Do You Know …
What Happened to the 20-Game Winners?
Something must have happened. They seemingly are becoming an endangered species in major league baseball.
This year, the Cy Young Award winner in both the American League and the National League won't be a 20-game winner, the game's traditional standard for single-season pitching excellence.
That's because there was no 20-game winner in the major leagues.
This is only the fifth season since 1920 (and the introduction of the "lively" ball) in which the major leagues failed to produce even a single 20-game winner. It's the second time this decade that both leagues lacked a 20-game winner. The other three seasons with no 20-game winner were 1981, 1994 and 1995 ... all strike-impacted seasons.
The 1960s produced 73 20-game winners in both major leagues. The peak year during that decade was 1969, when 15 pitchers won 20 or more games. That's more 20-game winners than the National League has produced in the last 10 years combined. And it's only one less than the NL produced during the 1990s and one more than the league produced in the 1980s.
 The American League hasn't been much more prolific at producing 20-game winners during the last three decades. The AL has turned out 19 since 2000, 18 20-game winners in the 1990s, and 22 in the 1980s. The American League produced 12 20-game winners in 1973 alone, and 64 during the 1970s.
By the way, the peak decade for 20-game winners was the 1970s, which produced 96 ... six more than the 1920s. The 1960s finished a distant third with 73 for the decade.
Here's how 20-game winners break out, decade by decade:
20-Game Winners, Decade by Decade
| |
American League |
National League |
Major League Total |
| 1920s |
47 |
43 |
90 |
| 1930s |
39 |
28 |
67 |
| 1940a |
27 |
27 |
54 |
| 1950s |
30 |
30 |
60 |
| 1960s |
30 |
43 |
73 |
| 1970s |
64 |
32 |
96 |
| 1980s |
22 |
14 |
36 |
| 1990s |
18 |
16 |
34 |
| 2000s |
19 |
14 |
33 |
So what explains the decline? Probably two things. First there has been a general decline in pitching effectiveness at the major league level, as documented in Baseball's Real Golden Age? You Decide. 
The other reason is that today's starters are pitching fewer innings in fewer starts. Ace starters in the 1960s (and earlier) were expected to take the ball every fourth day and go deep into the game ... even finish a majority of their starts. With the advent of free agency in the 1970s, good starters became more expensive, too expensive to risk with too many innings. So complete game expectations have dropped precipitously in the last three decades.
And on the whole, today's starters are costing more and delivering less.
 In an era of lowered expectations in so many areas of life, I wonder when the 15-game winner will become the accepted standard for excellence among starting pitchers.
Did we see the last of the 30-game winners in 1968? And at this rate, what are the chances that we'll ever see another 300-game winner?
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