Last night, Scott Kazmir, shutout the Angels for 6 innings, and earned his 36th career win. Still only 24, Kazmir has already made 99 career starts and is now the Tampa Bay Rays all-time winningest pitcher, having surpassed Victor Zambrano, for whom he was traded from the Mets Organization.

The Professor laid out the reasons that Kid K will be the next 300-game winner in the original post.

To add a couple of thoughts...

• Keep in mind that even though the Rays have an incredibly young rotation, Kazmir is the youngest of the group.
• Also, it amazes me that so many people think we have seen the end of 300-game winners considering there are only three pitchers with 350 wins since 1920 and two of those pitchers (Greg Maddux and Roger Clemens) were active just last year.
  

Last week Tom Glavine became the 300th member of the 23-win club 23rd member of the 300-win club. The mark prompted many to wonder if we will see another pitcher achieve the feat in the near future. With Randy Johnson's (284 wins) career in jeopardy, there are no other pitchers that appear to have a legitimate shot at reaching the milestone. Of the active pitchers with 200 wins, only Mike Mussina (247 wins, age 38) and Pedro Martinez (206 wins, age 35) are under the age of 40.

With some even wondering if we would ever see another 300-game winner, we present Kid K. Scott Kazmir is currently sitting on 31 career victories. At the age of 23, he could conceivably pitch for another 18 years. If he averages 15 wins a season over the that time span, he will win 300 games. So barring any lost seasons due to injury, Kazmir has the talent, the head start and a team that should score plenty of runs in the next few years, to make a run at the mark.

How confident are we? We will now be tracking Kazmir's progress in the side-panel for as long as Kid K wears a Devil Rays uniform.

While Mets fans can celebrate the 48 wins they have received from Glavine, they must take solace in the ZERO wins they got from Scott Kazmir. So tonight when Kazmir takes the hill against the Red Sox in search of career win number 32, we will raise our beer and toast The Next Member of the 300-win Club.


Mets' Glavine part of a dying breed: 300-game winners [The Sporting News]
Glavine may be last to reach 300 [USA Today]