Old Hoss Radbourn, Most Wins in a Season with 59

How about most wins for a pitcher in a single season?  It’s a stat that needs to be looked at from the perspective of multiple eras, the game has changed so much from its beginnings.

Back at the dawn of the game, the late 1800′s, pitchers started upwards of seventy games and more. Often teams had one or two primary pitchers and a handful of supporting staff. Take Old Hoss Radbourn of the 1884 Providence Grays, for example. He is the all-time leader with a now-preposterous 59 wins in a season. Radbourn started 73 games that year and pitched a totally ridiculous 678.2 innings (last season, Justin Verlander led the majors with 148.2 IP). Charlie Sweeney started 24 games for the Grays and five other pitchers started the remaining 17.

So, I broke down today’s list by what I think are four reasonable eras, and you can really see the differences between each.

First, the all-time leaders – a list completely dominated by the first couple generations of baseball players. Not a single one of those teams (by name) are still in existence and not one pitcher is from the 20th century. All of these guys had at least 43 wins.

Then, since 1900 – a list sporting some of the greatest pitchers to play the game, as the game modernized to the sport we see today between 1900 and 1930. Here you have the appearance of Christy Mathewson, Cy Young, Walter Johnson and other more familiar names. The best of these pitchers in terms of most wins in a season, Jack Chesbro, won 41 games. The “least” of the “best,” Mathewson, Dizzy Dean and Pete “Grover Cleveland” Alexander, won 30.

The 30-win barrier becomes nearly impossible to break after the 1930′s. In the third list you see only three pitchers reaching that plateau, and 26 wins becomes the low-water mark, but it’s spread around a little more widely.

Finally, the fourth list – since 1960 – is a modern look at most wins in a season, one that accounts for the emergence of relief pitching, four- and five- man rotations, the expansion era and a reduction in the amount of innings pitched by starters.

The Detroit Tigers‘ Denny McLain is the last pitcher to win at least 30 games. He won 31 in 1968. The best pitchers in today’s era win 24 or 25 games. That’s still a rare occurrence, and anything more than that even rarer.

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ALL-TIME

SINCE 1900

SINCE 1930

SINCE 1960

Photo: fenwaywest.com