Boston Red Sox Cy Young Award winners before it existed
By Rick McNair
1912 No smoky
The first season of the new ballpark – Fenway Park – saw a championship and a pitching performance among the best in Red Sox history. Smoky Joe Wood led the American League in wins with a 34-5 record that also topped the league in percentage at .872. Wood posted a 1.91 earned run average, led the league in both complete games (35) and shutouts (10). Wood – who became a position player when his arm went dead – hit .290 for the year.
Wood also finished fifth in the MVP voting since there was such an award for a few years and it was the Chalmers Award named after the car company that gave the winner a new car. Tris Speaker won the award that season.
So would Smoky Joe win a vote on pitching? There was a competition that season and it was incredibly strong competition in the form of Walter Johnson and Ed Walsh.
Big Train led the league in rWAR at 13.5 – Wood was 10.4 – and compiled a 33-12 record (.733), led in earned run average (1.39), strikeouts (303) and tossed 369 innings for the second place Senators. Johnson’s pitching earned him a third-place finish in the MVP race – a trophy he would win in 1913.
Walsh was known as “Big Ed” had a remarkable season for the fourth-place Chicago White Sox with a 27-17 (.614) record. Walsh led the league in games pitched at 62, games started with 41 and saves with 10. Walsh tossed 393 innings and finished second in the MVP race just as he had in 1911. Walsh posted an rWAR of 11.4 to finish second in that category to Johnson.
Three worthy candidates and if I had a vote I may just try to squeeze all three into first place, but the deciding factor is the award is not based on how your team does. Taking that into consideration, I would look at that second place Chalmers vote and ten saves. I’d pick Walsh.