David Pinto quotes an amazing fact from the NY Daily News: the Mets’ five-game lead is “the largest lead in a division in major-league history after 12 games.” Not clear if that includes leads before the advent of divisional play in 1969, although I did a quick check here and couldn’t find any bigger than 4.5 games.
Pedro’s 200th win also gives him a career record of 200-84, 116 games over .500. Where would that leave him all time, if he either retired tomorrow or pitched .500 ball the rest of his career? Here are the 24 men who now stand 100+ games over .500:
| # | Pitcher | +.500 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cy Young | 195 |
| 2 | Al Spalding* | 188 |
| 3 | Christy Mathewson | 185 |
| 4 | Roger Clemens# | 169 |
| 5 | Grover Alexander | 165 |
| 6 | Lefty Grove | 159 |
| 7 | Kid Nichols | 153 |
| 8 | John Clarkson | 150 |
| 9 | Walter Johnson | 138 |
| 10 | Eddie Plank | 132 |
| 10 | Greg Maddux+ | 132 |
| 12 | Whitey Ford | 130 |
| 13 | Randy Johnson+ | 128 |
| 14 | Bob Caruthers | 119 |
| 15 | Warren Spahn | 118 |
| 16 | Tim Keefe | 117 |
| 17 | Jim Palmer | 116 |
| 17 | Pedro Martinez+ | 116 |
| 19 | Old Hoss Radbourn | 114 |
| 20 | Three Finger Brown | 109 |
| 21 | Tom Seaver | 106 |
| 22 | Bob Feller | 104 |
| 22 | Joe McGinnity | 104 |
| 24 | Juan Marichal | 101 |
* – Includes National Association records 1871-75
+ – Still active in 2006
# – May return in 2006
That’s some good company. Other than the active pitchers, all but Caruthers are in the Hall of Fame, and Caruthers probably should be. If you’re wondering, the other top active pitchers are Mike Mussina at +97, Tom Glavine at +93, and David Wells at +83.
Anyone give credit to the Diaz for Dontrelle rumor? That happens, they may never lose again. Right Mets fans?
Any deal for Willis would certainly have to start with Lastings Milledge or Mike Pelfrey, not with Diaz.
Hey, with Victor Zambrano, who needs Dontrelle Willis?
Pedro is also over .700 in win percentage making him 3rd all-time although Al Spalding (#1) pitched in the 1870s (going 55-5 in 1875, nice year) and Spud Chandler (#2) was only 109-43 and padded that with a 46-13 record in 1941-43.
Since leaving the Dodgers and Expos he is 135-45 (.750) which is pretty much absurd. Essentially since 1998 if he is pitching against any team but the Yankees he wins 80% of the time.
Cameron Diaz for Dontrelle Willis? Hmmm. She is still hot, and only 33. /jk
Not to go on ad infinitum about Pedro but I did get to watch him pitch when he just decimated guys and was the sickest pitcher anyone had ever seen. To know he can still mow guys when he is 75% of what he used to be tells you what 100% used to look like. Check out this career:
He is #1 in ERA+ 12% ahead of #2 Lefty Grove (166 to 148). He is #3 in WHIP. There are no active pitchers in the top 30, only Juan Marichal is vaguely recent in the top 20 and there are only 6 other current ptichers in the top 100. He is #3 in hits/9 innings behind Ryan and Koufax. He is #3 in k/9 innings behind Randy Johnson and Kerry Wood. He is #2 in K/BB ratio behind a guy who pitched from 1874-1884. He is 14th on the all-time K list and will go over 3,000 Ks midway through this year. If you didn’t know who he was by stats alone you would assume he pitched in the dead ball era.
Met fans, he is not what he once was but you should go to Shea and enjoy a day when he pitches. It is not like other days.
Having witnessed the Pedro era I like to think of him as my generation’s Sandy Koufax. He will not end up atop career leaderboards (exceptions possibly being winning % and ERA+), but he was dominant in an era of big hitters and magical to watch compete.
Does anyone think that BBHOF voters might start to factor in the effect of steroids as a positive for starting pitchers? I think it would be highly dumb to penalize hitters and not reward pitchers. The juiced hitters altered both their stats and the stats of pitchers they faced.