NO-HITTERS DURING CY YOUNG AWARD SEASONS In the Cy Young Award era (1956-2019), there have been 170 no-hitters. Of those, 38 were pitched by Cy Young Award winners. But only nine were pitched during the season that the pitcher won the Cy Young Award. They are: Sandy Koufax, 1963 and 1965 Mike Scott, 1986 Roy…
Author: knightslightning
Weak claims to the Cy Young Award
ERA+ normalizes a pitcher’s earned-run average across the entire league. It accounts for external factors like ballparks and opponents. A score of 100 is league average. As opposed to earned-run average, in this category, you want a high number. The lowest ERA+ to win the Cy Young Award are: Jim Lonborg, 112 in 1967, Pete…
Most top five finishes with no Cy Young Award
6 Mike Mussina (nine different seasons with votes, 3 first-place total), Nolan Ryan (eight seasons with votes, 19 total first place), Chris Sale (six seasons with votes, 3 first-place votes) 5 Don Sutton, Roy Oswalt, Mariano Rivera, Jack Morris, Dan Quisenberry 4 Curt Schilling, Andy Pettitte, Adam Wainwright, Goose Gossage, Dave Stewart, Gerrit Cole 3…
When starters also finished
Shutouts and even complete games are mostly relics of the past. Getting through six and handing the ball to a parade of relievers stretching even a well-pitched game to 3+ hours is the norm now. Those pitchers who used to work deeper into games also used to pitch on four-days rest in a previous era….
Relievers rising to the top
Mike Marshall won the Cy Young Award in 1974 as a reliever but was used very differently than today’s relievers. Marshall threw 208.1 innings and appeared in 106 games for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Several other seasons followed where no starting pitchers were obvious winners, so relievers became compelling. But still, these relievers were used…
Fleeting dominance and sustained dominance
Here are the pitchers that won the Cy Young Award in their only appearance in the top five (since 1970 when voting expanded beyond only first-place votes): Sparky Lyle 1977 Mike Flanagan 1979 John Denny 1983 Willie Hernandez 1984 Steve Bedrosian 1987 Mark Davis 1989 Bob Welch 1990 Pat Hentgen 1996 Barry Zito 2002 Jake…
Brothers, knuckleballers and WAR
BROTHERS IN ARMS Jim Perry has one of the less compelling cases for Cy winners. His six first-place votes in 1970 are the lowest total for a winner since the ranked-choice voting system began in 1970. But he edged Dave McNally, Sam McDowell and Mike Cuellar as only 11 points separated the top four. When…
Cy Young Award winners in both leagues
In the first 40 years of the award, when good pitchers were less likely to change teams as often, Gaylord Perry was the only pitcher to win the award in both leagues. Since then, five other pitchers have followed: Gaylord Perry (Cleveland Indians 1972 and San Diego Padres 1978 – at age 40) Roger Clemens…