Posts Tagged ‘cy young award’

Why Steve Carlton Should Have Won the 1972 National League Most Valuable Player Award

January 12th, 2014 by Kyle Lutz | Comments Off on Why Steve Carlton Should Have Won the 1972 National League Most Valuable Player Award | Filed in Baseball, General, Phillies
(AP Photo/Rusty Kennedy)

(AP Photo/Rusty Kennedy)

Steve Carlton, arguably the Philadelphia Phillies’ best pitcher in franchise history, came into the league with St. Louis in 1965. He wasn’t drafted, but instead, out of college no less, signed with the team for $5,000 two years prior in 1963. From there he transformed over time into one of the best pitchers in baseball, and in hindsight one of the best of all-time.

His repertoire included a sweeping curveball, a powerful ‘mid-90s fastball and a late-breaking slider, which all proved to equally be his out pitches. After seven seasons with the Cardinals, he was traded in February of 1972 for fellow starting pitcher Rick Wise, who made the National League All-Star team a year prior to the trade (1971). Wise was a strong, top-of-the-order starting pitcher at the time. In 1971, he went 17-14 with an impressive ERA of 2.88 in 272.1 innings pitched. He only pitched two seasons with St. Louis before being traded again, after winning 16 games in succession; this time to Boston,

With St. Louis, Carlton had three seasons with below-3 ERAs. Although he led the league in losses (19) in 1970, the previous three seasons he compiled an ERA of 2.70, a win-loss record of 44-31 and a winning percentage of 59. In two of those three seasons he also made the All-Star team. His minor setbacks on the mound mixed with his contract demands (he wanted $65,000 from St. Louis, which they refused to pay him. They offered him $60,000 instead) the next two years led to his subsequent trade to Philly.

It was a strange, peculiar scenario for both players, as both teams were willing to pay the opposite team’s player the amount they wanted (both wanted $65,000), but yet they were unwilling to pay their own the same amount for whatever reason.

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