This site features anecdotes, stories and stats about Cy Young Award winners and the many pitchers who received votes but didn’t win. The site covers remarkable, odd or mystifying details about these pitchers who were, for at least one season, considered among the best in the game.
Major League Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick introduced the first Cy Young Award in 1956 as an acknowledgment of the career of Denton True “Cy” Young, baseball’s winningest pitcher, who died in 1955.
From 1956 through the 1966 season, there was only one award across both the American and National Leagues. In 1967, the award first honored a pitcher from each league. But, as had previously been the case, votes were cast only for first place through the 1969 season.
The Cy Young Award is administered by the Baseball Writers Association of America with voting by selected members, two per major league team/city. That’s why there are 30 votes currently for each league’s award. From 1998-2012, before the Astros moved to the A.L., there were 32 National League voters and 28 American League voters.
After Denny McLain and Mike Cuellar tied for the American League Cy Young Award in 1969 (each with 10 first-place votes), a new scoring system was implemented with the expectation of avoiding ties.
Since 1970, voting has used a weighted scoring system. From 1970-2009, each Cy Young Award voter ranked their top three choices. Since 2010, voters identify their top five pitchers in each league.
The scoring formula is 7 x (number of first-place votes) + 5 x (number of second-place votes) + 3 x (number of third-place votes) + 2 x (number of fourth-place votes) + (number of fifth-place votes). The pitcher with the most points wins the award.
For comparison sake across similar voting scenarios, much of the notes and analysis on this site will focus on voting since 1970.
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