In baseball, the Cy Young Award is an honor given annually to the best pitchers in the Major Leagues. The award was first introduced in 1956 by Commissioner Ford Frick in honor of Hall of Fame pitcher Cy Young who passed away in 1955. The award was originally given to the single best pitcher in the major leagues. In 1967, the year after Frick retired as Commissioner, the practice began of honoring one pitcher in each league.
The award is voted on by 28 members of the Baseball Writers Association of America. Each places a vote for first, second, and third place among the pitchers of each league. The formula used to calculate the final scores is a weighted sum of the votes: Score = 5F + 3S + T, where F is the number of first place votes, S is second place votes, and T is third place votes. The pitcher with the highest score in each league wins the award. If two pitchers receive the same number of votes the award is shared.
The current formula started with the 1970 season. Prior to that, writers only voted for the best pitcher and used a formula of one point per vote.
Controversy[]
The Cy Young Award has become a hotly debated topic between baseball traditionalists and baseball "stat-heads". The stat-heads argue that the Cy Young Award is essentially given to the pitcher with the most wins, rather than for the statistics that a pitcher is entirely responsible for, such as ERA, WHIP, and K/BB ratio. The traditionalists, on the other hand, point out that the win is a valid way to determine a pitcher's effectiveness in leading a team. Thus, the Cy Young Award is not entirely one-sided, as in many occasions the pitcher leading the league in wins is not the honored individual, but the most dominant player on a playoff caliber team.
List of Cy Young Award winners[]
Major Leagues Combined (1956-1966)[]
Year | Pitcher | Team | Record | Saves | ERA |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1956 | Don Newcombe | Brooklyn Dodgers (NL) | 27-7 | 0 | 3.06 |
1957 | Warren Spahn | Milwaukee Braves (NL) | 21-11 | 3 | 2.69 |
1958 | Bob Turley | New York Yankees (AL) | 21-7 | 1 | 2.97 |
1959 | Early Wynn | Chicago White Sox (AL) | 22-10 | 0 | 3.17 |
1960 | Vern Law | Pittsburgh Pirates (NL) | 20-9 | 0 | 3.08 |
1961 | Whitey Ford | New York Yankees (AL) | 25-4 | 0 | 3.21 |
1962 | Don Drysdale | Los Angeles Dodgers (NL) | 25-9 | 1 | 2.84 |
1963 | Sandy Koufax* | Los Angeles Dodgers (NL) | 25-5 | 0 | 1.88 |
1964 | Dean Chance | Los Angeles Angels (AL) | 20-9 | 4 | 1.65 |
1965 | Sandy Koufax* | Los Angeles Dodgers (NL) | 26-8 | 2 | 2.04 |
1966 | Sandy Koufax* | Los Angeles Dodgers (NL) | 27-9 | 0 | 1.73 |
American League (1967-present)[]
National League (1967-present)[]
(*) Denotes a unanimous selection, i.e., a player who received all first-place votes.
† Sutcliffe was traded mid-season on June 13. He went 4-5 with a 5.15 ERA with the Cleveland Indians before being traded to the Chicago Cubs where he went 16-1 with a 2.69 ERA to finish the season.