Two Greatest pitchers to never win a Cy Young Award

  Dating back to 1956, the Cy Young Award has been given to the best pitcher in the majors. While the award was initially given to the single best pitcher in the majors, since 1967, the award has been given to the best pitcher in the American and National leagues. Many of the "crown jewel" all-time great pitchers have won the award, such as Warren Spahn, Sandy Koufax, Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson, and Tom Seaver, to name a few. However, Nolan Ryan and Juan Marichal are two of the "crown jewel" all-time greats never to have won the award. I'm well aware that Walter Johnson, Christy Matthewson, Cy Young, Bob Feller, and many others never won the award, but in this case, I'm talking about the guys who had yet to win since 1956, when the award was first introduced. 

Nolan Ryan's career lasted 27 seasons, more than any other player in modern (since 1900) MLB history. Throughout his career, Ryan was a right-handed pitcher who could throw pitches clocked above 100 miles per hour in his sleep. His ability to maintain his velocity throughout his pitching career made him inhuman. Ryan also could throw a devastating 12-6 curveball at an insane rate for a breaking ball.

Nolan Ryan (1966-1993)

W-L    324-292 

ERA 3.13  

                                   

SO      5,714*

IP        5,386

SHO    61

WHIP 1.247

Nolan Ryan is currently the all-time leader in Strikeouts and no-hitters with seven. Despite not winning a Cy Young, he had two ERA titles, led the league in Strikeouts ten times, and had 10 or 11 "Hall-of-Fame seasons." Why did Nolan Ryan never win a Cy Young?

While Nolan Ryan had multiple Cy Young-caliber seasons, every year he had a great season, another guy always pitched better. Gaylord Perry in 1972, Jim Palmer in 1973, Catfish Hunter in 1974, Sparky Lyle in 1977, and Fernando Valenzuela in 1981.

Juan Marichal spent all but two seasons of his career with the Giants. Marichal threw five pitches: a fastball, slider, curveball, changeup, and a screwball. He could disguise them with a delivery that allowed him to conceal the pitch type until it was on its way, including a famous high left leg kick that went vertical. He is the greatest pitcher in Giants franchise history, not Christy Matthewson.

Juan Marichal (1960-1975)     

W-L    243-142

ERA   2.89

SO      2303

IP        3,507

SHO    52

WHIP 1.101

Despite not winning a Cy Young, he led the league in Wins twice and won 20 or more games six times in his career. Multiple times he led the league in WHIP, IP, SHO, and CG. He has an ERA title to his resume and stayed under a 2.50 ERA in the prime years of his career. Why didn't he win a Cy Young? His prime years occurred in the 1960s, the dominant starting pitching era. Like Nolan Ryan, for every great year he had, someone always pitched just a little better than him. Sandy Koufax took home the award in 1963, 1965, and 1966; Denny McLain in 1968 and 1969; and Tom Seaver in 1969.  

Anyone who underrated these guys because they never won a Cy Young should have their head examined. You can always reflect on the years they didn't win the award and make a case that these two should've won instead. But Nolan Ryan and Juan Marichal aren't just Hall of Famers; they're your "Crown Jewel" Hall of Famers.

Written and Published by: Robert Dobek @RobTheYankee

References:

1. Nolan Ryan Career Statistics via Baseball-Reference https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/ryanno01.shtml

2. Juan Marichal Career Statistics via Baseball-Reference https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/maricju01.shtml

The Quadruple Crown (Not MLB Recognized)

 

What does it mean when a hitter wins the Triple Crown? The hitter led the league in home runs, Runs Batted In, and Batting Average. So far, there have been 17 total Triple Crown winners, the first being Paul Hines in 1878 and the latest being Miguel Cabrera in 2012. Nobody wins often wins the Triple Crowne Triple Crown very often, and Cabrera was the first to do it in 2012 since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967. But, You know what's rarer and more impressive than the Triple Crown? It's called the Quadruple Crown, which MLB doesn't recognize. A player must lead the league in Home Runs, Runs Batted In, Batting Average, and Hits.

Quadruple Crown Winners

1887: Tip O'Neill           .435 AVG, 14 HR, 123 RBI, 225 HITS

1894: Hugh Duffy          .440 AVG, 18 HR, 145 RBI, 237 HITS

1901: Nap Lajoie            .426 AVG, 14 HR, 125 RBI, 232 HITS

1909: Ty Cobb              .377 AVG,  9 HR, 107 RBI, 216 HITS

1933: Chuck Klein         .368 AVG, 28 HR, 120 RBI, 223 HITS

1937: Joe Medwick        .374 AVG, 31 HR, 154 RBI, 237 HITS

1967: Carl Yastrzemski   .326 AVG, 44 HR, 121 RBI, 189 HITS

The Quadruple Crown was more common before 1920, considered "The Dead Ball Era." In 1909, the nine home runs that Ty Cobb led the league with were all Inside-the-park. I guess MLB doesn't recognize the Quadruple Crown because it almost doesn't happen anymore, or maybe the Triple Crown is significant enough, and I don't know. Although in 2012, Miguel Cabrera was only 11 Hits shy of leading the league in the four categories.

References:

1. The Batting Triple Crown via Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_Crown_(baseball)#Batting_Triple_Crown

2. List of Triple Crown Winners  via Baseball Reference

https://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/triple_crowns.shtml

3. List of Quadruple Crown Winners via  Reddit

https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/a456f9/oc_are_there_any_quadruple_crown_winners_in_mlb/