Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
Freddie Garcia beat the Twins yesterday, 9-2, to help the White Sox Sweep Minnesota in a three-game series. It was also the seventh win in their current eight-game winning streak. It was also Garcia's 102nd win in his eight-year career.
That might seem the most meaningless of the three consequences of the Saturday win, but of course that's the one I am going to bloviate upon. You see, by winning 102 games Garcia ties Wilson Alvarez for the all-time wins for a Venezuelan pitcher.
If that seems a bit low, it is, sort of. The Venezuelan co-leaders come in at just 14th if you rank the win leaders by country, behind such baseball hot beds as Ireland, Germany, and Holland.
Here are the all-time leaders for all countries:
| Country | Name | W | L | G | ERA | Yrs | First | Last |
| USA | Cy Young | 511 | 316 | 906 | 2.63 | 22 | 1890 | 1911 |
| Holland | Bert Blyleven | 287 | 250 | 692 | 3.31 | 22 | 1970 | 1992 |
| CAN | Fergie Jenkins | 284 | 226 | 664 | 3.34 | 19 | 1965 | 1983 |
| Ireland | Tony Mullane | 284 | 220 | 555 | 3.05 | 13 | 1881 | 1894 |
| Scotland | Jim McCormick | 265 | 214 | 492 | 2.43 | 10 | 1878 | 1887 |
| Nicaragua | Dennis Martinez | 245 | 193 | 692 | 3.70 | 23 | 1976 | 1998 |
| D.R. | Juan Marichal | 243 | 142 | 471 | 2.89 | 16 | 1960 | 1975 |
| Cuba | Luis Tiant | 229 | 172 | 573 | 3.30 | 19 | 1964 | 1982 |
| Mexico | Fernando Valenzuela | 173 | 153 | 453 | 3.54 | 17 | 1980 | 1997 |
| Germany | Charlie Getzein | 145 | 139 | 296 | 3.46 | 9 | 1884 | 1892 |
| P.R. | Juan Pizarro | 131 | 105 | 488 | 3.43 | 18 | 1957 | 1974 |
| Japan | Hideo Nomo | 123 | 109 | 320 | 4.21 | 11 | 1995 | 2005 |
| South Korea | Chan Ho Park | 106 | 80 | 299 | 4.33 | 12 | 1994 | 2005 |
| Venezuela | Wilson Alvarez | 102 | 92 | 355 | 3.96 | 14 | 1989 | 2005 |
| Venezuela | Freddy Garcia | 102 | 63 | 223 | 3.96 | 8 | 1999 | 2006 |
| Wales | Ted Lewis | 94 | 64 | 183 | 3.53 | 6 | 1896 | 1901 |
| Poland | Moe Drabowsky | 88 | 105 | 589 | 3.71 | 17 | 1956 | 1972 |
| Aruba | Sidney Ponson | 76 | 91 | 233 | 4.81 | 8 | 1998 | 2005 |
| England | Danny Cox | 74 | 75 | 278 | 3.64 | 11 | 1983 | 1995 |
| Switzerland | Otto Hess | 70 | 90 | 198 | 2.98 | 10 | 1902 | 1915 |
| V.I. | Al McBean | 67 | 50 | 409 | 3.13 | 10 | 1961 | 1970 |
| Panama | Juan Berenguer | 67 | 62 | 490 | 3.90 | 15 | 1978 | 1992 |
| France | Charlie Lea | 62 | 48 | 152 | 3.54 | 7 | 1980 | 1988 |
| W.Germany | Craig Lefferts | 58 | 72 | 696 | 3.43 | 12 | 1983 | 1994 |
| South Vietnam | Danny Graves | 41 | 43 | 505 | 4.02 | 10 | 1996 | 2005 |
| Sweden | Eric Erickson | 34 | 57 | 145 | 3.85 | 7 | 1914 | 1922 |
| Australia | Graeme Lloyd | 30 | 36 | 568 | 4.04 | 10 | 1993 | 2003 |
| Italy | Marino Pieretti | 30 | 38 | 194 | 4.53 | 6 | 1945 | 1950 |
| Philippines | Bobby Chouinard | 11 | 8 | 111 | 4.57 | 5 | 1996 | 2001 |
| Russia | Rube Schauer | 10 | 29 | 93 | 3.35 | 5 | 1913 | 1917 |
| Taiwan | Chien-Ming Wang | 8 | 5 | 18 | 4.02 | 1 | 2005 | 2005 |
| Ukraine | Izzy Goldstein | 3 | 2 | 16 | 4.47 | 1 | 1932 | 1932 |
| Spain | Bryan Oelkers | 3 | 8 | 45 | 6.01 | 2 | 1983 | 1986 |
| Norway | Jimmy Wiggs | 3 | 4 | 13 | 3.81 | 3 | 1903 | 1906 |
| Czechoslovakia | Joe Hovlik | 2 | 0 | 16 | 3.62 | 3 | 1909 | 1911 |
| Afghanistan | Jeff Bronkey | 2 | 2 | 45 | 4.04 | 3 | 1993 | 1995 |
| Bahamas | Wenty Ford | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5.51 | 1 | 1973 | 1973 |
| Finland | John Michaelson | 0 | 0 | 2 | 10.13 | 1 | 1921 | 1921 |
| Austria | Kurt Krieger | 0 | 0 | 3 | 12.60 | 2 | 1949 | 1951 |
| Jamaica | Chili Davis | 0 | 0 | 1 | - | 1 | 1993 | 1993 |
| A Ship on Atlantic Ocean | Ed Porray | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4.35 | 1 | 1914 | 1914 |
It's odd to think that no 300-game winner has come from a foreign country, and even odder to realize that Chili Davis constitutes Jamaica's only major-league pitcher.
