The "Best Pitcher Award"

Any baseball fan knows that the best pitcher at the end of another glorious baseball season is awarded the Cy Young Award for his efforts. Denton True "Cyclone" Young was a pitcher at the turn of the century whose pitching style would appall strength and conditioning coaches and athletic trainers of today, throwing an average of 291 innings a year throughout his 22-year career (he pitched from age 23 to 44; 1890-1911). 

I'm going to be honest: Cy Young wasn't that great of a pitcher. He is great, but I think he is a little blown out of proportion. I always take the turn-of-the-century pitchers with a grain of salt because all that exists about their arsenal is word of mouth and folklore that's been passed down through the years. We have no way of comparing Aroldis Chapman's 104 MPH fastball to Walter Johnson's supposed smoke. There's no denying that Johnson and Young are some of the best pitchers in the way that they handled batters (Cy Young still has a 2.63 career ERA, 15th best of the Hall of Fame pitchers and far from the 2.97 HOF average - but Hoyt Wilhelm is the only pitcher past 1930 of the 22 pitchers in the HOF who have a career ERA of 2.75 or better), but because of their noodle-armed-ness (ability to throw 400+ innings a year), how hard were they really throwing? For example, Smoky Joe Wood, a young boy from Kansas City, earned his nickname from throwing such smoke. Satchel Paige is quoted saying no one can throw harder than Smoky Joe Wood, but again, I would prefer a radar gun reading his blazing fastball before I can conclude that he threw 98. 

I beg that you would forgive my skepticism for some of the greats but in today's game of power pitching versus finesse pitching versus hybrid pitching, I think our generation is accustomed to being glued to stats and analytics instead of another player's praise. 

That's neither here nor there. Cy Young leads the all-time MLB in wins, losses, games started, complete games, innings pitched, hits, earned runs, and batters faced. Now that his career is over with, he can boast over 7,000 innings pitched (only pitcher ever over 7K, one of 2 over 6K, one of 13 over 5K), over 29,000 batters faced (only one ever over 29K, one of 2 over 25K, one of 17 over 20K).  But a lot of those aren't because he was that good or that bad, it's just because he threw so many innings. The award for the best pitcher at the end of the season should be named the Walter Johnson Award, not the Cy Young Award.

Truth be told, Walter Johnson was a better pitcher. He pitched 21 seasons in the major leagues (1907-1927), so there was a little bit of overlap (1901-1911) between he and Cy Young, although Young's Cleveland and St. Louis clubs were in the National League - he joined the AL Boston Americans in 1901. 

In those 21 seasons, he pitched almost as many innings (5,914 to Young's 7,356), and threw more shutouts, allowed over 2,000 fewer hits and 700 fewer earned runs. Johnson also led the league in wins 6 times, strikeouts 12 times, complete games 6 times, ERA 5 times, WHIP 6 times, and K/BB ratio 9 times. In 1913, Johnson led the league in wins, ERA, complete games, shutouts, innings pitched, strikeouts, batters faced, WHIP, hits/9, walks/9, Ks/9, and K/BB. 

Young led the league in wins 5 times, ERA twice, complete games 3 times, shutouts 7 times, innings pitched twice, strikeouts twice, WHIP 7 times, and K/BB ratio 11 times. That's amazing for any pitcher, but not as good as Johnson (although Young has a small leg up on WHIP and K/BB).

Let's look at the major factors of a quality pitcher and who has the advantage.
Wins: Cy Young, 511 to Johnson's 2nd all-time 417
Shutouts: Johnson, 110 to Young's 4th all-time 76
ERA: Johnson, 2.17 career to Young's 2.63 (half a run difference over that many innings says a lot)
Strikeouts: Johnson: 3,509 in 1,400 fewer innings to Young's 2,803 (disclaimer: that isn't so much a sign of a better pitcher as it is the type of pitcher they are, but Johnson's efficiency wins)
WHIP: Johnson: 1.061 to Young's 1.130

Johnson wins in virtually every category other than wins. But here's the kicker: the teams Cy Young pitched on (Cleveland Spiders, St. Louis Perfectos, Boston Americans, Cleveland Naps, Boston Red Sox) went 1709-1580. He was on good teams, including the winners of the first ever World Series in 1903. Walter Johnson's Washington Senators went 1559-1606 through the 20 years he pitched for them, including two AL pennants and a World Series in 1924. They had some bad teams. And some good teams. But mostly bad. Which makes it all the more impressive to me that Walter Johnson was as good as he was - or as good as he needed to be. 

See for yourself: look at all the bold/black on Johnson's Baseball Reference page versus Young's page. Johnson was an all around better pitcher in terms of power (more strikeouts) and finesse (lower career WHIP, ERA).  

Johnson's stats.

Young's stats. 

See, doesn't he look disappointed that he doesn't get more love?

Big Train Johnson was just a better pitcher, there's no getting around it. Kershaw should be winning Walter Johnson Awards, not Cy Young Awards.

But there's a reason for everything. Thanks for reading.