Major league pitchers beating all 30 teams
Major league pitchers beating all 30 teams
Since 1998, there have been 30 teams in major league baseball. It is very rare for a pitcher to record a win against every team. In earlier times, two things conspired to make it nearly impossible to defeat all teams in both leagues (even before expansion increased the number to 30):
- Before the era of free-agency, in which players are free to move to another team, a pitcher would play for only a few teams, and could not, of course, win a game against his own team.
- Before inter-league play, a pitcher would see only half of the 30 teams in any single season, unless traded to a team in the other league. Even with inter-league play, a pitcher may not have his spot in a typical 5-man rotation match the games in the single 3- or 4-game series with a team, and only a few teams from the other are played in any season.
In any case, it is more likely to be possible only if a pitcher has a long career. Assuming a top notch pitcher manages to win against every team that season, it will still only be 19 teams, unless he was traded. It is far more likely that his wins will come against 10-12 teams, most of which he has already beaten.
As of mid-season 2015, there are 15 pitchers who have accomplished this feat. This list is compiled from the list published[1] when Dan Haren achieved the feat in 2013, another Article written at the time by Chris Jaffe[2] plus news reports about Kyle Lohse and Tim Hudson afterwards.
- Al Leiter, April 30, 2002
- Randy Johnson
- Barry Zito
- A. J. Burnett
- Kevin Brown
- Terry Mulholland
- Curt Schilling
- Woody Williams
- Jamie Moyer
- Javier Vázquez, July 21, 2010
- Vicente Padilla
- Derek Lowe
- Dan Haren, August 8, 2013[1]
- Kyle Lohse,[3]
- Tim Hudson, July 26, 2015[4]
- John Lackey, April 18, 2016 http://m.mlb.com/news/article/173145090/john-lackey-beats-cardinals-in-first-matchup
References
- 1 2 "Washington Nationals right-hander Dan Haren tops the Philadelphia Phillies to become the 13th pitcher to beat all 30 Major League teams". Major League Baseball.
- ↑ Chris Jaffe. "Lohse goes for pitching history tonight". The Hardball Times.
- ↑ Fox Sports. "Milwaukee Brewers' Kyle Lohse completes rare feat with defeat of Minnesota Twins". FOX Sports.
- ↑ "Hudson beats his former A's, now has W against all 30 teams". Yahoo! Sports. 27 July 2015.