Win-loss record

A pitcher's Win-loss record represents the number of wins and losses that he has accumulated over a given period. It is sometimes called a won-loss record even if that is technically erroneous.

The win-loss record is used to calculate winning percentage. At a time when most pitching decisions were attributed to starting pitchers, the record was a significant tool in measuring how efficient a given pitcher had been: a large number of wins was a positive, while a large number of losses was negative, and a record with significantly more wins was positive, while one with more losses was not. This is a lot less so in the 21st century, when the share of pitching decisions that go to the starting pitcher has been reduced significantly. Thus, a pitcher like Jacob deGrom, clearly one of the best of his generation, won back-to-back Cy Young Awards with win-loss records of 10-9 and 11-8 in 2018 and 2019 respectively, something that would have been unthinkable only a couple of decades earlier.