The win, as a stat, is juuuust about worthless. The Tampa Bay Rays, for example, are using an “opener” in many of their games, which makes the part of the rule that a starter needs to go at least 5 innings to earn a win laughable.

To put it into VBL terms, the Charlottesville Tom Sox have adopted a policy of carefully protecting their pitchers’ arms with pitch counts, which means that Tom Sox starters often go less than 5 innings.

Pitcher usage is changing at all levels of baseball, and the win as a stat is becoming close to obsolete. With all that said, however, a win is still assigned to one pitcher in each game played (usually; with pointstreak sometimes not), so ATVL will keep track even if the stat is losing relevance.

(By the way, I think my wife told me the other day, “Why don’t they give a piece of a win to different players if they deserve it?” My wife- who people watches as much as she watches baseball at games she attends- just had a very good idea, I think. If Bill James can figure out Wins Above Replacement (WAR), can’t we come up with a way to split the win? Or maybe it just doesn’t mean anything to anyone, and the time wouldn’t be worth it. Who knows?)

So. With all that said, here are the pitchers with the most wins since the 2004 Valley League season:

So it’s Dustin Umberger and everyone else, apparently. We’ve had one entry the past two years, but none between 2012-2017. According to Chaz Weaver, Tommy Cook holds the all-time record for wins in a season, with 16 in 1954 for Staunton.

The breakdown:

Major Leaguers: None
Current Minor Leaguers: Thomas Sutera
Previous Minor Leaguers: Dustin Umberger, Robert Gilliam, Andy Altemus, Matt Benedict, Jonathan Armold, Dillon Ortman
No pro experience: Clarence Nicely, Jon Dages, Taylor Sandefur, Greg Welsh
Current College Players: Chase Best

By Team:

• Waynesboro- 3
• Luray, Covington- 2
• Purcellville, Harrisonburg, Haymarket, Winchester, Front Royal- 1

Next up is saves, another “interesting” stat….