The Baseball Buffet for 11/13/2025

Issue #455

The goal with The Baseball Buffet series is to provide the best daily dose of relevant baseball info in a smart-brevity format (mostly short bullets, getting to the point, with quick analysis/insights.) Think of it like what baseball fans of a certain age would look forward to in their morning newspaper’s sports section each day!

⚾ Welcome! ⚾

The main news yesterday was the announcement of the the 2025 Cy Young Awards:

• NL Cy Young Award: PIT Paul Skenes

• AL Cy Young Award: DET Tarik Skubal

The vote totals have been posted. In the AL, Skubal took 26 of the 30 first place votes, with Boston’s Garrett Crochet claiming the other four, and trading with Skubal for 26 of the 30 second place votes. Houston’s Hunter Brown then had 26 of the 30 third place votes, with the Yankees’ Max Fried getting the other four and coming in fourth overall. For Skubal, it was his second AL Cy Young Award in a row.

In the NL, Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes was the unanimous winner, with the Phillies’ Cristopher Sánchez taking all 30 of the second place votes. The third place votes were split between LAD Yoshinobu Yamamoto (16), SFG Logan Webb (10), and MIL Freddy Peralta (4).

In other pitching news, 12-year veteran Kyle Hendricks has retired. He played this year for the Los Angeles Angels, but before that had pitched 11 years for the Chicago Cubs. Although never an All-Star, he came in third in the NL Cy Young Award vote in 2016 after posting a 16-8 record and leading the league with a 2.13 ERA. He then did well for the Cubs in the postseason that year, with a 0.71 ERA in 12.2 IP in two NLCS starts, and then a 1.00 ERA in two World Series starts—including pitching 4.2 innings in the final game seven that the Cubs eventually won 8-7 in ten innings.

Today’s Trivia Question

Paul Skenes is only the third pitcher to win the Rookie of the Year Award and a Cy Young Award within the first two seasons of their career. Can you name the other two? Can you also name the only other player to win a BBWAA honor in each of their first two seasons, in this case a Rookie of the Year Award in season one, and then an MVP Award in season two?

Trivia answers are at the bottom of each newsletter.

On this day in baseball history…

Here is what stands out to me for this day in baseball history. Unless otherwise noted, the descriptions are from baseball-reference.com.

📅 On November 13…

• 1899: NL decides to go with two umpires. "The National League announces that, starting next season, there will be two umpires working each game."

• 1979: Stargell and Hernandez share the NL MVP Award. "For the first time in major league history, two players share the Most Valuable Player Award. The National League co-winners are Willie Stargell, the spiritual leader of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who hit .281 with 32 home runs, and St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Keith Hernandez, who led the NL in runs (116), doubles (48) and batting average (.344)."

• 1984: Ryne Sandberg wins the NL MVP Award. "Ryne Sandberg wins the National League MVP Award, becoming the first Chicago Cubs player to do so since Ernie Banks in 1959. Sandberg hit .314 with 19 home runs and 32 stolen bases and led the NL in runs (114) and triples (19)."

• 1995: Greg Maddux wins his fourth consecutive Cy Young Award. "Atlanta Braves pitcher Greg Maddux wins the National League Cy Young Award for an unprecedented fourth straight time. Maddux had a remarkable 19-2 record with a 1.63 ERA, the second year his ERA is below 1.80."

• 1996: Ken Caminiti wins the NL MVP Award. "San Diego Padres third baseman Ken Caminiti becomes the fourth unanimous winner of the National League MVP Award. Caminiti set team records for home runs (40), RBI (130) and slugging percentage (.621), while leading the Padres to the NL West division title for the first time since 1984."

• 1997: Larry Walker becomes first Canadian to win an MLB MVP Award. "Larry Walker of the Colorado Rockies is named National League MVP, becoming the first Canadian in either league to win the honor. Walker, who hit .366 with 49 home runs and 130 RBI, caps off a big week for Canada. Earlier in the week, pitchers Roger Clemens of the Toronto Blue Jays and Pedro Martinez of the Montreal Expos each won the Cy Young Award."

🎂 Today’s Birthday Boys 🎉

Buck O'Neil (1911)

• Hall of Famer

• 10-year major league career in the Negro Leagues, spanning from 1937-1948, mostly with the Kansas City Monarchs (and he spent two years spent in military service in 1944-1945)

• An All-Star in two seasons, he was a capable batsman with a .280+ average in five seasons

• Was a very good defensive 1B, regularly amongst his league's leaders in several categories

• Excelled in the postseason with a .342 average and seven extra-base hits in 79 AB

• He was the first Black coach in the AL or NL, hired by the Cubs in 1962

• He was selected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2022 by the Early Baseball Era Committee, both for his accomplishments on the field and, after his retirement, his advocacy for the Negro Leagues off the field. This included his efforts in helping to establish the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City. (See Wikipedia for more.)

