At the close of the 2006 baseball season, there were 11 active pitchers
with 200 or more career wins. With the possible exception of
Roger Clemens, all are currently scheduled to return for the 2007
season.
Okay, maybe David Wells (3-5, 4.42) is done, too, but it's possible that all 11 will be in uniform next season, and joined in the "200 Club" by John Smoltz (who has 193) and Andy Pettitte (186).
What's so unusual about all this? Well ...
... let's say all 13 are in play next season. Six of those 13 -- Tom Glavine, Randy Johnson, Wells, Jamie Moyer, Kenny Rogers and Pettitte -- throw left-handed. Why is that so unusual, you may ask?
Maybe, I thought, it isn't. Lefties do tend to get to stick around pretty much as long as they want (see: "John, Tommy"), so I went to look at the list of career wins leaders. Did you realize that just three of the top 20 winners of all time (Warren Spahn, Steve Carlton and Eddie Plank) were left-handed?
Of the 100 or so MLB pitchers who have cracked 200 wins, just a bit more than 20 percent were lefties. That about squares with populational averages, as the FAQ maintained by alt.lefthanders puts the current estimate at 13-30 percent, depending on who's doing the estimating.
So what's the deal with the current crop of big winners? If Clemens retires and Wells doesn't, fully half of active 200-game winners will be lefties. Is it too small of a sample to consider? Is it random chance? Are lefties actually hanging around longer and winning more now than in the days of ... oh, wait. The three winningest lefties of all time, Spahn, Carlton and Plank, pitched until they were 44, 43 and 41, respectively.
Incidentally, five of the top 12 pitchers in career winning percentage are lefties, while that's true for just 22 of the top 100.
So what's the deal?
Okay, maybe David Wells (3-5, 4.42) is done, too, but it's possible that all 11 will be in uniform next season, and joined in the "200 Club" by John Smoltz (who has 193) and Andy Pettitte (186).
What's so unusual about all this? Well ...
... let's say all 13 are in play next season. Six of those 13 -- Tom Glavine, Randy Johnson, Wells, Jamie Moyer, Kenny Rogers and Pettitte -- throw left-handed. Why is that so unusual, you may ask?
Maybe, I thought, it isn't. Lefties do tend to get to stick around pretty much as long as they want (see: "John, Tommy"), so I went to look at the list of career wins leaders. Did you realize that just three of the top 20 winners of all time (Warren Spahn, Steve Carlton and Eddie Plank) were left-handed?
Of the 100 or so MLB pitchers who have cracked 200 wins, just a bit more than 20 percent were lefties. That about squares with populational averages, as the FAQ maintained by alt.lefthanders puts the current estimate at 13-30 percent, depending on who's doing the estimating.
So what's the deal with the current crop of big winners? If Clemens retires and Wells doesn't, fully half of active 200-game winners will be lefties. Is it too small of a sample to consider? Is it random chance? Are lefties actually hanging around longer and winning more now than in the days of ... oh, wait. The three winningest lefties of all time, Spahn, Carlton and Plank, pitched until they were 44, 43 and 41, respectively.
Incidentally, five of the top 12 pitchers in career winning percentage are lefties, while that's true for just 22 of the top 100.
So what's the deal?
