No surprise that Smoltz won it.  But IMO it shows again that too much is
made of W-L records.  Here are a few numbers:
          IP   ERA   SLG   OBP   RS    W-L
Smoltz  253.2  2.94 .331  .260  5.11  24-8
Maddux  245.0  2.72 .337  .264  4.03  15-11
Brown   233.0  1.89 .289  .262  3.00  17-11
In terms of how well batters hit against them, there's not much to pick
between Smoltz and Maddux.  But there's a pretty big advantage for
Smoltz in run support which looks to have translated into his W-L edge.
When you compare this to Brown, it's even more obvious that run support
gave the Cy to Smoltz.  The average batter that faced Brown slugged
about the same as Rey Sanchez.  Nobody was hitting him hard.  To bring
Brown's ERA up to Smoltz's level, he would have had to give up 34 ER's
in 20.2 IP.  So to get Smoltz's ERA, you take Brown's stats and add in
about 6 Von Poppel starts.  I think Brown was robbed.
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