Mel Stottlemyre (1941)

• 11-year major league pitching career, spanning from 1964-1974, all with the New York Yankees

• Five-time All-Star

• Won 20+ games in three seasons, including 20-9 with a 2.63 ERA in 1965, 21-12 with a 2.45 ERA in 1968, and 20-14 with a 2.82 ERA in 1969

• Led the AL in complete games twice

• Overall had a 164-139 (.541) record, a 2.97 ERA, and a 112 ERA+

• Was a pitching coach for 23 seasons with the Yankees, Mets, Astros, and Mariners

• Had two sons, Mel Jr. and Todd, who also became major league pitchers

Pat Hentgen (1968)

• 14-year major league career, spanning from 1991-2004, mostly with the Blue Jays and Orioles

• Three-time All-Star, including in his first full season in 1993 when he posted a 19-9 record and a 3.87 ERA

• Won the AL Cy Young Award in 1996 with a 20-10 record, a 3.22 ERA, and 10 complete games

• Overall had a 131-112 (.539) record, a 4.32 ERA, and a 108 ERA+

Asdrubal Cabrera (1985)

• 15-year major league career, spanning from 2007-2021, mostly with the Indians, Mets, and Nationals, but with some time spent with five other clubs

• Two-time All-Star, including in 2011 when he batted .273 with career highs of 25 HR, 92 RBI, and 17 SB

• Primarily a SS, but also spent significant time at 2B and 3B

• Overall had 195 HR, 886 runs, 869 RBI, a .266/.329/.423 slash line, and a 105 OPS+

Wes Parker (1939)

• 9-year major league career, spanning from 1964-1972, all with the Dodgers

• Was a strong defensive 1B, winning six Gold Glove Awards

• Had only modest power, with 10+ HR three times, including his career year in 1970 when he batted .319 with 10 HR, 111 RBI, and a NL-leading 47 doubles

• Overall had a .267/.351/.375 slash line and a 111 OPS+

Gene Garber (1947)

• 19-year major league pitching career, spanning from 1969-1988, with the Braves, Phillies, Royals, and Pirates

• Had 20+ saves four times, including 25 saves with a 2.15 ERA in 1979, and 30 saves with a 2.34 ERA in 1982

• Overall had 218 saves, a 3.34 ERA, and a 117 ERA+

Dan Petry (1958)

• 13-year major league pitching career, spanning from 1979-1991, mostly with the Detroit Tigers

• Had 15+ wins four times, including a 19-11 record in 1983, and then an 18-8 mark with a 3.24 ERA in 1984 as a key member of the Tigers' World Series Championship team that year.

• Overall had a 125-104 (.546) record, a 3.95 ERA, and a 102 ERA+

Currently active players who were born on November 13 include BAL Trevor Rogers, NYM Brett Baty, CLE George Valera, CIN Santiago Espinal, PIT Michael Darrell-Hicks, Wade Miley (free agent), and Chris Devenski (free agent).

Baseball Quote of the Day

One of the new features I’m starting up during the offseason is a baseball-related quote of the day. These will include quotes by players or managers that are insightful or funny, and interesting quotes from others about the game itself. I’ll try to mix it up over time.

In honor of the 2025 Cy Young Award winners, today I’ll go with four short ones on pitching:

"Hitting is timing. Pitching is upsetting timing." - Warren Spahn

"Pitching is the art of instilling fear." - Sandy Koufax

"It helps if the hitter thinks you're a little crazy." - Nolan Ryan

"The best pitchers have a short term memory and a bullet proof confidence." - Greg Maddux

⚾ I hope you enjoyed the newsletter today! ⚾
 

Today’s Trivia Answer

Before Paul Skenes in 2025, the only pitchers to win the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young within the first two seasons of their career were Fernando Valenzuela (both awards in 1981) and Dwight Gooden (ROY in 1984, Cy Young in 1985). Then the only other player besides Skenes to win a BBWAA honor in each of their first two seasons was Kris Bryant who won the 2015 NL ROY and the 2016 NL MVP. (Fred Lynn and Ichiro Suzuki each one the AL ROY and AL MVP in their respective rookie seasons, but not an award in each of their first two seasons.)

Good Reads

Here I am providing one or more links to baseball articles I’ve enjoyed recently, whether by writers at MLB.com or elsewhere.

• What's available on free-agent market? Check out this menu, by Mike Petriello at MLB, 11/12/2025

• Did Skenes just have the best season for a Pirates pitcher ... ever?, by Alex Stumpf at MLB, 11/11/2025

• Diamond Anniversary: When Roberts Pitched the Phillies to the Pennant, by Russ Walsh at Here's the Pitch: the IBWAA Newsletter, 11/12/2025

• Mackey Sasser never gave into his demons, by Mark Kolier at Almost Cooperstown, 11/12/2025

See recent issues of The Baseball Buffet for more recent good reads!

Did you know? I wrote a 600+ page book with the same title as this newsletter/blog? Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises was published in early 2019, by ACTA Sports. It is available at Amazon and most other major booksellers.

This newsletter was produced with beehiiv, an outstanding platform for creating email newsletters and blogs. If this might be of interest for your own creative work, get a 30-day trial and 30% off your first three months!