in 1889.  His 49 were 21 more than the nearest competition, but that's not all he did.  He led the other two Triple Crown categories as well; his ERA was nearly a quarter run lower than anyone else, and he struck out 29 more than the second place pitcher.  He also had 25 more starts than anyone else, 22 more complete games, 200 more innings pitched, and twice as many shutouts.  He even led in sabermetrically oriented statistics, like WHIP and WAR (finishing an astonishing 6.3 wins above anyone else).  Clarkson's numbers would've looked good 5 to 10 years earlier, but as pitchers began starting fewer games each year, 45+ wins and 600+ innings pitched were rarely seen by 1889.  His new team for the 1889 season, the Boston Beaneaters, only had three pitchers all year, with Clarkson starting more than half of the team's games.  All but 19 of the remaining games were started by another future Hall of Famer, Old Hoss Radbourn, but despite the strong pitching staff and Hall of Fame outfielder King Kelly, Boston finished a game behind New York in the pennant race.

1883 Cy Young Awards

1883 American Association - Will White, Cincinnati Red Stockings

43-22, 2.09 ERA, 141 K

Statistically speaking, White didn't do quite as well in 1883 as he had the year before, but it was still good enough for him to earn his second consecutive retroactive American Association Cy Young Award. Hiis 43 wins, 2.09 ERA, and 6 shutouts led the league, and he finished second in starts (64), complete games (64), and innings pitched (577).  Hall of Famer Tim Keefe also pitched well that season, beating him in those three categories and leading the league in strikeouts, but overall White had the better season, especially considering White's ERA was nearly half a run better than Keefe's

1883 National League - Old Hoss Radbourn, Providence Grays

48-25, 2.05, 315

As it turns out, the best pitchers in each league in 1882 were also the best in 1883, with Radbourn leading the league by winning an astonishing 48 games (5th all-time) in 68 starts and 632.1 innings pitched.  He also finished second in ERA, strikeouts, and shutouts (4), and even managed to tie for third place in saves (a statistic that was not invented until years later) with one.  Additionally, although unrelated to his pitching performance, he played 20 games in the outfield, 2 at first base, and hit 3 home runs, drove in 48 runs, and batted .283.

1882 Cy Young Awards

1882 American Association - Will White, Cincinnati Red Stockings

40-12, 1.54 ERA, 122 K

1882 was the first year in which there were two major leagues - the National League, and the relatively short-lived American Association.  Had the Cy Young Award existed at the time, it would have gone to the star pitcher of the league champion Cincinnati Red Stockings, Will White.  By now a six-year major league veteran, White had previously set single season records for games started (75), complete games (75) and innings pitched (680).  While he did not come close to those figures in 1882, he still led the league in complete games, with 52, and innings pitched, with 480.  Additionally, he led the league in wins, and was fourth in ERA, although he pitched substantially more innings than the other pitchers that he was behind.   Incidentally, the Cincinnati Reds have never had a pitcher who won the Cy Young Award, but had the award existed in 1882, Cincinnati's first year of existence, White certainty would have earned it.

1882 National League - Old Hoss Radbourn, Providence Grays

33-19, 2.11 ERA, 201 K

The 1882 NL Award was a toss-up between 1880 winner Jim McCormick and Radbourn, but I gave it to Radbourn because of his better ERA, and the fact that he led the league in strikeouts and shutouts (6).  He was also second in games started (51), complete games (50), and innings pitched (466), although McCormick finished first in all three of those categories.  He is also the first pitcher that I have chosen for a retroactive Cy Young Award who has been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, although 1882 was just his second year in the majors, and his greatest fame as a pitcher was yet to come.