First Time in History - No 20 Game Winners

[TexasTerror]

I wouldn't of even thought about it if this article didn't come out. No 20 game winners? Are there just no dominant pitchers? Okay, there are. But, there are obviously more factors in getting to those 20 wins.

Roy Oswalt was a 20-game winner the last two seasons, the only pitcher to have such designation. So, why were there no 20 game winners? Bad offense? Pitchers not having their strong stuff? Too many blown saves?
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Absence of 20-game winners: emerging trend or statistical anomaly?
By MIKE FITZPATRICK, AP Baseball Writer
September 30, 2006

NEW YORK (AP) -- Standing by the first base dugout at Yankee Stadium, Jim Palmer and Orel Hershiser were talking shop.

With four Cy Young Awards between 'em, it was intricate stuff about pitching -- release points, stretch positions, unfolding front elbows.

And the fact that this year there won't be a 20-game winner in a full major league season for the first time in baseball history.

"I don't think pitchers should take it personally," said Palmer, a Hall of Famer who won 20 games eight times for Baltimore. "I don't think it will be a trend. It's not like global warming."

OK, so maybe this season was a statistical anomaly.

After all, there were four 20-game winners in the majors last year, three in 2004.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-onbaseball-20wins&prov=ap&type=lgns

[ngineer]

I thought about that a few nights ago. I knew no one in the NL would do it, but I thought someone in the AL would get it done.
I think the way the game is managed is some of the reason. Managers are so much quicker to pull the starter now. So the middle relievers are getting more wins and losses due to the lead changes occuring between the 5th and 9th innings. Years ago it was nothing for a starter to have 270-330 inning pitched. Now it is rare for a starter to get close to 300 innings.

[Mr. C]

It has everything to do with stupid stuff like pitch counts and the fact that no one completes games anymore. The five-man rotation steals five-to-eight starts away from the top pitchers, too. All of this leads to mediocrity among pitchers.