August 05, 2004
BASEBALL: Trivia Question of the Day
Since 1911, 11 pitchers have won 25 or more games in a season (some of them more than once) while starting less than 35 games. Most of these are familiar names - seven are Hall of Famers, and three of the others played for multiple World Championship teams.
Click here for the answer.
Bonus question: Name the pitcher who holds the record for fewest starts in a season by a 20-game winner. Answer at the top of the page here. Hint: He's also the only man to win 20 games while throwing fewer than 200 innings. Another hint:
He was a rookie at the time.
Not on your list but worth consideration, Bob Welch won 27 games in 1990 in just 35 starts.
The first list misses Denny McClain who won 31 games in 1968 while pitching for the Detroit Tigers. Other 25+ game winners may be missing as well, but, to me at least, the absence of McClain, the last 30+ game winner, really sticks out.
You missed the number-of-starts qualifier. McLain started 41 games that year.