No 20-game winners in 2009

Multiple exciting pennant races weren’t the only things lacking in the 2009 baseball season. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, this was the first year in history (not abbreviated by a work shortage) in which no pitcher recorded at least 20 wins. Considering that Major League Baseball has been around for almost a century-and-a-half, that’s pretty remarkable.

The two pitchers closest to 20 wins were Adam Wainwright and CC Sabathia, both of whom had 19 wins.

This is also the second straight year where no one hit 50 home runs. Remember earlier in the year when people were talking about Ryan Howard or Albert Pujols hitting 60 home runs and challenging Roger Maris? Turns out that you can’t judge a 162-game season 30 games in... I do have to give props to Pujols though: top-three in home runs, RBI and batting average is pretty damn good and should make him the MVP.

(Photo by Jim McIsaac, Getty Images)