"Why Roy Halladay will win 300 career games"

"Why Roy Halladay will win 300 career games"

An interesting historical analysis.

Before reading this article, I had not realized that Early Wynn was considered (and considered himself) the last of the 300-game winners in 1963. The argument seemed to make some sense. Only three men had won 300 games in a career since 1924, complete games were following the dodo bird into extinction, and relief pitching specialists were starting to take over more of the pitching workload. Nobody followed Wynn for almost two decades.

But then they started coming in droves, six of them within eight years. When that generation played itself out following Nolan Ryan's 300th win, people then buzzed that HE would be the last 300-game winner.

But there have been four more since then, including #6 and #7 of all-time, excluding the 19th century. And we now say that those four will be the last. The author of the article disagrees.

* In general, increased longevity has balanced out the decrease in the number of wins per year.

* In the specific case of Mr. Halladay, the author notes that Doc tosses a lot of innings every year with no apparent strain.

The author supports his point by comparing Halladay to the modern 300-game winners at the same age.