All of this made me wonder how various countries rank overall in certain categories. Here goes…First, number of pitchers:
| Country | # Pitchers |
| USA | 6973 |
| D.R. | 189 |
| CAN | 107 |
| None | 97 |
| Venezuela | 70 |
| Cuba | 69 |
| Mexico | 59 |
| P.R. | 57 |
| Japan | 22 |
| Ireland | 16 |
| Panama | 16 |
Now wins:
| Country | W | L |
| USA | 170262 | 170495 |
| D.R. | 3509 | 3405 |
| CAN | 1773 | 1876 |
| Cuba | 1765 | 1726 |
| P.R. | 1490 | 1454 |
| Mexico | 1282 | 1257 |
| Venezuela | 1111 | 1046 |
| Ireland | 638 | 566 |
| None | 606 | 654 |
| Japan | 387 | 418 |
Winning Percentage:
| Country | # Pitchers | Yrs | W | L | PCT |
| Czechoslovakia | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Wales | 1 | 6 | 94 | 64 | .595 |
| Philippines | 1 | 5 | 11 | 8 | .579 |
| V.I. | 2 | 11 | 67 | 50 | .573 |
| Taiwan | 3 | 5 | 12 | 9 | .571 |
| France | 2 | 8 | 63 | 49 | .563 |
| Nicaragua | 6 | 41 | 340 | 289 | .541 |
| Panama | 16 | 67 | 234 | 203 | .535 |
| Scotland | 4 | 21 | 310 | 271 | .534 |
| Holland | 3 | 27 | 309 | 274 | .530 |
| Ireland | 16 | 52 | 638 | 566 | .530 |
Games:
| Country | G |
| USA | 768091 |
| D.R. | 24657 |
| CAN | 9804 |
| P.R. | 9600 |
| Cuba | 8310 |
| Mexico | 7812 |
| Venezuela | 7073 |
| Japan | 2541 |
| Panama | 1963 |
| None | 1936 |
Saves:
| Country | SV |
| USA | 47,519 |
| D.R. | 1944 |
| P.R. | 857 |
| CAN | 720 |
| Cuba | 590 |
| Venezuela | 584 |
| Mexico | 531 |
| Panama | 433 |
| Japan | 225 |
| South Vietnam | 182 |
ERA:
| Country | IP | ERA |
| Jamaica | 2.0 | 0.00 |
| Scotland | 5,189.3 | 2.66 |
| Switzerland | 1,418.0 | 2.98 |
| Ireland | 10,832.7 | 3.04 |
| V.I. | 1,074.7 | 3.12 |
| Holland | 5,394.0 | 3.36 |
| Wales | 1,405.0 | 3.53 |
| France | 944.7 | 3.60 |
| Czechoslovakia | 54.7 | 3.62 |
| Russia | 435.7 | 3.66 |
WHIP
| Country | IP | ERA | WHIP |
| Jamaica | 2.0 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Scotland | 5,189.3 | 2.66 | 1.18 |
| Holland | 5,394.0 | 3.36 | 1.22 |
| Ireland | 10,832.7 | 3.04 | 1.25 |
| Switzerland | 1,418.0 | 2.98 | 1.27 |
| Nicaragua | 5,556.7 | 3.83 | 1.29 |
| Poland | 1,641.0 | 3.71 | 1.31 |
| W.Germany | 1,476.0 | 3.68 | 1.31 |
| Panama | 4,099.3 | 3.84 | 1.32 |
| France | 944.7 | 3.60 | 1.32 |
And finally strikeouts per nine innings:
| Country | IP | ERA | WHIP | K:BB | K/9IP |
| South Korea | 3,220.7 | 4.30 | 1.39 | 1.90 | 7.36 |
| Norway | 56.7 | 3.81 | 1.61 | 1.21 | 7.31 |
| Japan | 7,087.0 | 4.37 | 1.40 | 1.85 | 7.03 |
| Panama | 4,099.3 | 3.84 | 1.32 | 1.96 | 6.74 |
| D.R. | 61,864.7 | 4.09 | 1.34 | 1.93 | 6.59 |
| Venezuela | 19,434.0 | 4.16 | 1.38 | 1.78 | 6.50 |
| Poland | 1,641.0 | 3.71 | 1.31 | 1.66 | 6.37 |
| Holland | 5,394.0 | 3.36 | 1.22 | 2.71 | 6.28 |
| Mexico | 22,521.0 | 4.04 | 1.36 | 1.81 | 6.03 |
| W.Germany | 1,476.0 | 3.68 | 1.31 | 1.97 | 5.71 |
| P.R. | 26,175.0 | 4.07 | 1.39 | 1.63 | 5.69 |
And I guess the win column is one record the US doesn't have to worry about losing (course, the US also leads in losses, with 311.)
Sorry, I had a bad calculation for saves...updated with correct data.
Schteeve,
Yep, Graves was born August 7, 1973 in Saigon, South Vietnam. There's got to be some story behind that.
And to think that Scotland and Switzerland are on the board on WHIP. Real interesting where some ball players come from.
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