Hooray…Barry Bonds hit number 755.
Alex Rodriguez became the latest to join the 500 club even though you would have thought that he just his number 800.
Tom Glavine and his 300 wins is next.
This year has CLEARLY become the year of the milestone. And by milestone, I mean the number that seemingly automatically cements someone’s place in Cooperstown. But baseball is tricky sometimes.
Mark McGwire hits 583 out and gets ceremoniously left out of the Hall. Bert Blyleven retires THIRD on the all-time strikeout list (only behind Nolan Ryan and Steve Carlton) and can’t buy admittance.
So, that begs the question…is Glavine a shoe-in?
Let’s compare what he has done to someone that the Hall seems to not even recognize as a Major League ballplayer.
The afore mentioned…Bert Blyleven.
People rally AGAINST Blyleven saying that he only garnered the numbers he did because he played 22 seasons. It’s true…he did. However, Glavine is in his 21st season. Blyleven notched 287 wins in his 692 games…Glavine has pitched in 658 and amazingly started all of them. Blyleven has 3701 Ks…Glavine has 2543. Both players have had 17 seasons with ten or more victories. Glavine’s ERA of 3.49 is greater than Blyleven’s 3.31. Do I need to compare Blyleven’s 242 complete games and 60 shut outs to Glavine’s 56 and 25?
I thought not.
Glavine will be the third pitcher (and 23rd overall) to get his 300th victory since 1990 (Clemens and Maddux being the others)…that’s pretty remarkable. He also has five seasons with 20 or more victories…Blyleven did it once. Jim Kaat and Tommy John only did it three times. Hell, Maddux had 20 only twice…but he had 18-plus NINE times.
I ask again…aside from his 300 wins, why is Glavine THAT spectacular? To put it bluntly…he will be the LAST player (yes, you heard me right) to get 300 for a long, long time. After Glavine, Randy Johnson is next on the all-time list with 284…but he might never pitch again.
After that, Mike Mussina comes in with 245. David Wells is ten behind him and Jamie Moyer ten behind Boomer. So, as you can see, there isn’t anyone that’ll match Glavine. Matter of fact, there are 10 pitchers playing right now that have at least 150 victories (half of where Glavine is at) and the youngest of them is 35.
Soak it up baseball fans, enjoy the pitching milestones while you can…you won’t see anything like this for a while.
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