When I was young and I watched This Week in Baseball with Mel Allen on Saturday mornings, the program included TWIB notes. Here’s a 21st century version.
Many of these notes were originally tweeted in reference to other tweets or articles, sometimes driving the context of the note. Some have been lightly revised compared to the Twitter version for clarity.
Nolan Ryan‘s best Cy Young Award finish was 2nd in the A.L. to Jim Palmer in 1973. Ryan set the strikeout record with 383 that season. Palmer had 225 fewer Ks. Ryan received Cy votes in 8 of his 27 seasons. His only back-to-back seasons with votes – 1972, ’73 and ’74
3 pitchers received Cy Young Award votes while pitching for 4 different teams: Roger Clemens (Bos, Tor, Hou, NY Yankees – won with all) Kevin Brown (Flor, LA Dodgers, San Diego, Tex) David Cone (KC, NY Mets, NY Yankees/Tor – if count both during his split 1995 season)
Bert Blyleven received Cy Young Award votes in 1973 and again in 1989, the longest gap between first season receiving Cy votes and the last. His highest Cy Young Award finish was 3rd in 1984 and 1985.
Dave Stewart finished 3rd in A.L. Cy Young Award voting in 1987, 4th in 1988, 2nd in 1989 and 3rd in 1990. He is one of just 17 pitchers in the Cy Young Award era (since ’57) to receive votes four consecutive seasons.
Frank “Sweet Music” Viola also deserved more Cy Young Award support in 1990 pitching for the @mets. He arguably had a better season than winner Doug Drabek but Viola didn’t receive any 1st-place Cy votes and finished third.
Fernando Valenzuela is the only pitcher in history to win the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Award in the same season (1981). He finished 3rd in Cy voting in 1982, 4th in 1985 and 2nd to Mike Scott in 1986
Mickey Lolich finished a close 2nd to Vida Blue in A.L. Cy Young voting in 1971 and 3rd in 1972. His 29 complete games in 1971 are one behind the record in the Cy Young Award era (since 1957). Hunter, Jenkins, Carlton had seasons with 30 CGs.
If you looked at Rick Sutcliffe‘s full-season stats, not just his N.L. stats, in 1984, you would probably give the Cy Young Award to Dwight Gooden, making him a back-to-back winner in ’84-’85. Doc had 132 W, 51 L through age 26, 62-61 after.
A good argument could be made that Joe Horlen deserved the 1967 AL Cy Young Award over Boston’s Jim Lonborg. Horlen received 2 1st-place votes. He wasn’t much of a strikeout pitcher but his ERA, ERA+, WAR and WHIP were better than Lonborg. Horlen pitched 6 shutouts and won 19.
Jamie Moyer finished in the top 5 in A.L. Cy Young voting in each of his 20-win seasons. Other than Moyer, Randy Johnson and Felix Hernandez, the only @Mariners pitchers to place in the top 5 in Cy voting are – Hisashi Iwakuma, 3rd in 2013, Freddy Garcia, 3rd in 2001, and Mark Langston, 5th in 1987.
John Tudor‘s 1985 season featured perhaps the most distinct midseason reversal of fortune ever – from 1 win in 2 months to Cy Young contender. Read how a TV viewer tip helped Tudor pitch the @Cardinals to the World Series. https://cyyoungpitchers.com/the-remarkable-tudor-turnaround/
Love that leg kick in the windup. Mark Langston won 19 games in 1987 and placed 5th in A.L. Cy Young Award voting. He tied his career high with 19 wins again in 1991 for the Angels and finished 6th, his only other season receiving a Cy vote. He won 7 Gold Gloves.