On pace for 30 wins
Brandon Webb’s complete-game victory for the Diamondbacks on Thursday night raised Webb’s record to 8-0 and kept alive what really is baseball’s impossible dream: another 30-win season.
We haven’t had a 30-win season in 40 years, since Denny McLain’s remarkable 1968 season, and McLain was the first 30-game winner since Dizzy Dean went 30-7 in 1934.
Webb is on pace for 37 wins, but that’s deceiving. By the time Webb pitches again, he’ll be on pace for just 35 wins. Arizona keeps playing when Webb isn’t pitching. And if Webb doesn’t happen to win his next start, the start after that, he’ll be on pace to win just 31.6 games.
So the message is clear. In this age of five-man rotations, pitchers that want to post huge win totals have to win almost every time out. Look at it this way. If Webb pitches every fifth game, that’s 32 starts. Even if Webb pitches every 4.5 games — occasionally getting bumped up for rainouts and off days — that’s just 36 starts.
Think about that. To reach 30 wins, a pitcher today has to win five out of every six starts.
Brandon Webb is not going to win 30 games. But if any pitcher is ever going to make a run at it, the only way to do it is with a quick start. And winning your first eight starts is most definitely a quick start.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Until baseball administrators change the five man rotation, we will never again see a 30 game winner. Heck, we almost never see 20 game winners anymore. Not only that but the starters only pitch about 6 innings. If they only pitch 6 innings, why can’t they make a start every 5 days. Money thats why. Pitchers are worth too much money. Money IS the root of all evil.just like Mom told you!!!