<P> For a player to accomplish this, he would have to average 25 wins in 20 seasons just to get to 500 . In the past 38 years, only 3 pitchers (Ron Guidry in 1978, Bob Welch in 1990, and Steve Stone in 1980) have had one season with 25 wins . Between 2000 and 2009, the Major League leader finished each year with an average of 21 . Only two active players have even 200 wins, with the 45 - year - old Bartolo Colón leading with 241 wins and the 37 - year - old CC Sabathia just behind at 239 . </P> <P> Set by Old Hoss Radbourn, in 1884 . Most pitchers in today's game start 30--35 games per season, and thus do not start enough games to break the record . The most games started by a pitcher in the 2017 season was 34, accomplished by Chris Archer, and only three pitchers in the 21st century have started more than 35 games in a season (Tom Glavine in 2002 and Roy Halladay and Greg Maddux in 2003, each with 36 starts). Although relief pitchers often appear in more than the requisite number of games, they rarely record ten wins in a season . To put this record in further perspective, the last pitcher to win 30 games in a season was Denny McLain in 1968 and the last pitcher to win 25 games in a season was Bob Welch in 1990 . Also, the most wins in a season by any pitcher in the 21st century is 24, by Randy Johnson in 2002 and Justin Verlander in 2011 . </P> <P> Set by Cy Young, 1890--1911 . Highlights of this record include: nine 40 - complete - game seasons, eighteen 30 - complete - game seasons and completing 92 percent of his total career starts (an all - time record of 815). The next closest player is Pud Galvin, who has 103 fewer complete games at 646 . Among pitchers whose entire careers were in the live - ball era, the most is 382 by Warren Spahn . </P> <P> For a player to accomplish this, he would have to average 30 complete games over 25 seasons to get to 750 . Between 2000 and 2009, the Major League leaders in complete games averaged 8 per season, and only two pitchers in the 21st century have had 10 complete games in any season (CC Sabathia with 10 in 2008 and James Shields with 11 in 2011). In addition, only two pitchers other than Young have even started as many as 749 games--Nolan Ryan (773) and Don Sutton (756). The closest active player is Sabathia with 38 complete games . </P>

Who is the number one pitcher in the mlb