Teams with three 20-game winners.

In the baseball season just concluded, Dontrelle Willis of the Florida Marlins, Chris Carpenter of the St. Louis Cardinals, Roy Oswalt of the Houston Astros and Bartolo Colon of the Los Angeles Angels were baseball's only 20 game winners. In 2004, Curt Schilling won 21 games for the Boston Red

Sox, Johan Santana won 20 for the Minnesota Twins, and Roy Oswalt won 20 for the Houston Astros. No other pitcher won as many as 20 games in Major League Baseball. In a climate where wins are spread thin among pitching staffs populated by five starters, swingmen, middle relievers, setup men, and closers, a pitcher who wins 20 games during a single season has become a rarity.

Even more unusual is a team that fields multiple 20-game winners. In 2002, Red Sox Pedro Martinez and Derek Lowe were both 20-game winners, as were Diamondbacks Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson. There have been no such duos since.

Will we ever again see a staff with three 20-game winners during the same season? It has never been commonplace, but it is certainly not unprecedented. Since 1901, 23 teams have fielded staffs with at least three 20-game winners in a single season, eight from the NL, 14 from the AL, and one from the short-lived Federal League. It has not happened, however, since the 1973 Oakland Athletics garnered 21 wins each from Catfish Hunter and Ken Holtzman, and 20 from Vida Blue. Between 1901 and 1920, 15 teams had three pitchers notch at least 20 wins in the same season. Since then only eight have done so, and none have done so in over 30 years.

Although the A's with their three aces won the 1973 World Series over the New York Mets, fielding three 20-game winners is not a guarantee for a championship. In fact, of the 24 teams that have accomplished the feat since 1901, only 13 have won pennants, and of the 19 that played during a season in which there was a World Series, only five won the title. Two teams have had four 20-game winners on the roster, but neither won the World Series, and in fact, the 1920 White Sox did not even win the pennant, finishing two games behind the Indians. The 1971 Baltimore Orioles, with Dave McNally winning 21 and Pat Dobson, Mike Cuellar, and Jim Palmer victorious in 20 each, lost the World Series to the Pittsburgh Pirates, who had no 20-game winners. Of course, as expected, it's difficult to post a losing record with three 20-game winners on a staff, and no such team has ever finished worse than third.