The Cy-pothetical Young Award: 1912-1945

[cjedmonton]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Yeah, not like Kid Nichols is ever in the mix of greatest pitcher discussions, but he started the same year as Cy and I believe had more wins in the 1890s.

One of the great mysteries, for sure. Nichols was outstanding by all accounts, and even Cy himself conceded Nichols was superior to him in their early years.

See for yourself:

https://stathead.com/baseball/player...to=1899&type=p

If you haven’t read Joe Posnanski’s The Baseball 100, I highly highly recommend it. He addresses this very issue in his profile of Nichols (#82, pages 115-118).

FWIW, Posnanski clarifies that a number assigned to each player is not ordinal, so he is not suggesting that Nichols is merely the 82nd greatest player.

[Yoda]

How about Babe Ruth in 1916?

[cjedmonton]

Originally Posted by Yoda

How about Babe Ruth in 1916?

An AL contender, no doubt, but I think it was Johnson’s to lose. Shawkey, Coveleski, and Dauss were also in the mix.