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.

1938 Cy Young Awards

1938 American League - Red Ruffing, New York Yankees

21-7, 3.31 ERA, 127 K

Red Ruffing is one of those pitchers who got better the older he got.  He started off his career with the Red Sox in 1924, where he spent seven seasons and compiled an absolutely dreadful 39-96 record.  Finally, he was traded to the Yankees in 1930 for a broken bat and a few wads of used chewing tobacco (or Cedric Durst, as the case may be).  There, as former Red Sox players are wont to do, his career started to take off, but it wasn't until he was in his early 30s that he developed into one of the best in the league.  In 1938, he led the league in wins, and finished second in ERA, fifth in strikeouts, third in WHIP (1.326), and tied for second in WAR (5.0).  It wasn't an amazingly dominant season, but it was the best of a fairly weak pool in 1938.  He did finish fourth in MVP voting though, the highest among any pitcher in the league.  Lefty Grove, who previously had won nine retroactive Cy Young Awards in the past 12 seasons, pitched well, leading the league in ERA yet again, but it was in only 163.2 innings, and he finished with 14 wins in just 24 starts.

1938 National League - Bill Lee, Chicago Cubs

22-9, 2.66 ERA, 121 K

Not to be confused with the 1970s Red Sox pitcher of the same name, Bill Lee was a fairly effective starting pitcher for the Cubs, particularly in the mid to late 1930s.  However, his 1938 performance far surpassed any other year; he led the league in wins and ERA, finished fourth in strikeouts, and also led in starts (37), shutouts (9), and ERA+ (144).  He made his first of two All-Star appearances this year, and he finished second only to Cincinnati catcher Ernie Lombardi in the MVP voting.  Along the way, he led the Cubs to a rare NL pennant, although they were promptly swept by Red Ruffing's Yankees in the World Series.  The Cubs would make it to the World Series one more time, in 1945, and they haven't been there since.

1937 Cy Young Awards

1937 American League - Lefty Gomez, New York Yankees

21-11, 2.33 ERA, 194 K

Evidently it wasn't easy being a right-handed pitcher in the AL in the 1930s; the last pitcher not named "Lefty" to receive a retroactive Cy Young Award from me was Waite Hoyt in 1927.  Lefty Grove won most of those, but for the second time, the "other" Lefty G. won the AL pitching triple crown, with the same ERA, although fewer wins and more strikeouts.  He may be a somewhat marginal player by Hall of Fame standards, but in 1934 and 1937 he was undoubtedly the best AL pitcher, and in 1937 he helped lead the Yankees to yet another World Series title.


1937 National League - Jim Turner, Boston Braves

20-11, 2.38 ERA, 69 K

I'll be honest, I had never heard of Jim Turner before in my life.  In fact, I had expected Carl Hubbell, who finished third in MVP voting and won two thirds of the Triple Crown, would probably win the retroactive Cy Young Award.  However, he also had a very unimpressive 3.20 ERA, which didn't even crack the top ten list, and his WHIP was a mediocre 1.208.  However, Boston's Jim Turner, a 33 year old rookie whose lifetime record ended up being 69-60, had a great season.  Along with leading in ERA by nearly a quarter of a run, he also led in WHIP (1.091), WAR (5.2), and finished tied second in wins.  In the end, he finished fourth in MVP voting, behind only Hubbell among pitchers, and undoubtedly would've been Rookie of the Year had it existed in 1937.  Still, his Major League pitching career was less than stellar; he spent 14 seasons in the minors, and he really only had four seasons as an effective starter.  Imagine my surprise, then, when I found out that he was a part of nine World Series winning teams; after his playing career was over, he served as the pitching coach of the Yankees during their late 1940s-1950s dynasty, and was also pitching coach for the Reds from 1961-1965 and the Yankees again from 1966-1973.

1934 Cy Young Awards

1934 American League - Lefty Gomez, New York Yankees

26-5, 2.33 ERA, 158 K

Yet again a pitcher named Lefty won the AL Retroactive Cy Young Award, but for once it's Lefty Gomez, not Lefty Grove.  With the winner of the past six awards having an injury-shortened year, Gomez stepped up nicely and won the Triple Crown, along with leading the league in winning percentage (.839), WHIP (1.133), hits per 9 innings (7.125), shutouts (6), WAR (8.1) and ERA+ (176).  It was a dominating season for the future Hall of Famer, and interestingly the 17th consecutive season in which a future Hall of Famer was the best pitcher in the AL.  He was selected third overall in MVP voting in 1934, first among all pitchers, and was selected to his second of seven All-Star games.

