Was Kevin Brown Snubbed from the 1998 NL Cy Young Award?

I talk a lot about historic baseball with CloudZeroSports contributor Dustin Stern. We talk about Hall of Famers, all-time great seasons, and many other scenarios. Recently he brought up a pitcher by the name of Kevin Brown. Who is Kevin Brown you may ask? Kevin Brown was a pitcher in the MLB for 19 years playing for the Rangers, Orioles, Marlins, Padres, Dodgers, and Yankees. In his entire career, Brown went 211-144 with a 3.28 ERA and 2397 strikeouts. Notable accolades Brown achieved include leading the MLB in wins in 1992, two ERA titles (1996,2000), 6 all-star game appearances (1992, 1996-1998, 2000, and 2003), a no-hitter on June 10th, 1997, and a World Series with the 1997 Florida Marlins. However, he did not win a Cy Young.

After winning the World Series with the Marlins in 1997, he was traded to the San Diego Padres where he would arguably have the best year of his career. During this year, Brown went 18-7 with a 2.38 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, a career-high 257 strikeouts, and a league-leading 2.23 FIP. Brown was a key piece during the Padres 1998 NL Pennant run and finished top 3 in Cy Young voting. Unfortunately, he did not win the coveted award that season. The Cy Young went to Tom Glavine of the Atlanta Braves.

Let’s compare these two seasons’ major stat by major stat and we will see that Brown deserved the Cy Young that year. Starting with the stats that Glavine had in his favor. Glavine was 20-6 and Brown was 18-7. Glavine’s ERA+ was 168 compared to Brown’s 164. That concludes the stats that Glavine had over. Brown had a better ERA (2.37 compared to 2.48) a better WHIP (1.07 compared to 1.20). Brown had more innings pitched (257.0 to 229.1), more games played (36 to 33), more complete games (7 to 3), a better WAR (8.6 to 6.1), more strikeouts (257 to 157) and he had the best FIP in the league. This was Brown’s best chance to win a Cy Young considering the competition he faced every other year. To me the choice is clear, Brown was snubbed.

Another discussion for another day is if Kevin Brown should have made the Hall of Fame. He had great numbers but his resume was missing a Cy Young award and I believe had he won the 1998 Cy Young Award, he would be in the Hall of Fame.