In Part 1 of this series, nsb conjectured on what the Cy Young votes would have been had only starting pitchers been eligible in the years that relievers were chosen as Cy Young Award winners. In part 2, he considers the first eleven years of that award, from 1956 to 1966, when only one winner was chosen rather than one from each league. More after the jump.

In 1956, New York was the center of the baseball universe, with teams from that city winners of the eight previous World Series, and fourteen of the previous sixteen pennants. The Yankees, of course, were the most dominant of the New York teams, winning six of those eight World Series, but the Giants had broken their 21-year championship drought in 1954 and, in their eighth trip to the Fall Classic, the Dodgers had finally secured their first World Series crown the next year.

The Cy Young Award was initiated in 1956 to honor the most valuable pitcher in the game. That format was followed for eleven seasons until, starting in 1967, two Cy Young Award winners were chosen, for the top pitcher in each league. In considering which other pitcher might have won the CYA had two recipients been chosen since the inception of the award, I will try to put myself in the mindset of the voters at the time and focus on leaders in the traditional statistics of Wins, ERA, Strikeouts, Winning Percentage, Complete Games and Shutouts, in approximately that order, with a bias towards pitchers on winning teams, especially pennant winning teams. That said, for the benefit of our modern readers, I may buttress my arguments with occasional references to sabermetric statistics or analysis. So let’s get started.

• In 1956, voters chose Don Newcombe of the NL champion Dodgers who also claimed the MVP award for his majors leading 27 wins, .794 winning percentage (from a 27-7 record), and 0.989 WHIP. My choice for the AL award goes to Whitey Ford of the world champion Yankees for his 19 wins and majors-leading 2.47 ERA.
• The 1957 award went to Warren Spahn of the world champion Milwaukee Braves. Still going strong at age 36, Spahn led the majors with his 21 wins and 18 complete games. For the AL award, I’m going with Dick Donovan of the up and coming Chicago White Sox whose 2nd place finish was the team’s highest in 37 years. Donovan led the majors with his .727 winning percentage (from a 16-6 record) and led the AL with 16 complete games. He also ranked 3rd in the AL in Wins, WHIP and WAR.
• In 1958, Bob Turley of the world champion Yankees was the voters’ choice. Turley led the AL with his 21 wins and 19 complete games, and led the majors with his .750 winning percentage (21-7) and 6.5 H/9. My choice for the NL award goes to Warren Spahn of the league champion Braves. As he had done in his CYA season the year before, Spahn led the majors with his 22 wins and 23 complete games from another majors-leading total of 290 IP. He also led the NL with a .667 winning percentage (22-11) and 1.148 WHIP.
• The 1959 award went to Early Wynn of the AL champion White Sox for his majors-leading 22 wins. In his 19th season, the 39 year-old Wynn also led the AL in IP and ranked 3rd in Strikeouts and Winning Percentage. My choice for the NL award is Sam Jones of the 3rd place Giants. In his first season in San Francisco, Jones led the NL with his 21 Wins, 2.83 ERA and 4 Shutouts, and ranked 2nd with 209 Strikeouts.
• The 1960 winner was Vern Law of the world champion Pirates. Law led the majors with 18 complete games and ranked 2nd in the NL in WHIP and 3rd in Wins and Winning Percentage. My choice for the AL award is Chuck Estrada of the 2nd place Baltimore Orioles. In his rookie season, the 22 year-old righthander led the junior circuit with 18 wins and 7.0 H/9 and ranked 3rd in SO/9 (Estrada and teammates Ron Hansen and Jim Gentile garnered ALL of the RoY votes, with Hansen the runaway winner on the strength of his 22 home runs and 86 RBI, totals no rookie shortstop before him had achieved).
• The 1961 award went to Whitey Ford of the world champion Yankees. Though WAR ranks this season as only the 8th best of Ford’s career (likely because he posted the second worst ERA of his career), Whitey still posted career high in Wins, Winning Percentage, Starts and IP while leading the majors in all of those categories. For the NL award, I’m going with Warren Spahn of the 4th place Braves. Milwaukee won 10 in a row in mid-August and looked like they might get back into the pennant chase, but an 8 game losing streak in September quashed those hopes. The 40 year-old Spahn showed no signs of slowing down, leading the NL in Wins, ERA, CG, SHO and WHIP.
• Voters went with Don Drysdale in 1962. The ace of the 102 win, but 2nd place, Dodgers led the majors in Wins, Starts, IP and Strikeouts. For the AL award, I’ll go with Ralph Terry of the world champion Yankees. He led the AL in Win, Starts and IP, posting career highs in all three, and ranked 2nd in BB/9 and WHIP.
• In 1963, Sandy Koufax of the world champion Dodgers was the unanimous choice in the CYA vote. Koufax posted majors-leading totals in Wins, ERA, SHO, Strikeouts and WHIP, while also leading all of baseball in WAR and FIP. I can’t decide who might have been deserving of the AL award. Probably one of Camilo Pasqual (21-9, 2.46) of the 3rd place Twins, Gary Peters (19-8, 2.33) of the 2nd place White Sox, or Whitey Ford (24-7, 2.74) of the pennant-winning Yankees.
• For 1964, Dean Chance took home the hardware despite playing for the 82 win, 5th place Angels. Chance led in Wins, ERA, ERA+ FIP, CG, SHO, IP and Strikeouts, while leading all of baseball in WAR. In 278.1 IP, Chance allowed all of 7 home runs, the lowest HR/9 in either league in a decade. I’ll go with Larry Jackson for the NL award. Despite playing for the 8th place Cubs, Jackson led the majors with 24 wins, while ranking 2nd in IP and 3rd in CG.
• In a reprise of the 1963 voting, Sandy Koufax was again chosen unanimously as the 1965 CYA honoree. As in 1963, the Dodgers were again world champions and Koufax again led the majors in Wins, WHIP, Strikeouts, ERA and FIP, with the WHIP and Strikeouts his career bests. His strikeout total of 382 blew away Bob Feller‘s then official modern era record of 348 strikeouts¹ in 1946. My choice for the AL is Sam McDowell of the 5th place, 87-75 Cleveland Indians. McDowell compiled only a 17-11 record, but led his league in ERA and Strikeouts, both by large margins (2.18 ERA vs 2.40 for Eddie Fisher, 325 K’s vs. 226 for Mickey Lolich), as well as leading in WAR, ERA+, FIP and H/9.
• One more time for Koufax in 1966, again unanimously, for the NL champion Dodgers. This time, Koufax led the majors in Wins, ERA, CG, SHO and Strikeouts, as well as in WAR, ERA+ and FIP, with his Wins, ERA, ERA+ and CG the best of his career. My choice in the AL is Jim Kaat (25-13, 2.75) of the 2nd place Twins, league leader in Wins, CG, IP, BB/9 and SO/BB, with career bests for the first three as well as for ERA and a 4th ranked 1.070 WHIP.

In part 3, nsb will look at seasons when pitchers were honored as MVP winners and conjecture who might have won that award had pitchers been excluded from consideration.

1. Though some researchers had argued as early as 1946 for a total of 349 strikeouts for Rube Waddell in 1904, instead of the 343 strikeouts he was originally credited with, the higher total was not accepted officially until 1969.