And Here Are The Pitchers Of The Year
I guess one could slate it as a minor upset. The right team won the award but perhaps not the pitcher you'd have thought. John Burns proved that youngsters can get the job done just as well as older guys in winning the POTY award. He more than doubled his win total from his rookie season and actually lowered his HR allowed total despite throwing almost 50 more innings. Cincinnati Reds hurler Earl Crockett saw a similarly major uptick in his pitching ability, improving his own win total from 16 to 27 and leading his team to a (distant) second place. So much has been said about Fred Fleming already that we don't feel the need to repeat it except to say that he was without a doubt the greatest midseason acquisition in the history of the game. 2/3rds of a season just isn't as good as a full one, though.
Code:
Year/Team/League Age G GS W L SV ERA IP HA R ER HR BB K CG SHO WHIP
John Burns, NYG 25 39 39 29 8 0 3.26 325.1 328 136 118 17 89 112 30 3 1.28
Earl Crockett, CIN 28 40 40 27 12 0 3.14 330.0 335 132 115 18 67 161 26 2 1.22
Fred Fleming, CLE/NYG 28 40 40 28 8 0 3.00 327.0 304 129 109 24 106 180 30 3 1.25
Even though his team ultimately came up short, nobody pitched like Bob Hinman in the junior circuit from the opening gun until the last day of the season. His ERA went up a little due to the White Sox move to a 3-man rotation the last month but in the end that only made him help his team even more often: his 42 starts tie the MLB record. We have nothing to say about Eeyore Meyers except that we hope he comes back all the way from that injury. It looked pretty bad. The last time Steve Krug won a POTY, the Yankees won the World Series. Perhaps it is fitting, then, that he didn't quite get the award this year.
Code:
Year/Team/League Age G GS W L SV ERA IP HA R ER HR BB K CG SHO WHIP
Bob Hinman, CHA 25 42 42 28 12 0 3.01 358.2 348 147 120 28 48 186 32 4 1.10
Bob 'Eeyore' Meyers, NY 26 40 39 24 12 0 2.54 325.2 317 121 92 13 37 184 26 3 1.09
Steve Krug, NYY 32 36 36 22 11 0 2.95 299.1 293 121 98 10 63 90 25 2 1.19