Wins Leader By Season

[TonySoprano]

Dedicated to @Moose Milligan  
If not for the strike-shortened 1994-95 seasons, Mussina could've had a 20 win season for the Orioles, maybe two.  The last to do so were Stone (25) and McGregor (20), both in 1980 and Mike Boddicker in 1984.  Moose led the team in wins in 6 of his 10 seasons here. 
Will Bundy reach double-digit wins this season?  The last time the team leader didn't reach 10 wins was...you guessed it...1988.

Orioles Wins Leader By Season
2018 Bundy (7)
2017 Bundy (13)
2016 Tillman (16)
2015 Jimenez (12)
2014 Chen (16)
2013 Tillman (16)
2012 Chen (12)
2011 Britton (11) - yeah, who remembered that?
2010 Guthrie (11)
2009 Guthrie (10)
2008 Guthrie (10)
2007 Bedard (13)
2006 Bedard (15)
2005 Lopez (15)
2004 Lopez (14)
2003 Ponson (14)
2002 Lopez (15)
2001 Johnson (10)
2000 Mercedes (14)
1999 Mussina (18)
1998 Erickson (16)
1997 Erickson (16)
1996 Mussina (19)
1995 Mussina (19) - 144 G season
1994 Mussina (16) - 112 G season
1993 Mussina (14)
1992 Mussina (18)
1991 Milacki (10)
1990 Johnson (13)
1989 Ballard (18)
1988 Ballard/Schmidt (8)

[Flacco Machado]

Wow, completely forgot Britton had that many wins.

[TonySoprano]

2 minutes ago, Flacco Machado said:

Wow, completely forgot Britton had that many wins.

Second place that season was some guy named Arrieta (10)

[Flacco Machado]

13 minutes ago, TonySoprano said:

Second place that season was some guy named Arrieta (10)

What a bum.

[WarehouseChatter]

Boddicker with the last 20 win season.  Wow.  Most of that due to the game changing, but after having 20 game winners from ‘68 to ‘81, we’ve had 1 (Boddicker) in 37 years!

[Frobby]

27 minutes ago, OrangeBlackBird said:

Boddicker with the last 20 win season.  Wow.  Most of that due to the game changing, but after having 20 game winners from ‘68 to ‘81, we’ve had 1 (Boddicker) in 37 years!

In fairness, it’s become much more rare throughout baseball.   And as Tony highlighted, Mussina had two great shots at it ruined by strike-shortened seasons.  

[WarehouseChatter]

Totally agree.  I would just like us to have a guy that year-in and year-out gives us a shot at 20 wins.  It’s rare - I know.

[TonySoprano]

3 hours ago, Frobby said:

In fairness, it’s become much more rare throughout baseball.   And as Tony highlighted, Mussina had two great shots at it ruined by strike-shortened seasons.  

In 1994, Moose needed 4 wins in 10-11 possible starts if the season hadn't ended.  He had 16 wins in 24 GS, so 4 more was certainly in reach.  Mussina didn't make his first start in 1995 until April 26.  Every other month that year he made 6 starts.  With 19 wins in 32 starts, he should've been able to get one more win in the 4 or 5 starts that were cancelled.  Moose needed one win in his last 4 starts in 1996.  After 2 losses and a ND, he looked like he would get win #20 in his final start, surrendering just 1 ER in 8 IP vs. Toronto.  Davey brought in Armando to get the save, and he failed. In May 1998, Mussina suffered a broken nose courtesy of a comebacker from Sandy Alomar, and he was out over 3 weeks.  For the rest of that season, as he told ESPN's Bob Ley, "It was mentally getting over the fear that every ball I threw, every ball that someone made contact with was not coming back at me. " Mussina ended the year with 18 wins.   

Having said all that, yeah, I get it
Woulda.  Coulda. Shoulda.  But didn't, despite 4 very solid shots at the mark in 5 years.

Back to the question I proposed in the OP, since July, Bundy has an ERA of 7.72 in his last 6 starts.  Bundy needs only 3 wins in the last 9 or 10 possible starts to get to 10.  Averaging a win in every three starts, he may be able to reach that dubious mark.   However, what he really needs more is time off. 

[Moose Milligan]

I understand why wins are a flawed metric.  But to me they mean are you able to go 6+ innings and keep your team in the game, which I am assuming is what they mean to most people.    

A quick look at Nolan Ryan's 8-16 season immediately tells me that he threw a lot of innings,  certainly enough to get a decision in 24 starts out of the 34 starts he made on the season.  Throw in his 2.76 ERA that lead the league that year and it tells me that he had a terrible amount of luck when it came to run support.  I understand why sabermatricians pee all over wins and losses and stuff but I think there's a part to the story that can be told when you look at wins/losses and add in ERA that you can make some quick assumptions on. 

I like Brian Kenny but he gets a little too heavy handed for me when he starts ranting about getting rid of the wins stat.  They're fun to look at and baseball oddball stats are fun.  Ryan's '87 stat line is one of my favorite stat lines of all time, lead the league in ERA, strikeouts, h/9, k/9 (also advanced stats like ERA+ and FIP which weren't around back then) and finishes 5th in the Cy Young.  Maybe the best season in a really illustrious career and he's overlooked cause his team can't score runs for him and he's got double the amount of losses.  2/3 of the pitching triple crown and he can't crack top 3 in Cy Young.  Steve Bedrosian won it that year cause he got 40 saves.  

Anyway, in regards to the list, there are some names on there that bring back fond memories (Erickson, Mussina, Bedard, Chen) some names I'd rather forget (Ponson, Ubaldo, Bob "Wacky" Milacki) and one name I just straight up don't remember (Mercedes).  Had no idea Britton lead the team in wins in 2011, also totally forgot that Ubaldo lead the team in wins as recently as 3 seasons ago.  

[TonySoprano]

[Moose Milligan]

12 minutes ago, TonySoprano said:

I'm honestly drawing a blank.  I kinda remember that dude because, IIRC, he kinda came outta nowhere and pitched pretty well for a really forgettable team and then vanished about as quickly has he appeared.  The only Mercedes I really remember from the Orioles is Luis Mercedes because 10 year old Milligan read somewhere that he was going to be a great hitter and so I hoarded as many cards of his as I could.  Check this out:

 

There's little doubt Luis will become an excellent hitter in the majors, eh?

 

 

[NashLumber]

9 hours ago, Frobby said:

In fairness, it’s become much more rare throughout baseball.   And as Tony highlighted, Mussina had two great shots at it ruined by strike-shortened seasons.  

Heck  of a run by Mussina then. Several fine seasons in a row. 

[weams]

4 hours ago, NashLumber said:

Heck  of a run by Mussina then. Several fine seasons in a row. 

Will he go into the Hall of Very Good as an O?

[bobmc]

33 minutes ago, weams said:

Will he go into the Hall of Very Good as an O?

@Tony-OH doesn't care or rather hopes not.  

I loved Moose unless he was facing "the Big Hurt".  Once he left, I "could care less" or better couldn't care less.

Nice thread @TonySoprano!  I had forgotten Mercedes also but I am just about 75!  

[Moose Milligan]

1 hour ago, weams said:

Will he go into the Hall of Very Good as an O?

I think there's probably a contingent of people out there who don't even know that Mussina was an Oriole and would be shocked to find out that he was.  

I think he goes in as a Yankee, myself because...Evil Empire gets what they want all the time.