Pitchers Who Have Lost 20 Games in a Season and Still Gotten a Winning Record and a Kellogg's Card - Knuckleballers of Course!

Since World War II a pitcher has lost 20 games in a season a total of 45 times.  Only Mike Maroth (2003) has managed to do this since 1980.  All of the pitchers on the list were primarily starting pitchers.

Well known pitchers on the list include Don Larsen, Hall-of-Famer Robin Roberts, Roger Craig (twice in a row), Mel Stottlemyre, Luis Tiant, Denny McLain, Stan Bahnsen, Hall-of-Famer Steve Carlton, Wilbur Wood (twice) Mickey Lolich, Randy Jones, Steve Rogers, Jerry Koosman and Hall-of-Famer Phil Niekro (twice).

Wilbur Wood and Phil Niekro are on the list because they got more starts each year since they threw the knuckleball.  Only Wood and Niekro managed to have a winning record when losing 20 games in a season after WWII.

Both pitchers finished around half of their games in these seasons which meant a lot fewer no-decision games.  Wood started 48 games in one of the seasons and his record was 24-20.  Niekro started 44 games and had a record of 21-20.



Niekro had only three no decisions in that season because he completed 23 of his starts.  For his career he completed 245 of his 716 starts (34.2%).

Wood, who was a relief pitcher for years, completed 114 of his 297 career starts (38.4%).

In more recent times, Greg Maddux finished 109 games in his career out of 740 starts (14.7%) and Tom Glavine completed 56 of his 683 starts (8.2%).