Randy Johnson's historic victory with SF Giants may be the last of its kind in baseball history

Randy Johnson recorded career win No. 300 on a cold, wet day against the Washington Nationals in 2009. He remains the last pitcher to reach that milestone, and it is hard to believe that it will ever happen again in baseball history.

This realization comes on the heels of Justin Verlander's decision to retire at the end of the season. He remained steadfast in his pursuit of reaching 300 career wins, but that mountain became more difficult to climb as he aged.

Of course, the Giants did not help Verlander in that regard. He only notched four wins in 29 starts with San Francisco, but pitched much better than that. The Giants left the door open for a reunion, but he decided to look elsewhere. He joined the Detroit Tigers on a one-year deal, returning to the organization where he began his career.

However, Verlander has had trouble staying on the field. He has made only one start, as he has battled hip inflammation. Currently, he has 266 career wins to his ledger.

Verlander is the closest active pitcher to 300 wins by far. Former teammate Max Scherzer is at 222 career wins, and his career is likely coming to an end soon, too. After that, Gerrit Cole and Chris Sale are the next closest with 156 and 154 career wins, respectively. If either one even reaches 200 career wins, that would be a remarkable accomplishment.

A SF Giants pitcher was the last to reach 300 wins, and might be the last to do so in baseball history

This is a minor digression, but the Hall of Fame needs to recalibrate its standards for starting pitchers. They are judging current pitchers against the great performances of a different era. Tim Hudson might be an example of that. He won 222 games in his 17-year career and fell off the ballot after two voting cycles. Is he a Hall of Famer? That is a debatable topic, but a pitcher has to be really good for a long time to win that many games.

Will another pitcher ever reach 300 career wins again? That remains to be seen. It seems highly unlikely, but the Giants have an unusual footnote in that discussion. Randy Johnson was the last pitcher to accomplish that feat, and he did it in a Giants uniform. That came in 2009. Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux, and Tom Glavine all joined Johnson in the 300-win club during that decade.

Since then, few pitchers have even come close. Verlander is the closest from that group. CC Sabathia recorded 251 career wins in his Hall of Fame career, but he would have needed to pitch for several more years to even flirt with 300 wins.

Madison Bumgarner was on an interesting pace earlier in his career. He recorded exactly 100 wins through his age-26 season. If he pitched for 15 more years while averaging just over 13 wins per season, he would have had a shot. However, baseball does not work that way. He posted 34 more wins through the remainder of his career.

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