Former MLB relief pitcher Bruce Sutter was voted into Baseball’s Hall of Fame earlier this week, although he probably should not have been. The fact that Sutter won MLB’s National League Cy Young Award (awarded annually to the league’s best pitcher) in 1979 may well tipped the scales in favor of Sutter’s Hall-of-Fame candidacy in some voters’ eyes. But a little known fact is that Sutter did not deserve that Cy Young Award, either, and that voter ignorance in evaluating the value of two former Stros pitchers figured prominently in Sutter winning award that season.
Sutter won the 1979 NL Cy Young Award by taking 77 of a possible 120 points, but he garnered only 10 of the 24 first-place votes. Sutter benefited from an absurd split vote that developed over Stros teammates, Joe Niekro and J.R. Richard, who shared 13 of the other 14 first-place votes.
Despite that split vote, Richard was the superior pitcher that season, particularly over Niekro. Richard pitched far more innings (292.1) than either Niekro (263.2) or Sutter (101.1), and had a more impressive 313/98 strikeout-to-walk ratio as compared with Niekroís 119/107 and Sutter’s 110/32. Moreover, Richard saved 19 more runs for his team than an average National League pitcher would have that season (“RSAA,” explained here) while Niekro had an 8 RSAA and eight fewer complete games than Richard.
So, why was Niekro even in the competition for the Cy Young Award that season with Sutter and Richard? In essence, because he was luckier than Richard. Niekro had a 21-11 won/loss record that season versus Richardís 18-13, a misleading statistic that ended up generating Niekro nine first-place votes to Richardís four. Thus, Sutterís Cy Young Award that season — and quite possibly his Hall of Fame induction this year — is largely attributable to the ignorance of a substantial number of voters in evaluating the performance of these three pitchers during the 1979 season. Under any reasonable interpretation of performance, Richard wins the 1979 NL Cy Young Award easily and a major part of the justification for Sutterís Hall of Fame candidacy — particularly over superior pitchers such as Goose Gossage and Bert Blylevyn — goes by the wayside.
By the way, Richard followed up that great 1979 season with an even better one midway through the 1980 season (20 RSAA, 1.90 ERA and 119/40 strikeout to walk ratio in 113.2 innings) when he was struck down by a tragic stroke that effectively ended his ability to play baseball in the prime of his career (Richard was 30 years old at the time).