From a combination of my “This Date” article posted today about pitcher Jouett Meekin and my article about Tim Wakefield and what pitchers won the most games after the they left the Pirates, I decided to figure out which pitchers won the most games prior to putting on a Pirates uniform for the first time. The list goes 26 deep for a reason as you will see and the players are as follows:
1. Jim McCormick 252
2. Luis Tiant 225
3. Pud Galvin* 222
4. Gus Weyhing 216
5. Waite Hoyt* 195
6. Jim Bunning* 192
7. Bullet Joe Bush 188
8. Brickyard Kennedy 178
9. Guy Hecker 173
10.Danny Darwin 155
11. Jeff Pfeffer 153
12t. Jouett Meekin 152
12t. Guy Bush 152
14. Vic Willis* 151
15. Silver King 143
16t. Joe Coleman 142
16t. Harry Gumbert 142
18t. Sam McDowell 139
18t. Rick Reuschel 139
20. Ramon Martinez 135
21. Adonis Terry 126
22. Danny MacFayden 125
23. Jim Bagby 124
24t. Bert Blyleven* 122
24t. Chan Ho Park 122
26. AJ Burnett 121
Not surprisingly, a lot of these guys were near the end of their career. Galvin still had 143 wins left in him and Blyleven had 165 but guys like Martinez, Meekin and Coleman all had no wins after joining the Pirates. The leader, Jim McCormick, went 13-23 in his only season with Pittsburgh during the team’s first year in the NL. The leader among this group with wins as a member of the Pirates? Galvin with 126 followed by Vic Willis with 89 over just four seasons, all 20 win seasons. Then for third place it drops all the way down to Waite Hoyt with 35 followed closely by Blyleven with 34. That means the top four win leaders among this group were all Hall of Famers.
