Top 30 Cy Young Award Winners of all-time
By Jason Evans
9. Sandy Koufax 1966
8. Sandy Koufax 1963
Like Greg Maddux earlier in the countdown, Sandy Koufax had so many incredible seasons that it’s hard to differentiate between them.
Koufax retired after the 1966 season due to arm issues. If they had the technology then that we do know, he would have just had surgery and continued to pitch on for years. Unfortunately, like Gale Sayers, his career would end prematurely, but not before accomplishing some amazing things.
Here’s Koufax in 1966. He led the league in WAR (9.8), ERA (1.73), wins (27), innings (323), strikeouts (317). He completed 27 of his 41 starts and threw five shutouts. He had a FIP of 2.07 and and ERA+ of 190.
In 1963, Koufax won MVP. He was second in the league in WAR (9.9). He led the league in ERA (1.88), wins (25), WHIP (0.87),strikeouts (306) and innings (311) . He completed 20 games and threw 11 shutouts. He had a FIP of 1.85 and a WPA of 7.8. His ERA+ was 159 which was second.
The reason why he probably didn’t win the award in 1964 is that he only made 29 dominating starts instead of over 40 of them.
One of his other Cy Young winning seasons is coming up soon.