The Cy Young Award is one of the most prestigious prizes in all of sports. It means that you were the best pitcher to step on a mound in your league that season. The award was created in 1956 by the commissioner Ford Frick to honor the best pitcher in the game for that season. It was just one award until 1967 when each league got an award recipient.
The award was created about one year after Cy Young’s passing. Young is baseball’s all-time leader in wins with 511. He threw over 40 complete games nine times. Guys don’t even make 40 starts in a season anymore. He won 20 or more games in a season 15 times.
Because of when the award was created, you won’t see certain pitchers on this list. Guys like Christy Matthewson, Carl Hubbell, Bob Feller won’t be on this list. Also, if they didn’t win the award, you won’t see them on this list either.
This was a daunting task. Some of the greats of the game are on this list. Guys like Greg Maddux, Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez and Tom Seaver will appear, sometimes more than once.
Remember, it’s a rank of each season on it’s individual face. For example, Bruce Sutter’s Cy Young season could appear higher than let’s say John Smoltz. It doesn’t mean that I think Sutter was a better pitcher than Smoltz. It’s an individual account of the season. All stats are per Baseball-Reference.com.
So who made the top 30? Who are the 30 best Cy Young Award winners ever? Let’s get to it.