Atlanta Braves: the last outpost of the 300-game winner?

The era of the dominant starter is passing into history. But let the record show that the Atlanta Braves did their level best to keep it alive as long as possible.

The early 1980’s say a bit of a celebration of pitching history, with 5 different pitchers attaining the 300^th victory milestone. Included in that group was Atlanta Braves‘ knuckleballer Phil Niekro – though sadly, it happened while he was a member of the New York Yankees.

But now this species of pitchers is going extinct.

The ‘Win’ stat is being de-emphasized. Overall, that’s probably a good thing – after all, pitchers don’t ‘win’ so much as they can stymie the opposition’s bats. It’s their teammates on offense that must defeat the enemy pitcher.

There are other means of gauging the performance of a pitcher… though today, we’ll celebrate this rapidly disappearing stat.

The trend is that starters simply do not go deep into games. Teams worry about things like pitch counts and ‘times through the order’ and ‘stress innings’… but not about getting into the 7^th or 8^th with a starter.

In 1980, the MLB-wide rate for complete games by pitchers was 0.20 – 20%. Just six seasons prior to that, it was 28%.

However, by 1990, the rate was cut in half – to 10%. Add another decade and it was cut in half again, to 5% in 2000. Another decade and it dropped by nearly half again: 3% in 2010.

In 2017, the complete game rate fell to 1%.

41 complete games among just 27 pitchers. If Corey Kluber and Ervin Santana had not pitched, that number would be 31 complete games.

The Braves had none of those. Even highly-paid starters such as Chris Sale, Zack Greinke, and Clayton Kershaw had only than 1 CG apiece.

Fun Fact

Of the last seven 300 game winners, the Atlanta Braves had 3 on their roster for the majority of their career wins (Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Phil Niekro), hired one after his career ended (Don Sutton), and drafted one (Randy Johnson, who later threw a perfect game against us). Atlanta: the last haven for the 300-win club.

All, of course, are members of baseball’s Hall of Fame.

Even 200 Win Milestones Could Vanish

Today, the following active pitchers have 200 or more pitching wins:

Bartolo Colon, 240 (hey, another former Brave!)
C.C. Sabathia, 237

End of list. But maybe some active pitchers will get there?

Here are the ones that could:

Justin Verlander, 188
John Lackey, 188
Zack Greinke, 172
Felix Hernandez, 160
Jon Lester, 159 (he will be 34-1/2 this Spring)
Ervin Santana, 149 (this will be a reach: he’s already 35)
Cole Hamels, 147 (age 34)
Kershaw, 144
Max Scherzer, 141 (age 33-1/2)

What about somebody like Chris Sale? Yes, he’s possible – with 91 wins he will be 29 years old when the 2018 season begins. Stephen Strasburg? With 84 wins, he’s actually older than Sale at 29-1/2. Darvish? Not going to happen. Arietta? Nope.

More from Tomahawk Take

There might be a couple of other names you could add… but given the changes going on today, it could actually be impossible for anyone to achieve even this intermediate yardstick goal if more than 3-5 years is needed.

So in all seriousness, as the pitching paradigm changes from “longer starts” to “more bullpen”, the art form that was Durable Starting Pitching is most definitely going by the wayside. We have quickly gone from the rise of the single bullpen ‘closer’ specialization to LOOGY’s and now middle relief specialists.

It’s no wonder that so many relievers have been signed during this frigid Hot Stove season.

Next: Sorting Through the Numbers

At least many of us fans watching the Atlanta Braves through the 1990s got to see what that looked like while those craftsmen plied their trade for several seasons.

So pause for a moment of silence for the demise of the 300-game winners. In about another 5 years, we can do likewise for the 200-game winners.

Home/Braves News