The Reds Finally Have A 19 Game Winner

[dgarza]

With Johnny Cueto earning his 19th game this season, I've noticed that the Reds have had one of the longest droughts without having a pitcher to win 19 games. It had been over 2 decades.
It was in 1988 when Danny Jackson won 23.

For the Expos/Nationals team, Gio Gonzalez has 20 wins under his belt so far this season.
In 2002, Bartolo Colon won 20 games, although he split his season between Montreal and Cleveland.
Steve Rogers was the last Expo 19 game winner to get all this wins as an Expo, in 1982.

It got me to thinking of teams that have not had a 20 game winner in a really long time.
And which teams are most and least likely to break that drought soon, in 2012, 2013, 2014, or so.

Never (1998) - Rays
1998 - Rangers - Rick Helling - 20
Never (1993) - Rockies
1993 - Giants - John Burkett - 22
1991 - Pirates - John Smiley - 20
1990 - Mets - Frank Viola - 20
1989 - Royals - Bret Saberhagen - 23
1988 - Reds - Danny Jackson - 23
1986 - Brewers - Teddy Higuera - 20
1984 - Orioles - Mike Boddicker - 20
1978 - Padres - Gaylord Perry - 21

1978 - Expos - Ross Grimsley - 20 - Bartolo Colon won 20 games in 2002, but just 10 as an Expo - Gio Gonzalez finally broke the spell as a National this year

[riverfrontier]

Interestingly enough, those Big Red Machine teams in the 70s never had twenty game winners either, unless you consider 1970 (Jim Merritt) to be one of the 'Machine' years. I consider the start of it to be when Joe Morgan came on board.

Cueto has one more start to make it. He looked to be a lock in early September, but he had a few lousy starts before beating the Brewers.

[Yankillaz]

Let's hope he does it, so the Cy conversation in the NL gets even more interesting.

[dgarza]

Interestingly enough, those Big Red Machine teams in the 70s never had twenty game winners either, unless you consider 1970 (Jim Merritt) to be one of the 'Machine' years.

Or if you consider Tom Seaver in 1977, who split wins between the Mets and the Reds.

I consider the start of it to be when Joe Morgan came on board.

The name actually stuck before Morgan came along. The 1970 team was already known as the Big Red Machine. But the name seems to have been coined in 1969, surprisingly.

[Yankillaz]

Taken from the all mighty wikipedia.org:

The nickname was introduced in a July 4, 1969 article by Bob Hertzel in The Cincinnati Enquirer, but gained prominence in reference to the 1970 team, which posted a regular season record of 102-60 and won the National League pennant.

[dgarza]

I've also seen this :

http://www.todayinbaseball.com/cms/08046912-reds

Tim Crothers, the author of Greatest Teams, published by Sports Illustrated in 1998, claims “Big Red Machine” first appeared in print August 4, 1969 after the Reds and Philadelphia Phillies slugged it out the night before.

The Reds survived 19-17. Pete Rose was quoted in the August 4th papers saying, “We scored so many runs and it was still a close game, but the Big Red Machine did it again and we're in first place.” Crothers said Rose was inspired by a 1934 Ford he once had which he called “Little Red Machine.” The story the Associated Press told on August 14, 1969 was that Big Red Machine was coined by Reds Manager Dave Bristol.



And this :

http://dodgershistory.mlblogs.com/tag/big-red-machine/

Los Angeles sportswriter Bob Hunter coined the nickname “Big Red Machine” in 1969 and the next season the Reds were rolling to the N.L. pennant under rookie manager Sparky Anderson.

[riverfrontier]

I didn't know that about the coining of the phrase. I thought it was mostly referring to the 75-76 teams.

Anyway, I remember having Merritt's baseball card and noticing he won 20 games with an ERA over 4.00, which was one of the first indicators in my young baseball mind that wins were not the best way of evaluating pitchers.

It's funny that on such a consistently good team, (70s Reds) and in an era of baseball when pitching 300 innings was not unheard of that the Jack Billingham, Clay Kirby, Don Gullett, Fred Norman, Gary Nolan, etc. never wound up winning 20. Perhaps Sparky's 'Captain Hook' nickname had more substance behind it than I thought.