Quote:
Originally Posted by timn1
I dunno guys, I guess I'm just contrary, and I agree that Johnson was the greatest pitcher of all time, but . . . I don't see the whole "if he hadn't been on such wretched teams" argument.
I figure the Senators' W/L record while he was on the team (August 2, 1907 through 1927) at 1531-1559 - that's .49546.
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This is a little misleading though. To truly measure how good they were, we need to know how they performed when he wasn't pitching. He was so good that logic says they won games with him they wouldn't have otherwise. For example, in 1914, the Senators were 24-15 when he started and 30-18 when he pitched at all. They finished 81-73. So they were under .500 when he didn't start and multiple games under .500 when he pitched at all.
I'm not seeing a fast way on BBRef to get the team's record in games he pitched without looking at each individual season. However, even if we look at just his pitching decisions, he was 417-279, for a winning percentage of .599. If we take those decisions off the top of the totals you listed, the team is now 1114-1280 for a winning percentage of .465. That's 71 wins a year in a 154-game schedule. 71-83 is pretty terrible, especially over a 20+ year span.