My friend Bill Gilbert religiously tracks the top hitters and pitchers across MLB every season in the Triple Crown categories. There has not been a true Triple Crown winner in the American League since Boston’s Carl Yastrzemski in 1967 and in the Senior Circuit for 73 years, since former Cardinal great Joe “Ducky” Medwick accomplished the feat in 1937.
As a measure of annual individual excellence short of the actual Triple Crown, Bill tracks what he has labeled “Triple Milestones”. They are predefined thresholds in the six Triple Crown categories, three for hitters and three more for hurlers in an unofficial pitching version. When a player achieves all three, he is deemed to be having a pretty darned good season.
Over time, MLB hitters have done very well in achieving their milestones of a .300 average, 30 home runs and 100 RBI. For example, Albert Pujols is among four players already there in 2009 with three others close. Prior to this season, the hitting mark had been reached 113 times this decade.
It is a much different story on the pitching side, however. In this age of five-man rotations, strict pitch counts and specialization, 20-game winners have become few and far between. Add to that an ERA under three and 200 strikeouts makes achieving the pitching triple milestones a very tall order.
Bill tipped me off that if Adam Wainwright earns a win in his final start this Friday, he will become the first National League pitcher to have 20 wins, 200 strikeouts and an ERA under 3.00 since his teammate Chris Carpenter did it during his Cy Young Award-winning campaign in 2005.
In fact, with a quick query using the invaluable Complete Baseball Encyclopedia, I learned that Wainwright’s pitching Triple Milestone will be just the ninth across MLB this decade, occurring at the rate of about one per year on average.
While Roy Halladay of Toronto did it last year, four of the prior eight triple milestones since 2000 occurred in 2001 and 2002. Randy Johnson was the only pitcher to do it twice.
In the table below, Wainwright’s numbers are a projection, assuming he hits his season average of six strikeouts in his final start, holds his ERA flat and of course, gets that twentieth win.
I further assigned each of the stats a relative ranking from one (best) to nine (worst). The lowest total of the three represents the best balanced Triple Milestone season this decade.
ERA 3.00 or less, wins 20 or more, strikeouts 200 or more, MLB season, 2000-2009
| Rank | Year | Cy | ERA | Rank | Wins | Rank | SO | Rank | Total | |
| 1 | Randy Johnson | 2002 | yes | 2.32 | 2 | 24 | 1 | 334 | 2 | 5 |
| 2 | Randy Johnson | 2001 | yes | 2.49 | 3 | 21 | 4 | 372 | 1 | 8 |
| 3 | Pedro Martinez | 2002 | no | 2.26 | 1 | 20 | 7 | 239 | 5 | 13 |
| 4 | Curt Schilling | 2001 | no | 2.98 | 9 | 22 | 2 | 293 | 3 | 14 |
| 5 | Johan Santana | 2004 | yes | 2.61 | 5 | 20 | 7 | 265 | 4 | 16 |
| 6 | Chris Carpenter | 2005 | yes | 2.83 | 7 | 21 | 4 | 213 | 6 | 17 |
| 7 | Adam Wainwright* | 2009 | TBD | 2.58 | 4 | 20 | 7 | 210 | 7 | 18 |
| 8 | Esteban Loaiza | 2003 | no | 2.90 | 8 | 21 | 4 | 207 | 8 | 20 |
| 9 | Roy Halladay | 2008 | no | 2.78 | 6 | 20 | 7 | 206 | 9 | 22 |
* projected
Wainwright’s 2009 season is projected to be seventh-best this decade, right behind Carpenter in 2005 at number six. Johnson’s two dominating seasons in 2001 and 2002 were the best of the best.
Oh yes, I also noted which pitchers took home the Cy Young Award for their respective Triple Milestone seasons.
Four made it while four did not, with Wainwright to tip the balance in one direction or the other. (Pedro Martinez and Halladay had previously each taken home the hardware as well, making a total of six former Cy Young Award winners among the eight.)
Update: The Cardinals manager and bullpen let Wainwright down on Friday. The pitcher ends with 19 wins, 212 strikeouts and a 2.63 ERA.
His major obstacle is staying focused and not be distracted by the significance, or insignificance of this game. I hope his team mates give him a gift of about 6 runs through 4 innings. He deserves that from them. Thats you Albert.
Thanks boys. Thanks Albert.
This is the question………full rested bull pen……. and Tony doesn’t have it ready…..or is reluctant to use it. And why is Molina in there if he can’t move?
Tony just sacrificed Wainrights game to justify the announcement of Smoltz to the pen. If not, he is simply an AHo-+…………or better yet, remains.
An unusually lusty boo of the homies there.
Lets see some rage guys, Albert.
Pujols had a miss hit hustle double……..a first pitch hit and run….. a double play…. and a single off the label………………… Glaus is gone……..Boggs is gone………k.Green should be gone…….. Smoltz will go to the pen. Yadi looking in at the dugout obviously had Tony pissed at him. He won’t play till Wednesday now. He used the Albert…..I gotta play, I”m a hero card……… oops!
“All genuine epiphanies seem to follow this model: Their defining quality is the relinquishment of delusion. The initial fear is that one has lost something. A cherished self-conception must be given up, and one feels diminished by it. This is mistaken, however. A person discovers that he has been made stronger by the jettisoning of this sham and disadvantageous baggage. In fact, he has become more ‘himself’, by aligning his self concept more closely with fact.” Quote from author Steven Pressfield.
Solid BB.
Who would argue against the value of “aligning one’s self concept more closely with fact”? Yet, I am still feeling demoralized and debilitated by what Brian has accurately called a “horror show”. The belief that Adam could earn his 20th and that our boys could “give him a gift of about 6 runs through 4 innings” was no “sham” or “disadvantageous baggage” that needed to be so miserably jettisoned. I am confident, however, that the team’s realignment of the collective self concept is already beginning to build character. But it surely must be difficult for even the most resilient and lion-hearted player to rise above the lack of good judgment of the one who mismanages him. But what do I know? I’m just a stupid fan whose sun rises and sets upon his beloved Cardinals, win or lose.
Tony had every right to expect KMac to preform. The truth of the matter is that he is often recording stats against inferior teams. As a seasoned pitcher he has little going. The problem here is the Tony is overly depended on guys to play a roll, and quite frankly, many are not prepared. We may soon discover that Franklin is out of it……………..better discovered now than latter. We all decided here that Motte should be conditional post season guy. He is. And Tony throws him in the crunch. This could all for the best. The luckiest man alive may well have had home field revenues all through the playoff. Now the Brewers, who were a beaten dog, are untucked and feeding on bird. Thats gonna hurt. Root for LA, because if the Rockies win home field…….yikes.