Thursday, August 20, 2009
Last 20-game winners for all 30 teams
Posted by Chris JaffeThe Department of Random Baseball Info presents: the last pitcher to win 20 games for all 30 teams. Well, it's actually only 28 as the Rockies and Rays have never had one. Before looking at the list, care to guess:
- Which two teams are tied for the longest drought without a 20-gamer?
- Aside from the two above, a pair of other teams have gone a quarter century without one. Who are they?
- What's the only division to have all its teams produce a 20-gamer since the 1994 Strike?
- What division has only one team with a 20-game winner in the last 15 years?
The boring parts are the early one - it gets funner as the list goes on. Broken up by fives to make it easier to read, here they are for all teams:
2008 NYY Mike Mussina
2008 CLE Cliff Lee
2008 ARI Brandon Webb
2008 TOR Roy Halladay
2007 BOX Josh Beckett
2005 STL Chris Carpenter
2005 HOU Roy Oswalt
2005 FLO Dontrelle Willis
2005 LAA Bartolo Colon
2004 MIN Johann Santana
2003 SEA Jaime Moyer
2003 CWS Esteban Loaiza
2003 ATL Russ Ortiz
2002 OAK Barry Zito
2001 CHC Jon Leiber
1998 TEX Rick Helling
1993 SFG Bill Swift and John Burkett
1991 PIT John Smiley
1991 DET Bill Gullickson
1990 LAD Ramon Martinez
1990 NYM Frank Viola
1989 KCR Bret Saberhagen
1988 CIN Danny Jackson
1986 MIL Teddy Higuera
1984 BAL Mike Boddicker
1982 PHI Steve Carlton
1978 SDP Gaylord Perry
1978 MON Ross Grimsley.
NEVER: Colorado and Tampa.
The AL West is the division where all its teams have produced at least one 20-game winner since the strike. Texas has the longest drought, going back to 1998. The next best division is the AL Central, with Kansas City going back to 1989.
Conversely, only the D-backs have produced a 20-game winner in the NL West since 1993.
Random notes - I never would've guessed John Smiley for the Pirates, or Bill Gullickson for the Tigers.
San Diego has posted only on 19-win season in the last 30 years, when Jake Peavy did it in 2007. They've only had three 20-win seasons, Perry's and two by Randy Jones.
Montreal/Washington has it even worse: Ross Grimsley's big season is still the only 20-win season in franchise history. Incredibly, Steve Rogers never did it. Rogers does have the organization's only 19-win season, but that's the best he's got. Heck, the franchise only has two 18-win seasons (Gullickson, again, and Byrn Smith).
Steve Carlton is the only Philly pitcher to win 20 since Chris Short did it in 1966.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail.
“the last pitcher to win 20 games for all 30 teams. “
Talk about an awkward sentence! As even Cy Young never got to 600 wins, that is mathematically impossible.
</smartass>
Thanks for the list, Chris. Now: Who has won 20 games for the most amount of teams?