Boston Red Sox: Top 5 starting pitchers in franchise history
By Sean Penney
The award recognizing the best pitcher in each league is named after the guy, so clearly we had to find room on this list for Cy Young.
Young is the all-time major league leader with 511 wins, 192 of which came during his eight seasons in Boston to tie him for the franchise record.
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Among pitchers that have thrown at least 300 innings in a Red Sox uniform, only Smoky Joe Wood has a lower ERA than the 2.00 mark that Young produced in Boston, while his 2.01 FIP is the best in franchise history among that qualified group.
Young of course never won the award that would eventually be named after him, but if it had existed in his day he certainly would have captured several. He led the league in wins three times in Boston, twice topping 32. He won an ERA title in his first season with the Red Sox back in 1901 and posted a sub-2.00 ERA in three of his first five years in Boston.
Most impressive may be his massive workload. Young topped 320 innings in six of his first seven seasons with the Red Sox. The all-time major league leader in complete games tossed 275 of them in Boston, by far the most in franchise history. They don’t make pitchers like Cy Young anymore, with teams now terrified of seeing their prized aces break down or having their arms fall off if they even approached the number of innings he once found routine.
Clearly he played in a very different era, but we’ll certainly never see another pitcher like Young again.