The World According to Shawn
Thursday, August 23, 2007
After writing the post about the baseball milestones that were recently reached, I decided to look more closely at my statement about Glavine being the last pitcher to reach 300 wins.
I have to take back that statement as I found a whole crop of pitchers that I think will one day reach or come within 15 wins of 300 victories.
There are 4 catagories here. Pitchers with the Best chance to do it barring injury, Pitchers who can likely reach the milestone, those who will come close, and too soon to tell.
Best Chance at 300
C.C. Sabathia - He is only 26 years old and has seven years of experience starting Major League games. In his seven years with the Cleveland Indians he has amassed 95 wins and looks to be on pace for his first 20 win season in 2007. If he keeps on the pace he is on now and plays for as long as say Roger Clemens, he will have no problem not only passing 300 wins, but he should reach 350 without a problem. I hope I don't jinx him by writing this.
Tim Hudson - He is a little bit older at 32 years old, but in his nine years of pitching he has 134 wins for the Oakland Atheletics and the Altlanta Braves. He is having easily the best year of his career, and only an injury could slow him down over the next couple seasons. I can see him winning between 15 and 20 games for the next eight or nine seasons with the Atlanta Braves team he has behind him now. That sounds alot like the career Glavine has had to me, except for the Cy Young awards.
Likely to reach 300 wins
Johan Santana - This one is questionable because it would take him atleast 10 more years at his best level to reach 300. Its not completely out of the question because he is only 28 years old and has 91 wins. He has 2 Cy Young Awards already under his belt and realistically he could end up with a couple more before he is finished. If he leaves the Twins and pitches for say the Yankees with its high powered offense, he has the potential to win 25 games in a season.
Roy Halladay - He seems to pitch every game like it is the World Series. I can't count the amount of times that I have seen him carry a game into the 9th inning going for a complete game shutout. Halladay has a Cy Young award and a season of 22 wins. His total number of victories over his ten year career is 109 so far. Looking at Curt Schilling's career he didn't have a really good season until he was 34 years old, so with Halladay at 30 years old he has plenty of time.
Will Come Close
Barry Zito - He is a really good pitcher stuck on a bad team this year, and even with the best curveball in baseball he can't help the San Francisco Giants win games. He has 111 victories so far and is 29 years old. If he has to go through years of the Giants rebuilding then he will ultimately fall short of 300, but it should be interesting to see towards the end of his career.
Mark Mulder - The last of the big three in Oakland. At one point I thought he was going to emerge as the best of the young bunch of Oakland pitchers that Billy Bean put together. Fast forward a few years later and he has been Stuck on 103 career victores since the end of the 2006 season. If he can get back to the way he was playing in his first few years in Oakland, he will come close to 300 but I doubt he will pass it.
Josh Beckett - He was suppose to be the next Roger Clemens after he dominated the Yankees in the World Series a few year ago. He had a couple of bad seasons after that, and now is finally on track again with the Red Sox in 2007. He should definitely win 20 games this season, and might even take home the Cy Young Award, but with only 72 wins, I am predicting he will come up short in the end.
Too soon to tell
Scott Kazmir - 31 wins at age 23, but stuck on a really bad team that doesn't seem to be getting any better.
Rich Harden - 31 wins at 24, Injury is more his problem. If he could stay healthy for a season I could make a better assesment.
Carlos Zambrano - I was really close to putting him on the list above, but I decided to leave him down here for a while. 78 wins at 26 years of age.
<"Comments:">
You mentioned baseball, so I MUST respond.
SABATHIA: definitely has a shot. He has the Clemens/Ryan/Koufax "Horse" Build. He's nowhere near as talented, but he is destined to be around a long time, as long as he keeps up a work-out regimen (like clemens and ryan did).
TIM HUDSON: Built too frail. He has a pedro style just with a nastier curve-ball. His arm style (three quarter) as well as his over-use of the curveball makes him destined for the DL in the future. Doesn't matter how well you throw it, Fastball pitchers and pitchers with pinpoint control get to 300. Junk pitchers don't. All he has is the 12 to 6 curve and an deteriorating fastball.
SANTANA: Work-horse, similar to Mark Buehrle, just with much more power. I agree, unless he gets traded (very likely with the Twins being bitches), he won't get it.
HALLADAY: He's had so many ups and downs how can you POSSIBLY consider him? He's the best (won a cy young), then the worst (was in the minor leagues after his first good season, couldn't find the plate). He's a head-case... he'll eat himself alive from the head out before he ever gets 300.
ZITO, MULDER, and BECKETT: I agree completely. Beckett can only pitch well in the first 60% of a season. He should just pitch his first 22 starts, and then the Sox should release him for the season until the playoffs. He gets burned out every season. You would too if you had to play all those years with the Marlins!
As for KAZMIR and HARDEN: Both way too young to tell. Look at ZAMBRANO, it took him a few years to be the ace, and he was as highly touted as those two... just over-shadowed by Wood and Prior. Harden's stuff is NASTY, but, he's not a big team pitcher, and the A's sell to the best bidder.
A FEW YOU MISSED:
FELIX HERNANDEZ: 6'3", 21 years old, un-hittable when he's on.
JAKE PEAVY: This boy is a straight up PIMP.
CLAY BUCHOLZ: What, a Red Sox fan can dream, right? He did have a no-no in his SECOND major league start ever. He's got the speed, pinpoint accuracy, and the calm head. Having just turned 23, it's WAY too eary to tell. But I can dream!
SABATHIA: definitely has a shot. He has the Clemens/Ryan/Koufax "Horse" Build. He's nowhere near as talented, but he is destined to be around a long time, as long as he keeps up a work-out regimen (like clemens and ryan did).
TIM HUDSON: Built too frail. He has a pedro style just with a nastier curve-ball. His arm style (three quarter) as well as his over-use of the curveball makes him destined for the DL in the future. Doesn't matter how well you throw it, Fastball pitchers and pitchers with pinpoint control get to 300. Junk pitchers don't. All he has is the 12 to 6 curve and an deteriorating fastball.
SANTANA: Work-horse, similar to Mark Buehrle, just with much more power. I agree, unless he gets traded (very likely with the Twins being bitches), he won't get it.
HALLADAY: He's had so many ups and downs how can you POSSIBLY consider him? He's the best (won a cy young), then the worst (was in the minor leagues after his first good season, couldn't find the plate). He's a head-case... he'll eat himself alive from the head out before he ever gets 300.
ZITO, MULDER, and BECKETT: I agree completely. Beckett can only pitch well in the first 60% of a season. He should just pitch his first 22 starts, and then the Sox should release him for the season until the playoffs. He gets burned out every season. You would too if you had to play all those years with the Marlins!
As for KAZMIR and HARDEN: Both way too young to tell. Look at ZAMBRANO, it took him a few years to be the ace, and he was as highly touted as those two... just over-shadowed by Wood and Prior. Harden's stuff is NASTY, but, he's not a big team pitcher, and the A's sell to the best bidder.
A FEW YOU MISSED:
FELIX HERNANDEZ: 6'3", 21 years old, un-hittable when he's on.
JAKE PEAVY: This boy is a straight up PIMP.
CLAY BUCHOLZ: What, a Red Sox fan can dream, right? He did have a no-no in his SECOND major league start ever. He's got the speed, pinpoint accuracy, and the calm head. Having just turned 23, it's WAY too eary to tell. But I can dream!
# posted by 
: 11:30 PM
: 11:30 PM
Haha, remember that time you traded johan santana for jake peavy?
Who won that fantasy baseball league... I forget...
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Who won that fantasy baseball league... I forget...
# posted by : 12:57 AM
: 12:57 AM