The Cy Young Chronicles: The Professor (1992-1995)

This is the first post of a brand new series called The Cy Young Chronicles, where we will be going in depth of several Cy Young winning pitchers in MLB history and the years they won the award. There will be anywhere from consecutive winners to the one year winners whose careers disappeared into thin air.

First up, The Professor:

Greg Maddux (1992-1995)

Greg Maddux is one of two pitchers in MLB history to have won four straight Cy Young Awards. Four straight years of being the best pitcher in his respective league, the National League. As legendary as Maddux became, these were the only four CYAs he won in his entire 23 years in the MLB. For those four straight seasons, Maddux pissed with a lot more excellence than anyone else.

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1992: Flipping the Switch

Image Credit: Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

In his 7th year of pro baseball, Greg Maddux had only been voted into the All-Star game once. To that point in his career, he had a career 3.61 ERA, 33 CGs, 9 SHO, 738 Ks, and an 8.8 H/9 in 173 starts. Not what you could consider amazing, but respectable for a starting pitcher. Maddux wasn’t looking to be respectable, he was looking to be feared. 1992 was the start of a new Greg Maddux, The Professor.

Maddux finished his final season in a Cubs uniform with a 2.18 ERA in a league leading 35 starts and 268 IP. He also led the league in wins (20) and HR/9 (0.2). In those 35 starts, Maddux went the distance 9 times with 4 of them being shutouts, which is something you won’t see in today’s era of baseball. The next best in votes for Cy Young that year was Tom Glavine, a future teammate of the Atlanta Braves. Glavine didn’t even sniff the level that Maddux was on, coming 5.4 points behind Maddux’s total season WAR of 9.1. In 1992, Maddux gave the baseball world a little taste of what was about to transpire over the next 3 years.

1993: All-Star Snub

Image Credit: The Sporting News/Getty Images

Maddux was ready to follow up an incredible 1992 campaign with another masterful year. His first year as an Atlanta Braves went well. He, again, led the league in several categories: starts (36), ERA (2.36), CG (8), IP (267), and WHIP (1.049). This was a trend we would frequently see from Maddux throughout his four consecutive Cy Young winning seasons. The next best pitcher in the NL that year, Bill Swift, beat out Maddux in only one category, wins (21). Maddux had 20. Him winning his second Cy Young in a row wasn’t the craziest thing that happened that year. The soon to be 1993 NL Cy Young winner was not selected into the All-Star Game that season. At the All-Star break, Maddux was an unimpressive 8-8 with a respectable 2.83 ERA and a .238 BAA. Was it All-Star worthy? Yes. Was he a top candidate at that point in the season? No. Regardless, this seemed to light a fire under Maddux’s ass as he proceeded to finish out the year on an absolute tear. The second half of the season saw him go 12-2 with a 1.76 ERA and a .224 BAA. This legendary run jumped him to the top of the Cy Young leader board for the second year in a row.

1994: The Year of the Strike

Image Credit: Brad Mangin/National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

In 1994, MLB players went on strike in opposition of the owners’ demand for a salary cap. This strike ended the season at 113 games played and left us wondering what kind of numbers some of the top players in the league could have produced by the end of the year. Maddux was one of those players. When the season came to an abrupt stop, Maddux was leading the league, again, in ERA (1.56), CG (10), SHO (2), IP (202), WHIP (.896), H/9 (6.7), HR/9 (0.2), and even wins (16). The numbers he put up were probably enough to win the Cy Young even if the season went a full 162 games. Let’s not stop there. This article wouldn’t be any fun if I didn’t give out The Professor’s end of season stat projections for that year. Here they are:

34 GS, 22-8 W-L, 14 CG, 4 SHO, 1.57 ERA, 275 IP, 204 H, 42 BB, 212 Ks, .203 BAA

Wouldn’t that have been something. Not a single pitcher came close to giving Maddux a run for his money in the Cy Young race that year. I’m going to go out on a limb and say the same for his projected stats as well. If only the owners would have just let the boys play and make as much dough as they pleased.

1995: The Final Trophy

Image Credit: Sports Illustrated 1995

The 1994 strike spilled over into the beginning of the 1995 season and forced the schedule to be cut down to 144 games. Maddux lost out on about 4 more starts that year, but still took advantage of the opportunities he was given. In 28 starts, Maddux led the league, like he had done so many times before, in wins (19), ERA (1.63), CG (10), SHO (3), IP (209.2), WHIP (.811), HR/9 (0.3), BB/9 (1.0), SO/BB (7.87). Another year of dominance gave another year of 100% of first place votes for NL Cy Young, which he had done the year prior. The second place finisher in 1995, Pete Schourek, had nearly double the ERA of Maddux, with less innings pitched and more hits allowed in 29 starts.

Four Year Reign:

Greg Maddux finished his run of four consecutive NL Cy Young Awards with a stat line from a pitcher that might never be seen again:

124 GS, 75-29 W-L, 37 CG, 11 SHO, 1.98 ERA, 946.2 IP, 726 H, 176 BB, 733 Ks, .212 BAA

His awards included: 3 AS, 4 CYA, 4 GG, and 3rd/5th/11th/13th in MVP voting.

Even though Maddux would not win another Cy Young in the next 15 years of his career, he had put together a resume good enough to be one of the greatest starting pitchers in MLB history.

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Professor.

All stats used in this article were pulled directly from https://www.baseball-reference.com/