The Cleveland Indians won the pennant this year, and defeated Brooklyn to win their first World Series. The Indians had a great offense, and a pretty good pitching staff, led by Jim Bagby and Stan Coveleski. Bagby won 31 games; no pitcher would again reach the 30-win plateau until Lefty Grove in 1931.

         Coveleski has the best overall numbers, in terms of wins, innings, ERA, and strikeouts. Bagby has wins and endurance, but his ERA is higher, and he had more walks than strikeouts. I'm tempted to choose Coveleski for the award, but I'll stick with the 31-win guy. His ERA is only a little higher, and I think I can forgive the lousy strikeout/walk ratio.
         Coveleski, of course, is in the Hall Of Fame. Bagby must have worn his arm out, because he never had another good season, and was out of the league in three years.
         The team with the best pitching staff was the New York Yankees. Incredibly, the Yankees still did not have a pennant up to this point; but with the acquisition of some live arms and Babe Ruth, they were rapidly improving. Carl Mays and Bob Shawkey were the Yanks' top pitchers, and they rank only a hair behind the Cleveland pitchers.
         This was the year that Mays struck Ray Chapman in the head with a pitch, killing him. Apart from that incident, he was fantastic. Shawkey had several more good years with the Yankees, then had his final year with Murderers' Row in 1927.
      Urban Shocker had a great name, and was also a terrific pitcher for the St Louis Browns. This was his first big year; he would later star for Murderers' Row as well.