Check out all pitchers since 1901 to record at least 18 wins and an ERA+ of 160 or better in their age 27 season. (Wainwright is now 28, having had his birthday a couple of weeks ago.)

  Cnt Player            Year  W ERA+ Age Tm  Lg  G   GS CG SHO GF  L  W-L% SV   IP   H   R   ER  BB  SO   ERA  HR  BF   AB  2B 3B IBB HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS Pk BK WP   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  OPS+  Pit  Str
+----+-----------------+----+--+----+---+---+--+---+---+--+---+--+--+-----+--+-----+---+---+---+---+---+------+--+----+----+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+----+----+----+
    1 Adam Wainwright   2009 18  161  27 STL NL  30  30  1   0  0  7  .720  0 205   189  64  59  60 175   2.59 15  853  776 31  2   1   3   9   5  17   8  4  1  0  7  .244  .299  .347  .646    0 3186 2035
    2 Johan Santana     2006 19  161  27 MIN AL  34  34  1   0  0  6  .760  0 233.2 186  79  72  47 245   2.77 24  923  862 42  5   0   4   6   4  10   4  5  0  1  4  .216  .258  .360  .618   59 3450 2364
    3 Pedro Martinez    1999 23  243  27 BOS AL  31  29  5   1  1  4  .852  0 213.1 160  56  49  37 313   2.07  9  835  780 38  0   1   9   3   6  11  21 10  0  0  6  .205  .248  .288  .536   35
    4 Greg Maddux       1993 20  171  27 ATL NL  36  36  8   1  0 10  .667  0 267   228  85  70  52 197   2.36 14 1064  984 38  2   7   6  15   7  26  27  6  3  1  5  .232  .273  .317  .590   61
    5 Roger Clemens     1990 21  213  27 BOS AL  31  31  7   4  0  6  .778  0 228.1 193  59  49  54 209   1.93  7  920  847 35  5   3   7   7   5  11  14 14  2  0  8  .228  .278  .306  .584   60
    6 Ron Guidry        1978 25  208  27 NYY AL  35  35 16   9  0  3  .893  0 273.2 187  61  53  72 248   1.74 13 1057  969 34  5   1   1  13   2  15   9 14  2  1  7  .193  .249  .279  .528   50
    7 Steve Carlton     1972 27  182  27 PHI NL  41  41 30   8  0 10  .730  0 346.1 257  84  76  87 310   1.97 17 1351 1244 44  5   8   1   9   9  23  22 12  5  2  8  .207  .257  .291  .548   60
    8 Don Sutton        1972 19  161  27 LAD NL  33  33 18   9  0  9  .679  0 272.2 186  78  63  63 207   2.08 13 1061  984 34  4   1   4   5   4  18  15  4  1  1  9  .189  .240  .271  .511   51
    9 Luis Tiant        1968 21  186  27 CLE AL  34  32 19   9  0  9  .700  0 258.1 152  53  46  73 264   1.60 16  987  905 27  5   4   4   5   0  10   0  9  0  0  3  .168  .233  .262  .495   56
   10 Juan Marichal     1965 22  169  27 SFG NL  39  37 24  10  2 13  .629  1 295.1 224  78  70  46 240   2.13 27 1153 1092 30  6   4   4   6   4  19  14  5  1  0  2  .205  .239  .318  .557   59
   11 Gene Bearden      1948 20  167  27 CLE AL  37  29 15   6  4  7  .741  1 229.2 187  72  62 106  80   2.43  9  935                  3                        0  5                            0
   12 Walter Johnson    1915 27  191  27 WSH AL  47  39 35   7  8 13  .675  4 336.2 258  83  58  56 203   1.55  1 1305                 19                        0  7                            0
   13 Russ Ford         1910 26  160  27 NYY AL  36  33 29   8  3  6  .813  1 299.2 194  69  55  70 209   1.65  4 1141                  8                        1  5                            0
   14 Jack Coombs       1910 31  182  27 PHA AL  45  38 35  13  6  9  .775  1 353   248  74  51 115 224   1.30  0 1388                  7                        0 10                            0
   15 Christy Mathewson 1908 37  168  27 NYG NL  56  44 34  11 10 11  .771  5 390.2 285  85  62  42 259   1.43  5 1499                  3                        0  2                            0
   16 Ed Walsh          1908 40  163  27 CHW AL  66  49 42  11 15 15  .727  6 464   343 112  73  56 269   1.42  2 1799                  9                        2 10                            0
   17 Carl Lundgren     1907 18  212  27 CHC NL  28  25 21   7  3  7  .720  0 207   130  42  27  92  84   1.17  0  795                  2                        1  2                            0
   18 Doc White         1906 18  168  27 CHW AL  28  24 20   7  4  6  .750  0 219.1 160  47  37  38  95   1.52  2    0                  5                        1  5                            0
   19 Rube Waddell      1904 25  165  27 PHA AL  46  46 39   8  0 19  .568  0 383   307 109  69  91 349   1.62  5 1548                 15                        0  8                            0

Of course, Wainwright's ERA could rise before the end of the season and push him off this list, although his recent performance suggests otherwise.

This is one hell of a list to find yourself on. With the exceptions of Lundgren, Ford, and Bearden, these guys all had long and very productive careers. Some of the very best pitchers of all time appear as well.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 11th, 2009 at 7:06 am and is filed under Season Finders. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.