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.
The Cy Young Award composite 1956-2019: Remove the nine relievers who have won the Cy Young Award and here is what the average season for a starting pitcher winner looks like since the award debuted in 1956: Wins = 21 ERA = 2.52 WHIP = 1.05 Strikeouts = 223 WAR = 7.3 ERA+ = 163
J.R. Richard is one of only nine pitchers in @MLB history with multiple 300-strikeout seasons. He received votes for the Cy Young Award in 1976, 1978 and 1979 (his highest finish, 3rd behind Bruce Sutter and @astros teammate Joe Niekro).
The @Rangers are one of four teams (3, now that Bauer won for the Reds) with no Cy Young Award winner. Yu Darvish and Fergie Jenkins were close with 2nd-place finishes while pitching for Texas.
The year before, 1970, @Orioles aces Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar and Jim Palmer became the first trio of teammates to place in the top 5 of Cy Young voting. There have been six total teammate trios to place top 5. See the others here: cyyoungpitchers.com/cy-teammates/
Wilbur Wood has the 2 highest season WAR totals for a non-winner of the Cy Young Award. In 1971, Wood had an 11.7 WAR. He received one 1st-place vote but finished 3rd. In 1972, Wood had a 10.7 WAR. He received 7 1st-place votes but finished 2nd in a close vote to Gaylord Perry.
Mark Fidrych had a strong case for the Cy Young Award in 1976. He received 5 1st-place votes and placed 2nd to Jim Palmer. The Bird had a large edge over Palmer in WAR (9.6 to 6.5) and ERA+ (159 to 130). His 2.34 ERA edged Palmer’s (2.51), but Palmer won 22 and had 65 more IP.
Jerry Koosman‘s best Cy Young Award finish was 2nd to Randy Jones in 1976 when we went 21-10 with a 4.7 WAR for the @Mets. He placed 6th in 1979 going 20-13 for the @Twins with a career-best 7.2 WAR, tying Dennis Eckersley for the league lead
Larry Gura earned Cy Young Award votes in 1978 (7th place), 1980 (6th) and 1981 (9th) — all three were playoff seasons for the @royals.
Justin Verlander‘s 2019 Cy Young Award came 8 years after his first, the longest gap between wins. But who has gone the longest between seasons receiving votes for the Cy Young Award? That distinction belongs to a Hall of Famer. Who could it be? cyyoungpitchers.com/longest-gap-be…
Phil Niekro deserved the N.L. Cy Young Award in 1974. He placed 3rd, one of his five seasons receiving Cy votes. In 1978, he became one of 5 pitchers with a Baseball-Reference WAR of 10 or more who did not win the Cy Young Award. cyyoungpitchers.com/brothers-knuck…
Several pitchers dazzled for one season, becoming Cy Young Award contenders in otherwise unremarkable careers. Here are the opposite; pitchers who had the best careers without placing in the top 5 of Cy voting (since 1970). cyyoungpitchers.com/chuck-finley-b…
A Lee Smith oddity: He holds the record for the fewest innings pitched by someone who received votes for the Cy Young Award. Smith pitched only 38 innings in 1994 (strike-shortened) and finished 1-4 with a 3.29 ERA and 33 saves for the Baltimore Orioles. cyyoungpitchers.com/relievers-risi…
Could the move to pitcher-friendly Dodger Stadium return David Price to a Cy Young Award contender? He was the A.L. winner in 2012 and finished 2nd to Keuchel in 2015. Other pitchers have disappeared from Cy voting and reappeared later in their career. cyyoungpitchers.com/voting-history/
If @redsox lefty Chris Sale does return to dominance and win the Cy Young Award, he would remove himself from this list: Most top 5 Cy Young Award finishes without winning the award: 6 Mike Mussina, Nolan Ryan, Chris Sale cyyoungpitchers.com/most-top-five-…
Over his past three healthy seasons (2016-18), Corey Kluber averaged 19 wins with an ERA of 2.77. He placed in the top three of Cy Young Award voting all three seasons and yet he feels he has “a lot to prove” in his move to the @rangers.
Tom Seaver is one of 10 pitchers to win three or more Cy Young Awards. He was the second to do it (1969, 1973, 1975). cyyoungpitchers.com/multiple-cy-yo…
Greg Maddux was the first to win three consecutive Cy Young Awards, highlights of each winning season here: cyyoungpitchers.com/award-winner-p… Randy Johnson (1999-2002) is the only other pitcher to win three consecutive (and stretch it to four, just like Maddux)
With another strong season, @nationals ace Max Scherzer could become the first pitcher to receive votes for the Cy Young Award in eight consecutive seasons. (This run ended in 2020 leaving him tied with Chris Sale 2012-2018, Clayton Kershaw 2011-2017, Greg Maddux 1992-1998.)