Quote:
Originally Posted by Snowman
Ouch! That's disturbing. Smells like some serious politics involved.
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Not politics there. Just the typical reverence for wins that the era had.
Palmer and Sutcliffe had the best seasons in the AL that year, but at 15-5 and 14-8, it was heresy to give them the Cy Young. Vuckovich 18-6 with that low ERA+ and a WHIP of 1.502. Now
that is something that's probably a record for the worst WHIP of any CYA winner.
And it wasn't even close. 14 first place votes for Vuck. No one else had more than five.
But as far as politics (or would it be better described as simply popularity and reputation)....look at Steve Carlton winning the NL CYA over Steve Rogers that year ('82). Though that also included the obsession with wins. Because even though Rogers went 19-8 and had vastly superior numbers, a 23 win Steve Carlton season was all that mattered.
Oh and 20 out of 24 first place votes for that one