By Geoff Walter / SNY.tv

 

 

Let's get something straight -- Tom Glavine is not a true Met. He spent the vast majority of his career with Atlanta, getting 242 of his 300 victories there. His resume in New York is far less impressive; he's 58-54 with them since 2003. Greg Maddux was the most recent pitcher to win his 300th game, in the 2004 season with the Cubs, but will Glavine be the last? Of the 23 pitchers who have achieved the feat of 300 wins, only three are active: Roger Clemens, Maddux, and Glavine. If you look at the records, most of the pitchers on the list won their 300th game before 1925. The only other active pitcher close to 300 is Randy Johnson with 284 victories, and he's about to undergo back surgery (shades of his years with the Yankees anyone?). Meanwhile, Glavine has never had a stint on the DL in his entire career. sign of Moises Alou, they would have picked 29th, still far out of the jackpot numbers.

 

It takes more than just staying healthy to compile 300 wins in baseball today. It takes the ability to adapt to different situations over the course of decades, and to pitch deep into games -- something seen less and less on the diamond today by pitchers who are only lasting five or six innings and who no longer set out to finish their games but to tuck tail and turn it over to the bullpen. There is also the matter that there are no four-man rotations anymore, with five now the norm. That cuts into the greatest factor working against a pitcher: time. At 41, Glavine is the sixth-oldest pitcher to make the 300 club. You can take pitches out of an arm, but you can't put them back in. Take young Yankee phenom Phil Hughes for example. Even if he does indeed turn out to be the next Roger Clemens as everyone projects and wants, will he be willing to wait for 19 or 20 years for his chance at No. 300?

Wanna argue with the Ref? Don't like the call? Go ahead and make your own!