Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective

List of Major League Baseball annual wins leaders

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

List of Major League Baseball annual wins leaders
Remove ads

Major League Baseball recognizes the player or players in each league[a] with the most wins each season.[b] In baseball, wins are a statistic used to evaluate pitchers. Credit for a win is given by the official scorer to the pitcher whose team takes and maintains the lead while he is the pitcher of record. If a game is tied or if the lead changes to the other team, all pitchers who have participated and exited the game to that point are unable to receive credit for the victory. A starting pitcher is ineligible for the win unless he pitches at least five innings; if he doesn't, but nevertheless leaves his team with a lead that it never relinquishes (a rather uncommon combination),[1] the scorer awards the victory to the relief pitcher who was "most effective... in the official scorer's judgment".[2]

Thumb
Dennis McLain, 1968 American League wins leader, with 31; this was the last time a pitcher has won thirty.
Remove ads

History

Summarize
Perspective

The National League's first win champion was Albert Spalding, who led the senior circuit with 47 wins after leading the semi-professional National Association in each of its five seasons. Hall of Fame pitcher Cy Young led the American League in wins in each of its first three years (1901–1903), amassing 33, 32, and 28 victories in those seasons for the Boston Americans.[3] Warren Spahn leads all players with 8 win championships in his 21 seasons for the Boston and Milwaukee Braves.[4]

Six titles

Thumb
Bob Feller: six time AL Wins Champion

Three players have led their league in wins six times during their careers. Grover Cleveland Alexander led the National League in victories six times, with a single-season career-high 33 wins in 1916.[5] In the American League, two pitchers have accomplished the same feat: Walter Johnson, whose 36 wins in 1913—his first season leading the league—were a single-season career high,[6] and Bob Feller.[7]

Five and four titles

In addition to his three American League wins, Young also led the National League twice (1892, 1895) to amass the third-highest total of win championships in major league history.[3] Joe McGinnity and Tom Glavine also captured five wins titles in the National League.[8][9] Pitchers who have led their league four times include Steve Carlton,[10] Roger Clemens,[11] Christy Mathewson,[12] Hal Newhouser,[13] and Robin Roberts.[14]

Most wins in a Major League season

Thumb
Charles Radbourn holds the Major League single-season record for most games won.

Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn holds the single-season record for the most games won in a major league season; he notched 59 victories in 1884.[15] There is a discrepancy in Radbourn's victory total in 1884. The classic MacMillan Baseball Encyclopedia as well as other sources credit Radbourn with 60 wins (against 12 losses), while other sources place his win total as high as 62. He and John Clarkson (53 wins in 1885) are the only pitchers to exceed 50 wins in a single season in the current major leagues; Guy Hecker also accomplished the feat in the American Association.[15] The American League leader is Jack Chesbro, who won 41 games for the New York Highlanders in 1904; his total is the highest since 1901.[15][16] The highest total in the National League since 1901 is Mathewson's 37 victories in 1908.[12][15] The largest margin of victory for the title is 21 wins, achieved by Clarkson in 1889; he won 49 games,[17] while his closest competitors (Charlie Buffinton and Tim Keefe) won 28 each.[18][19] The American League title's largest margin of victory is 16 wins: Ed Walsh notched 40 wins in 1908,[20] followed by Addie Joss and Ed Summers with 24 victories.[21][22]

The number of wins required to lead the league each season has gone down significantly over the last century. For example, from 1900 to 1920, the average number of wins for the AL league leader was 30.8, while from 2004 to 2024 (excluding the COVID-shortened 2020 season), it was 19.8.

Ties

Ties for the win championship are common. The most recent tie in the American League was in 2012, when Jered Weaver and David Price tied for the lead with 20 wins each, and the most recent tie in the National League was in 2011, when Ian Kennedy and Clayton Kershaw tied with 21 wins each. The most pitchers to share the title in a single season is six, accomplished in 2006 when Aaron Harang, Derek Lowe, Brad Penny, John Smoltz, Brandon Webb, and Carlos Zambrano each won 16 games in the National League. In the American League, four pitchers shared the award in the strike-shortened 1981 season.

Remove ads

Key

More information Year, Champion(s) ...
Remove ads

National League

Thumb
Tommy Bond won the triple crown in 1877, leading the National League in wins, strikeouts, and earned run average.
Thumb
Grover Cleveland Alexander led the National League in wins six times in ten seasons.
Thumb
Hall of Famer Joe McGinnity captured the National League win championship five times.
Thumb
Kid Nichols led the National League in wins three consecutive seasons (1896–1898).
Thumb
Robin Roberts led the National League in wins four years in a row (1952–1955).
Thumb
Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax led the NL in wins three times before retiring at the age of 30.
Thumb
Jake Peavy's 19 wins in 2007 led all National League pitchers.
Thumb
2006 Cy Young Award winner Brandon Webb led the National League with 22 wins in 2008.
Thumb
Adam Wainwright (19 wins) and St. Louis Cardinals teammate Chris Carpenter (17 wins) were first and second in the 2009 win table, respectively.
More information Year, Champion(s) ...
Remove ads

American League

Thumb
Addie Joss led the American League in wins in 1907.
Thumb
In addition to leading the American League in wins six times in his career and winning three triple crowns, Walter Johnson was one of the five charter members of the Baseball Hall of Fame.[172]
Thumb
Joe Wood's 34 wins in 1912 were a career-high.[173]
Thumb
Roger Clemens won the most American League games in 1986 & 1987 for the Red Sox and 1997 & 1998 for the Blue Jays.
Thumb
Dave Stewart won 20 games in 1987, finishing second in AL wins the following three seasons.
Thumb
Josh Beckett's 20 wins in 2007 were best in the American League.
Thumb
Cliff Lee captured the Cy Young Award in 2008 in addition to winning 22 games.
Thumb
Félix Hernández won 19 games in 2009, one of three pitchers to do so.
Thumb
CC Sabathia started Game 1 of the 2009 World Series after winning 19 games for the Yankees that season.
Thumb
Justin Verlander also led the American League in strikeouts and innings pitched in 2009.
Thumb
Johan Santana, 2006 AL Triple Crown winner
More information Year, Leader ...
Remove ads

Other major leagues

Thumb
Claude Hendrix led the Federal League with 29 wins in its inaugural season.
Remove ads

Footnotes

Remove ads

References

Loading related searches...

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Remove ads