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Looking To Sign A Workhorse F.A. Starting Pitcher?

Posted by Steve Lombardi on January 16, 2009

Today, I was wondering, from 2002 through 2008, how many big league pitchers younger than age 29 have posted four or more seasons where they made at least 32 starts, threw at least 190 innings, and won at least 10 games?

Look at the list:

                   From  To   Ages Seasons
+-----------------+----+----+-----+-------+
 Jon Garland       2002 2008 22-28       7
 Barry Zito        2002 2007 24-29       6
 Mark Buehrle      2002 2008 23-29       6
 Johan Santana     2004 2008 25-29       5
 John Lackey       2003 2007 24-28       5
 Javier Vazquez    2002 2006 25-29       5
 Roy Oswalt        2002 2007 24-29       5
 Brandon Webb      2005 2008 26-29       4
 Danny Haren       2005 2008 24-27       4
 Dontrelle Willis  2004 2007 22-25       4
 Jason Marquis     2004 2007 25-28       4
 Carlos Zambrano   2003 2007 22-26       4

We can see that Jon Garland is the only pitcher to make this cut in all seven seasons (between 2002 and 2008).  Is that young and durable, or what?

2 Responses to “Looking To Sign A Workhorse F.A. Starting Pitcher?”

  1. Raphy Says:

    Interesting list. Garland is the 10th pitcher to start his career after 1980 (99th since 1901) and throw 1600+ innings through his age 28 season. (Of course the strikes must have had some effect on some pitchers.)

    http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/JcaS

  2. TheGoof Says:

    It makes sense to target a young, winning, durable pitcher. But you never know when a pitcher will fall apart. Still, most of the guys on Raphy's list from the last 30 years proved at the least useful after that point, some going strong as starters for another decade. It would be hard to find a better group to gamble on.