Ready?
Cause here is comes!
It’s all the nonsensical chatter from every baseball scube who claims to be an expert!
It’s a question that will be debated for weeks, following Randy Johnson’s historic 300th victory this past Wednesday in Washington D.C. It’s also a question that has been debated every time another pitcher has joined the 300 win club for the last six years.
They all weigh in with their idiotic opinions on a subject that is just plain dumb to answer “yes” to.
The question is:
“Have we seen the last 300 game winner in baseball history?”
On the evening of July 13th 2003, Roger Clemens won his 300th game at Yankees Stadium versus the St Louis Cardinals. It was thought by the majority in the media at that time, that Roger would be the last player to accomplish such a feat. It was also thought that he would retire after the season. Not only have their been three other 300 game winners since, but Roger himself won another 54 games before he was forced into retirement. If given the choice, Clemens may still be pitching today.
On August 7th 2004, Greg Maddux won the 300th game of his major league career. All I heard from media outlets around the globe, was that this would be the last time a pitcher would win 300 games. The bold declaration would be proven wrong just three years later. As for Maddux: he won another 55 games before retiring last season with Joe Torre’s Los Angeles Dodgers. He was still a valuable part of the LA bullpen when he called it a career.
On August 8th 2007, Tom Glavine won his 300th game against the Chicago Cubs, at Wrigley Field. It was one of the very few highlights Glavine had while pitching for the New York Mets. Once again, color commentators, talk show hosts, and sports annalists alike, stated with certainty that on pitcher would ever win 300 games again. Glavine is still active to this day, however the Atlanta Braves did just release him.
Then this past Wednesday, June 3rd 2009, Randy Johnson became the 24th player to win 300 games in his thirty-one year career. Johnson is just the sixth left-hander to win 300, and maybe the most unlike able guy to accomplish the task as well. A constant snobbish swagger has shadowed Johnson since his early days in Seattle. An “I in team” attitude is a well-documented part of his character. And he certainly has no love for reporters of any kind. (I’m sure especially degenerate sports Bloggers writing without college degrees.) Johnson may also be the most ugly guy to win 300 as well. An insider nickname my family has had for Randy, for years now, is the Freak Of Nature. But regardless of my own opinions of Johnson, his accomplishment is fantastic, well earned and well deserved.
But with Randy’s historic victory comes the media circus of moronic commentary. I just can’t take the irresponsible journalism! All these desk jockey’s, dolled up in a T.V. studio some place, all with blank looks on their face when some host asks them if we will ever see another 300 game winner. The all fumble around, choose their words poorly, and conclude with the safe answer of “no”. They site things like pitch counts, pulling players out of games early, or the five man rotations as their reasons why. These are all weak excuses made by guys who simply have not done their homework.
I will be the first to agree that it is getting harder and harder for pitchers to achieve the 300 win plateau, however it doesn’t make it unattainable! Unattainable records are those like Joe-D’s 56 game hitting streak, or Cal Ripken’s consecutive game streak. A 300 game winner is certainly something I expect to see again in my lifetime!
I will refrain from commenting on the careers of Josh Beckett, Johan Santana, Tim Hudson, or Javier Vasquez. But will simply state that they too could be 300 win candidates. However, here is a list of just four players who could very well get the job done.
Here are my best four cases for baseball’s 25th member of the 300 win club.
Here are my best four cases for baseball’s 25th member of the 300 win club.
Carlos Zambrano
Carlos Zambrano, of the Chicago Cubs, just celebrated his 28th birthday, last Monday. He also just celebrated his 100th career victory just four nights later. So at 28 years old with 100 victories under his belt, Carlos needs to average 13 wins a year for the next 16 years to enter the 300 win club. 13 is of course a very low and attainable number of victories for a given season, while 16 years from today would make Carlos 44 years old. Or one year younger then Jamie Moyer who is still pitching for the Phillies.
Roy “Doc” Halladay
Roy Halladay is 32 years old and already has 140 victories. He will win at least 10 more games before the seasons end. Which would put him half way to 300. So assuming Roy plays another 12 years, (retiring at 44), Roy would need just 12 wins a year to achieve 300. Roy is without a doubt the games most dominating pitcher and as a free agent after the season, he is about to move to a winning team, and score a major payday!
Andy Pettitte
Andy Pettitte, the Yankees 36-year-old left-hander doesn’t turn 37 for another two weeks. He currently stands at 220 career victories. If Andy applied himself and committed to the task of 300 wins he could do it. Andy would need to average 15 wins from now until he is 43 years old to get the job done. The trouble is Andy has no such ambition, to win 300. He also doesn’t believe his own left elbow could hold up that long with the riggers of pitching once a week. However Andy Pettitte is in place statistically and has enough youth in the fountain to do it!
Carsten Charles Sabathia
C.C. Sabathia is 28 years old has yet to win 20 games in a season, and yet has 122 career victories. Assuming he pitches to the age of 40 and avoids major injury, C.C. would only need to average 15 wins a season. This is something very practical while playing on the Yankees. A team that will always score him a ton of runs.
So in conclusion, please don’t tell me a Major League starter will never win 300 games again! As so long as these four starters are pitching every fifth day, a chance still exhists! And my advise for the Harold Reynolds’s, and John Kruk’s of the world- pick up a stat sheet and a calculator (like I did) and make some accurate projections for a change!
