Sunday, September 09, 2007

Winning Seasons

Andy Pettitte has clinched his 13th consecutive winning season. That puts him in some elite company.

There are nine other pitchers in baseball history who have pulled that off:

Pete Alexander: 19
Pedro Martinez: 14 (this could be his 15th)
Whitey Ford: 14
Christy Matthewson: 14
Greg Maddux: 14
Roger Clemens: 13 (this could be his 14th)
Bob Gibson: 13
Bob Feller: 13
Sam Leever: 13

Not a bad list at all.

Unlike most of these pitchers, Pettitte's streak started his rookie season. This is his 13th ML season. I checked all pitchers with over 150 career wins, and only two of them finished their career with over a .500 winning percentage in every season they pitched.

Sam Leever and Al Spalding. Spalding was only 7 seasons, and as we know Leever 13. This means no pitchers who started their creers after 1900.

Most pitchers lose any chance their first couple of seasons, and almost all pitchers last season or two are under .500. So Pettitte's chances aren't great, except that he's already talked about retirement, and is on a huge offensive team. Injuries after a 2-3 start can kill it, lots of things can. So, we'll see.

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