While before my time, I've certainly read about Early Wynn...Part of one of the greatest rotations ever on the 54 Indians -- Feller, Lemon, Garcia, Wynn. And was still around when Herb Score looked like he might be one of the best ever before hit by a line drive. (I was a nerd kid and read every baseball book the school library ever stocked.)
Speaking of pitchers of that generation, I was looking at Warren Spahn's stats the other day...363 wins and because of the war, he didn't really get started until about age 26...Then I looked at Doc Gooden, who started so young and was on fire his first five years...
So I did a quick calculation: A pitcher who matched Doc Gooden until age 26 and Warren Spahn after age 26 would have roughly 450 wins!
Still about 60 fewer than Cy Young, but hard to imagine. Of course, the way baseball has changed we'll probably never see another 300 game winner, and not many 250 game winners...(Right now, Verlander, Scherzer, Greinke and Kershaw have outside shots at 250. None is a realistic threat for 300. Then looking at all active pitchers, the only guy even with a very long-shot chance at 300 is Gerrit Cole, who has 240 wins at age 32. If he averaged 16 wins a year until he's 42, he'd hit 300. But that seems unlikely.