1934 National League - Dizzy Dean, St. Louis Cardinals

30-7, 2.66 ERA, 195 K

The 1933 winner, Carl Hubbell, had an impressive season in 1934 as well, leading the league in ERA by a third of a run, but it was impossible to not choose Dean's 30-win season.  Dean was the last NL pitcher ever to win 30 games, and was the second to last (with Denny McLain in 1968 being the last) pitcher in either league to accomplish the now seemingly-impossible feat.  The wins category wasn't the only thing that Dean led in though; he also lead in strikeouts, winning percentage (.811), shutouts (7), and easily won the NL MVP Award, en route to leading the Cardinals to a World Series title.

1927 Cy Young Awards

1927 American League - Waite Hoyt, New York Yankees

22-7, 2.63 ERA, 86 K

It only seems natural for a Yankees pitcher to win the award in 1927; the 1927 Yankees tend to be the benchmark for measuring any other team's greatness.  They are best known for their impressive lineup, but their pitchers also claimed the top three spots for ERA leaders.  The leader was rookie Wilcy Moore, who somehow managed a 19-7 record despite only starting 12 games.  His ERA was 0.35 runs lower than runner-up Hoyt, but Hoyt started almost three times as many games, and pitched more innings.  Hoyt also led the league in wins and winning percentage (.759), and finished third in WAR (5.6), WHIP (1.155), and tied for second in shutouts (3).  Of course, it could be said that Hoyt had the advantage of not having to pitch against his own team, which every other team in the league had to do, but it can't really be held against him either.


1927 National League - Ray Kremer, Pittsburgh Pirates

19-8, 2.47 ERA, 63 K

Probably the most surprising thing about the top pitchers in the NL in 1927 wasn't that Ray Kremer won for the second time in a row, but that the runner-up when I was looking at the stats was Grover Cleveland Alexander.  That's right, Grover Cleveland Alexander, who hadn't been anywhere near the top pitchers in the league since he won in 1920, was now, at the age of 40, back among the best in the league.  However, Kremer was better, leading in ERA and ERA+ (167), and finishing fourth in WHIP (1.142) and shutouts (3), and second in hits per 9 innings (8.164) and WAR (6.1).  Kremer also continues an unusual trend among winners of my NL Retroactive Cy Young Award; only three of the past ten seasons have been won by a Hall of Famer, with three non-Hall of Famers (Kremer, Dolf Luque, and Hippo Vaughn) each winning twice.  He pitched for ten seasons, all with Pittsburgh, but none of his other eight seasons were particularly noteworthy.  It may have been different for him had he reached the majors sooner though; he didn't play his first MLB season until he was 31, after 10 seasons in the minors.

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. 

1904 Cy Young Awards

1904 American League - Jack Chesbro, New York Highlanders

41-12, 1.82 ERA, 239 K

There are some people who argue that the only reason Chesbro was elected to the Hall of Fame was because of his 1904 season.  That's how good he was.  Although it was fairly common in the first few decades of Major League Baseball, by the turn of the century winning 40 games was unheard of.  Nobody had won 40 or more games since 1891, back when the pitcher stood 5 feet closer to the plate.  Chesbro's record still stands as the most games won in modern MLB history; only one more pitcher would ever win 40 games, and since then nobody has been close.  In any case, along with his win totals, which were 15 more than anyone else, Chesbro finished first in innings pitched (454.2), starts (51), complete games (48), hist per 9 inning (6.691), and WAR (8.8).  He also finished second in strikeouts, second in WHIP (0.937), and fourth in ERA.  Other pitchers, like Rube Waddell and Cy Young, had pretty impressive seasons in 1904, but overall they couldn't quite compare to what Chesbro did.

1904 National League - Joe McGinnity, New York Giants

35-8, 1.61 ERA, 144 K

The 1900 winner was once again the best pitcher in the league in 1904, leading in both ERA and wins for the pennant-winning New York Giants.  In addition, he led in shutouts (9), innings pitched (408), WHIP (.963), and WAR (10.2; 3.3 wins higher than anyone else).  Having an ERA under two was not at all uncommon like it is today, but his ERA was still substantially above league average, with an adjusted ERA+ of 170.  By way of comparison, Justin Verlander's Cy Young Award winning season last year had the same ERA+, despite having an ERA of 2.40.  Interestingly, McGinnity also led the league with 5 saves, which at the time tied a single-season MLB record, although the statistic was not created and recognized by MLB until over 50 years, long after McGinnity's record was broken.

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.